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Very few albums have left a mark on the history of recorded music like Abbey Road has.
Recorded and released in September 1969, it was the last Beatles album to be recorded (Although Let It Be was technically released later, in 1970, but recorded in January 1969).
To many avid Beatles fans, this album showcased the band at the peak of their technical and musical prowess. While Paul McCartney was driving much of the band’s musical direction by this point, John Lennon’s contributions cannot be overlooked.
In this article we're going to take a look at the guitars, amps, studio tricks, and experimental techniques Lennon used during the sessions at EMI Studios, that created one of the greatest albums ever recorded.
The EMI TG12345 Mk I recording console used by the Beatles at Abbey Road Studios to record their groundbreaking album, Abbey Road in 1969. Credit: Guy Bell / Alamy Stock Photo
During the Abbey Road sessions, Lennon used a variety of guitars, but there are a handful of iconic guitars that helped shape his guitar contributions to the record.
Out of all the guitars associated with John Lennon, the most iconic is perhaps his natural finish 1965 Epiphone Casino. The Casino is a fully hollow ES style guitar, loaded with P90 pickups. This guitar started life as a sunburst Casino, but Lennon had the finish stripped sometime in 1968 in an attempt to draw some additional resonance from the guitar.
Lennon would often stay on the neck pickup, with the tone control rolled slightly off for his main rhythm tones. This would create a darker, woody sounding tone.
One notable moment for the Epiphone Casino is the main riff for the track "Come Together". The raw, aggressive sound was created by plugged the guitar directly into the mixing desk. This created a very direct sound with a harsh clipping.
The Casino also appeared on other songs throughout the album including "Polythene Pam" and "Mean Mr Mustard". With the Casino being such a versatile instrument, it was able to cover everything from lightly strummed clean chords to aggressive hard rock riffing.
The Beatles' final live appearance on the roof of Apple Headquarters, 3 Saville Row, London on 30th January 1969. John Lennon plays his Epiphone Casino. Credit: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo
Although John Lennon was behind some of the most iconic guitar tones from the Beatles discography, he is equally well known for his acoustic guitar prowess. The Abbey Road album is no different - it's packed full of iconic Lennon acoustic moments.
The acoustic guitar used on this album, and the acoustic most associated with John, is the Gibson J-160E. This guitar is an acoustic guitar but with a single coil pickup mounted at the end of the fretboard. This acoustic guitar was used through most of the bands early records, but it was still a mainstay for Lennon during the Abbey Road sessions.
To get that tight, midrange heavy acoustic tone that you hear on so many Beatles records, you would need to follow Lennon's example and string the guitar up with flatwounds. Flatwounds will reduce the brightness and jangle and give you a warmer, fuller tone.
The eagle eyed Beatles fans will be wondering why a bass is listed in John Lennon's gear choice when everyone knows that Paul McCartney handled bass duties for the band, however, during the Abbey Road recording sessions, Lennon did in fact contribute to some of the activity in the lower registers.
He notably played a Fender Bass VI on the tracks "Sun King" and "Mean Mr Mustard" for a range of overdubs.
The Bass VI is a six string bass that is similar to what we'd now consider a baritone guitar. It has a 30" scale and the neck width and thickness is more akin to an electric guitar than a typical bass. It has a much narrower string spacing. It is tuned E to E, same as a regular guitar, but sits an octave lower.
Due to it's size it has a very distinctive sound with more top end bite than you'd typically get from a regular 4 string bass.
Lennon is also well documented playing the Fender Bass VI during the Let It Be sessions, as featured in the landmark Get Back documentary.
For an album as monumental as Abbey Road, you can certainly expect it to deliver some iconic guitar tones.
To achieve these tones, John Lennon used just 2 main amps:
When you think of the Beatles it's hard not to imagine them using Vox AC30s. Vox amps had been a mainstay in the band's backline since the early days, and although they had slowly introduced other amps over the years, the EL84-driven British chime of the AC30 was still the main element of the John Lennon rhythm tone.
Lennon was by no means a high gain player, he relied on the amp's natural power-amp break up when pushed to achieve his signature guitar tones.
Due to the AC30 being a versatile amp, and its ease of recording when paired with various studio compressors and EQs, it became one of the main elements used on the album.
By the late 1960s, the Beatles had started experimenting with a more American approach to guitar tone, which meant cleaner amps with less midrange and higher headroom.
You can hear the Fender Twin in action on the track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which - paired with Lennon's Epiphone Casino - provided the striking, crystal-clean, highly compressed tones.
The Twin Reverb features a built in vibrato circuit which would have been used for various psychedelic guitar tones. While there is no specific reference to the vibrato circuit being used on Abbey Road, it would have most likely made an appearance in some capacity.
As this was the late 1960s, there was not a huge array of guitar pedals available. Most of the effects you hear in recordings of this era were created by applying various recording techniques rather than effects units.
One modulation effect that appeared on countless Beatles hits was the Leslie Rotary speaker, and it was a defining Lennon sound on the Abbey Road album.
The Leslie Speaker was originally designed for Hammond organ players but later became adopted by guitar players as a modulation tool.
Lennon would often plug his Casino or his J-160E direct into the mixing console and re-route it back out into the Leslie, which gives a very unique tone as heard on the track "Because".
This original Fairchild 660 compressor was listed on Reverb for a staggering £34,729.90. Credit: CPM's Boutique / Reverb
During the sessions, compressors were also used as tone shaping tools for guitar parts. The compressor units John Lennon favoured were the Fairchild 660 and the Chandler RS124 Limiter.
The Fairchild 660 was Lennon's compressor of choice for his DI guitar tracks. This compressor is known for its very punchy sound that retains some natural dynamics. When paired with the overdriven preamps of the mixing desk, it created that recognisable Lennon guitar tone of this period.
When playing more rhythmic and strummed parts, Lennon would use the RS124 Limiter to glue the parts together and round off some of the attack. It is not known if he used the RS124 for DI guitar parts, or those recorded with a microphone, but he would typically use this limiter to round off any spikes in the rhythm parts to allow them to sit better in the mix.
In the absence of the variety of musical equipment we have at our disposal these days, bands and studio engineers in the late 1960s were forced to think outside the box in order to create unique guitar sounds. As such, The Beatles experimented with a range of recording techniques to create different tones:
DI ("direct injection") is a method that involves plugging the guitar directly into a mixing console without the use of a microphone or a guitar amp. This allows you to hear the direct, unaffected tone of the guitar and its pickups through the desk's preamp.
Lennon's DI guitar parts were processed with the Fairchild 660 compressor and the RS124 limiter, along with any overdrive coming from the preamp section of the console.
Recording a guitar in this way produced a very unique tone, as heard on the track "Come Together", which has a very dry and close sound with absolutely zero space around it.
If you're looking to chase down some of those classic John Lennon Abbey Road-era tones but you're not quite ready to go down the vintage guitar rabbit hole, the good news is you can get close on a pretty sensible budget and capture those classic tones without breaking the bank.
The guitar that Lennon is most closely associated with from this time period has to be the Epiphone Casino. While a vintage Epiphone Casino will run you up a bill that is the best part of 10 grand, you can still pick up a modern production of the Casino for around 5% of that total value.
Epiphone also previously produced the Epiphone EJ-160E, which was based on Lennon's faithful Gibson J-160E. This isn't currently available in the core catalogue, but you can often find them for good prices on the second hand market.
The Vox AC30 was always an integral part of the Beatles sound, and while vintage models from the '60s fetch astronomical figures, Vox still produce this amp to this day with prices starting under £1,000 in the UK.
Vox also offer smaller variations on this such as the Vox AC10 or AC15, which still allows you to get that Vox tone in a smaller, valve-driven package.
During the recording of Abbey Road, the majority of the guitar effects came from manipulating tape machines, or from outboard gear - however these items aren't particularly practical for using on a small pedalboard.
Many brands these days offer tape echo-style guitar pedals that can be used to mimic some of the classic tape imperfections. Check out the TC Electronic Gauss Tape Echo or the NUX NDD-7 Tech Echo.
You can also get that classic Fairchild 660 compressor tone in pedal form courtesy of the J Rockett Airchild Six Sixty. This will allow you to get those punchy Lennon style rhythm parts.
NOBELS DEL-Mini Delay
The DEL-Mini is a 3-in-1 stereo delay pedal offering Tape, Analogue and Digital modes in a compact form factor. The Tape mode comes complete with wow and flutter effects, while on the top of the pedal you'll find 2 small switches to select between mono and stereo operation, and true or buffered trails bypass modes. Impressive!
SIGNAL CHEYNE Echoflow
The Signal Cheyne Echoflow is a tape-style delay with adjustable modulation for authentic tape vibe. In addition to the external controls, it includes 2 internal dipswitches: one to adjust the voicing between bright and dark, and one to kill the dry signal for a completely wet delay sound.
BLEAK DISTRICT ELECTRIC Tapescape
The Tapescape is a dual-footswitch modulated delay pedal with expression pedal input, which generates all the organic idiosyncrasies associated with tape delays of old - but with way more going on under the hood. Featuring 7 control knobs, 4 toggle switches, and a host of internal dipswitches, this is possibly the only tape-style delay (or as Phil dubs it, "Magnetic Ambience Generator") you'll ever need!
SIGNAL CHEYNE B6K Parallel Compressor
The Signal Cheyne B6K Parallel Compressor is a studio-grade OTA compressor with a comprehensive suite of controls including an internal pre-compression signal cut to prevent clipping. Go from always-on subtle sustainer to full-on squash thanks to its parallel dry blend circuit.
Lead image credit: Deyan - stock.adobe.com
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