Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Always sounded to me like someone beating the living daylights out of a set of power tubes.

They used the Vox 7120 amps a lot in the Revolver/Sgt. Pepper sessions and around that general time. Those amps had a solid state preamp and a tube power amp and had a built in fuzz that supposedly sounded best when you ran it from one channel into the other one to overload it. Those amps are also probably some of the rarest amps in the world and nothing else really sounds like them either, so trying to emulate the sounds made by those is pretty hard.
I've also heard that they may have used a Selmer Zodiac amp with a Futurerama guitar for that riff, but who really knows unless Paul, a noted non-gear nut musician, remebers what was used.

Well, there's SO much that they did in the studio that we don't know about. I agree with the amps being the 7120s and using fuzz - but after the amp, there's the Neuman mics, Neve boards (?), Fairchild compressors, etc...
I know they were into to pushing the signal into distortion at the board, that's the gritty sound you hear on 'Revolution' - so I think it's far beyond just the guitars and amps. As was mentioned above, on the 66' tour, The Beatles themselves couldn't get the sound that they got in the studio - not even close.

There's a guy that posts over on Voxtalks that is working on a book about recording The Beatles and it should prove to be very insightful. I've got the 'Abbey Road Sessions' book - but that doesn't get into what guitars or amps were used.

Listened to it again last night. Sounds completely different to me, now.

Can't get a grip on where the distortion/overdrive is coming from, but the tone of the guitar itself sounds very much like a Gretsch with Filtertrons. Sounds like either a single guitar, or multiple tracks of the same guitar.

To me, it sounds most like John's playing style, at least during the verses.

I also noticed that before each of the breaks, just before the instruments drop out, another guitar jumps in on the riff. This is more of a Casino sort of sound, and is much cleaner.

On a side note, the Recording Sessions book has Geoff Emerick saying that Paul did, in fact, use the Rick bass on this track.

I listened to the stereo version in comparison to the "studio outtake version without fading".
Only some things to mention:
the bass sound: on the outtake version there is a wonderful Rickenbacker bass sound, but with a mains 100Hz humming superimposed! On the
released (stereo) version the hum is notched out, but some bass boosting had occurred (Geoff Emerick
recalls: "For the start, Paul played a different bass, a rickenbacker. Then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker as a microphone. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker..", Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, p74)
by the way: that was a bit too much of bass boosting, this is the only time Paul's Rickenbacker bass sounds muddy to me!
the guitars:
there is a rhythm guitar part (similar to "And your bird can sing") undistorted, maybe with a bit of tremolo, sounds to me like John on his Casino.
And we have two undistorted fills as Dennis mentioned above.
There are "Phil McDonald's scribbled notes" on p74 (Lewisohn): "TR2: GEORGE (partly with guitar fills)-- JOHN-- PAUL on BASS"
but no notes about the distorted lead guitar...

and last but not least Lennon recalls(The Playboy Interwiews): "Paperback Writer is son of Day Tripper, but it is Paul's song", Playboy: "son of Day Tripper?" John: "meaning a loud rock 'n' roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy, loud guitar"

is the Lennon playboy interview available on the net ?

In addition to the stellar signature lick sound on "Paperback", there's a real cool 'chimey' G chord being struck in the 3rd position. At least that's how i remember it. Could be just some guitar harmonics. Dennis????

Sorry it's me again:
Just watched to the PW promo movie on the Anthology DVD. It looks like Lennon played the signature lick (and moving up the fretboard when it comes to the C-chord) on his Casino and Harrison
played the G (and C) chord in the 3rd position
on his SG, but playing the lick too at the end of the song.
Listening to the Beatles in Japan CD didn't help
me clarifying things (having a distorted guitar playing the lick and a less distorted one playing it, too, similar to I feel fine)), so I give up now!
But I think the distortion comes from the inbuild fuzz of their VOX amps with the same preamp circuity like the Vox/Thomas transistor amps.

I don't hear a separate guitar playing a G chord over the prominent rhythm track(s), but there are definitely some rather clanky (for lack of a better descriptive term) sounding harmonics there.

It does sound like someone's moving up to the 8th fret to play the C chord, as the intonation seems to go funny right in there.

Here's a thought: The guitars on Rain were recorded at a higher speed and slowed down. It's not inconceivable that the same thing was done on Paperback Writer. This would certainly change the guitar sound and make it more difficult to nail down. Whaddaya think?

Of course, you all realize that they did all of this on purpose, 'cause they knew that some day it would drive some poor, obsessive bunch out of their skulls...

I know that alternative tuning was used by George on Rain. He tuned his bottom E right down to a G and the A to a D etc. P/W was recorded around the same time. Maybe hes using something similar to give of fthe weird sound.

Ive got some outtakes from that....and they are still in G. So I dont think they slowed it down any. In the begining of the track you hear the chimey chord played once. It sounds like there is a vibrato on the chord, but what chord?

I'm no Beatles expert...and i'm not sure what era different amps were used in. But I can get REAL close to that tone with my Vox AC-50 head and SG, on the bridge pickup.

My 360 doesn't quite get there, it's not raw enough...but the SG into the AC-50, volume cranked up full bore, with the treble rather high and some bass rolled off. It's very very close.

-Nick

Nick: I think you have a good ear.

Who among us could know with certainty what they did in the studio.

I agree, however, while there may be many ways to achieve this classic riff, the edgy bite of the humbucker seems part of the mix here.

Here is a thought............Fender Stratocaster (the light blue ones) I can hear that on the main lick if a I tweak things a bit on a vox amp....

Just to turn everything on it's head, I read a recent McCartney interview where he says it was him on Paperback Writer playing the guitar riff on his Casino. He added the bass track later.

I had always assumed it was George on the SG.