Beatles Blowout

DAMIAN FANELLI EXPLORES THE GUITAR GEAR BEHIND THE BEATLES’ LEGENDARY LET IT BE SESSIONS.

The footage from the Let It Be sessions leaves no question as to the band’s gear choices during that time. George Harrison is often seen playing his custom-made rosewood Fender Telecaster (serial number 235594) – which he later gave to Delaney Bramlett – and ‘Lucy’, the 1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar (refinished to cherry red) given to him by Eric Clapton and famously seen in the Revolution promo film.

John Lennon is rarely seen without his stripped-down Epiphone Casino. Paul McCartney uses his 1963 Hofner 500/1 exclusively, although he can be seen playing his 1961 500/1 at Twickenham Film Studios (that model was stolen soon after filming, which we’ll talk about in a little bit). His Rickenbacker 4001S was also present, but only as a backup.

In terms of acoustic guitars, Harrison and Lennon often shared Harrison’s Gibson J-200, and McCartney plays his Martin D-28 on “Two Of Us”. When McCartney is in six-string mode, Harrison and Lennon take turns laying down the bottom end with another type of six-string, the Fender Bass VI, a six-string bass; Harrison uses it on “Two Of Us”, and Lennon can be seen playing it on “Dig It”. Lennon also plays the bouncy solo on “For

You Blue” on a Hofner Hawaiian Standard slide guitar.

Fender provided the amplification, with Harrison and Lennon playing through 85-watt Silverface Twin amps with vibrato circuits and reverb, and McCartney using a 50-watt Silverface Bassman head and tall Bassman cabinet (Harrison and Lennon also played through the Bassman rig when using the Fender Bass VI).

Additionally, Harrison played through a Leslie 147RV revolving speaker cabinet, as heard in countless hours’ worth of studio outtakes and on his Telecaster solo on the single version of “Let It Be”.