Chords for How To Record Bass Like The Beatles In 1964

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[A] Clay Blair with [E] Boulevard Recording Academy.
I just [G] wanted to continue on this Beatles
bass series I'm doing and focus on the mid _ -1964 Beatles sound.
This is probably the most consistent
bass sound the Beatles used from basically Beatles for sale up until Revolver. _ _
In the
earlier days he was using the _ 4033A ribbon dynamic combination on the amp.
The most important
thing about that microphone to know is that it had a roll off at about 100 hertz.
So it
wasn't the bassiest sounding microphone.
In the mid-60s the Beatles were listening to
more American records and wanted to get a bigger sound in the studio.
That didn't really
come to play until Paperback Rider which is when they actually used a speaker off of a
bass [C] cabinet to get a larger [G] bass sound. _ _ _ _
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_ _ In mid-1964 Paul received the AC-100 from Vox and continued to use it with a T-60 cab.
We'll see Paul using the AC-100 head up until Revolver.
Up until that time he had various
other bass amps including mono blocks from Phono Systems.
On the floor of Studio Two
the setup was drums in the back with baffles behind and the bass amp off to the right baffled
off.
The guitar amps were in front of the drums and the bass amp.
They also had vocal
mics in front of the whole band but the vocal mics were always in figure eight facing perpendicular
to the amp setup.
This is actually a 1967 Hofner bass.
Paul was using a 62.
Same body
but the pickups are a little bit different but when you do the all neck kind of [E] vibe
which is what Paul pretty much always used.
One down two up they call it.
It's pretty similar.
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[Bm] I've got this going through a pair of Red channels, Chandler Limited Red channels that
came out of the Abbey Road desk.
One thing important to remember is that the rhythm tracks
which were one and two on the J-37 tape machine, they had an RS-124 strapped across those channels.
So they would sum the kick and the overhead mic and the bass sometimes to one channel
eventually but there was always RS-124s on the drums and bass early on.
It's not known
really if they ever saw much use even though they were on there.
They might have been pretty
wide open. _
I can't hear a lot of aggressive compression on those earlier Beatles records
and you can definitely hear it with drums if the RS-124 is going crazy.
Right now I'm
going to let you guys hear just the D-20 on the bass cab.
We've got an AC-100 which is
the head Paul was using loaned by my friend Ed Maxwell.
I don't [D] have a Vox T-60 cab but
we're using a pair of 15 inch _ _ JBLs which are in a Fender cab which are not terribly
different. _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
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[F#] So what you're listening to again is just the D-20.
So what was always happening
at this point was that there were vocal mics.
The bass was baffled off from the drum kit.
The guitar amps were put in front of the drum kit.
Usually not baffled at this point but
the bass was definitely baffled but near the drums because remember we weren't using headphones
so they had the full back speakers that they had up on the ceiling at Abbey Road and then
they had these rollable white elephant speakers.
So the bass was closer to the drummer just
so he could feel it.
Also I think they liked the isolation there in the corner.
What also
was going on was this vocal mic.
There was always a U-48 going with John and Paul on
it.
Usually in figure 8 if both of them are singing they're going to be singing on the
same mic.
If it's one of them singing they might use cardioid.
I really am not sure but
I think it was pretty much in [E] figure 8 a lot of the time because there are usually two
guys on a mic.
Remember you got this bleed so this is [G#m] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [C#m] _ that's the U-48 in figure 8.
It's
perpendicular to the bass amp so it's facing to either side not directly at the bass amp
to get that separation from the drums and the guitar amps and the bass.
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_ _ _ _ _ [E] And then together
you got both of them. _ _ _ _ _
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_ [E] _ _ When I try to recreate these recordings if I'm not singing live with it I usually throw
up the U-48 and throw it into figure 8 so you can get that same sound of the room.
_ They
didn't intentionally want the room.
I'm sure they wouldn't have had it if they had the
option but _ this is just how they recorded at that point.
Everything was pretty much
live.
When they did overdubs in this era it was pretty [F#] much kind of a one take thing.
They would do a vocal overdub with percussion vice versa.
A lot of [Bm] tracks would get bounced
down.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ I [G] hope you guys enjoyed that video.
There's going to [D] be more coming.
I'm going
to be doing drums and guitars as well in these Beatle [E] eras.
And I hope you guys will [G] sign
up for the classes at the bottom.
[D] Boulevard Recording Academy.
Please like and subscribe.
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