congerz83 wrote: maplered wrote:
Helter Skelter sounds like a jazz bass w/ flatwounds. That's just what my mid - late 60's jazz basses sound like.
I do not think they recieved the 4 string Jazz until the Let It Be/Abbey Road days. They were given the Fender IV at about the White Album sessions. Besides I don't think John would've been able to play a long-scale bass that fast.
I too go with the RIght-handed Fender Jazz on Helter Skelter. I'm currently in the process of pulling together info on non-Paul bass tracks for a book someone is writing. My ear tells me that it is a Fender Jazz - long ago I just assumed it was Paul, but getting some books over the past 20 years or so shows that it was far more likely John. Walter Everett's "The Beatles as Musicians, Revolver Through the Anthology" indicates that a right-handed Fender Jazz was used by John on Helter Skelter. Lewisohn indicates that only John played bass. Other sources (Tony Bacon's book on Paul's bass playing and William Dowlding's Bealtesongs) suggest John or George on Fender Bass VI.
Given that no definitive source exists, my ear and my gut tell me that it was John on Fender Jazz. Point taken about the lone-scale troubles for John, but the bassline is very scalar
across strings, so the length is less of an issue.