The new equipment for Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney at Twickenham consisted mainly of guitar amps. Also on hand was a Fender VI six-string bass of unknown vintage that Lennon played when McCartney switched from bass to piano for the songs “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.”
Lennon almost exclusively played his 1965 Epiphone Casino, which he’d had professionally sanded down to bare wood and covered with two coats of nitrocellulose in 1968.Īs for McCartney, he had his 1961 Hofner violin bass as well as his newly stripped Rickenbacker 4001S bass, which he didn’t use. Starting out at Twickenham, Harrison largely played Lucy, the 1957 formerly goldtop Gibson Les Paul gifted to him by Eric Clapton in August 1968, as well as his Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar. The January 1969 Let It Be sessions divide neatly into two groups: those held at Twickenham Film Studios, from January 2 through 14, and those that took place at the Beatles’ Apple Studios from January 21 through 31, including their final rooftop performance.
The Let It Be sessions would be the last time such a gear transformation took place, and its source was largely down to one company: Fender Musical Instruments. Pepper’s saw McCartney give up his Hofner bass for a Rickenbacker 4001S, and the White Album brought a new electric guitar, Harrison’s “Lucy” Les Paul, into the fold.Īlong the way there were other instruments, including the sitar, Mellotron, Hohner electric piano, and Moog synthesizer, that added new textures to their music. They include the 1964 arrival of George Harrison’s 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string in time for the album A Hard Day’s Night, Lennon and Harrison’s acquisition of Fender Stratocasters for Help!, and their subsequent purchase of Epiphone Casinos in 1966. Their history is full of consequential moments when new gear brought fresh sounds into the band’s music. The Beatles’ various eras are defined as much by musical styles as by clothing and hair fashions, and they are specified by musical equipment.
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