The Beatles started out like most other rock and roll bands, employing a standard guitars/bass/drums instrumentation. As their touring days wound down, they became a full-time studio band. Their scope of experimentation grew, as did the palette of sounds. This article attempts to list the instruments used to achieve those results.
Not listed are instruments played by the Beatles’ session players such as cello, violin, saxophone, trumpet, French horn or the 41-piece orchestra heard on "A Day in the Life".
Both John Lennon and George Harrison used the Gibson J-160E, an acoustic guitar with an electric pickup at the base of the fretboard. The resonant character of the full acoustic body, combined with the electric pickup, meant that this guitar was susceptible to feedback, employed to great effect on the intro to "I Feel Fine". Lennon also used a Framus Hootenanny twelve-string acoustic, which can be seen in the movie Help! and heard on the title song and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". This twelve-string guitar accounted for audibly richer rhythm guitar parts on songs like these, in comparison to the six-string Gibsons. After Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lennon moved on to a Martin D-28 from C. F. Martin & Company (alternating between the J-160E and the D-28 for The Beatles) while Harrison upgraded to a Gibson J-200 Jumbo (which Lennon used on "Two of Us" and other acoustic tracks on Let It Be). Harrison later gave the guitar to Bob Dylan in 1969.
Upgrading from a 1959 Höfner Club 40 guitar, purchased from Hessy's Music Shop in Liverpool, Lennon primarily used a Rickenbacker 325 Capri from 1960 until 1964. He purchased the guitar in Hamburg in its original natural finish and used the guitar extensively throughout the Cavern Club performances.[1] In early 1963 he sent the guitar off to be refinished in its more popular black finish. This is the way the guitar appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. Shortly thereafter, he upgraded to a brand new Rickenbacker 325, a much-improved version of his 325 Capri. Rickenbacker specially made a 325/12. During the Christmas shows of 1964, Lennon dropped the new Rickenbacker 325 which made a huge crack in the neck and headstock. British instrument distributor Rose Morris sent a replacement Rickenbacker 325 with a sound hole and in a red fire glo finish. The guitar is called a Rickenbacker 325 1996. Lennon used the guitar for the shows until the other 325 was repaired. In 1968 during the recording of The Beatles, drummer Ringo Starr left the group during tensions and when he returned, Lennon gave the Rickenbacker 325 1996 to Starr. He has had it ever since. During the Help! sessions, Lennon and Harrison acquired matching 1961 Fender Stratocasters. Lennon's was used on "Nowhere Man" and sparingly on the Sgt. Pepper album.
In the beginning of their career George played Czech Stratocaster copy called Futurama. After the Futurama he got hold of a Gretsch The Duo Jet.
George Harrison’s Duo Jet was refurbished many years later and featured on the cover and album Cloud Nine. In mid 1963 he switched to a Gretsch Country Gentleman and a Gretsch Tennessean, both of which he played until around the end of 1964. Harrison commented on the Gretsch guitars "I did not like the sound I had which was a Gretsch guitar and a Vox amp". His second Country Gentleman was given away to a friend (Harrison was an avid sharer of instruments) and is now retained by Ringo Starr, while his first Country Gentleman fell off the Beatles' van in 1965 and was crushed by a lorry. In 1964 Harrison introduced the electric twelve-string guitar into mainstream pop. His Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve-string was a prototype. Only the second twelve-string guitar Rickenbacker ever made, it was delivered specially to him during their first visit to New York City. Harrison's use of the 12-string inspired Roger McGuinn of the Byrds to start using one too. He also used a Ramirez Classical Guitar which can be heard in "And I Love Her" and seen used throughout the film A Hard Day's Night. Harrison used a Gibson SG around 1966; these can be seen in the promotional videos for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain", in addition to film of the recording session for "Hey Bulldog". He eventually gave this guitar to Pete Ham of Badfinger. Harrison and Lennon both obtained and used Fender Stratocasterd in December 1964 during the Help! sessions in, first used on "Ticket to Ride", it was originally Sonic Blue in colour until Harrison gave his a psychedelic paint job, using, among other substances, his wife's sparkly green nail polish. This psychedelic Stratocaster, dubbed "Rocky", is seen in the "I Am the Walrus" segment of Magical Mystery Tour, and in the "All You Need Is Love" broadcast.[2] Around this time Harrison also used a 1957 Gibson Les Paul model, which was given to him by Eric Clapton and was once in the possession of, among other musicians, John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful. Originally a "gold top" model, the guitar was refinished with a dark red stain before it got to Harrison and was nicknamed "Lucy". The guitar can be seen in the "Revolution" promotional video and the Let It Be film. Also seen in that film is a rosewood Fender Telecaster, given to him by Fender.
Lennon and Harrison both purchased Epiphone Casinos in the spring of 1966.[3] Paul McCartney acquired his Casino in 1964. They were used extensively in the recording of the Revolver album and continued to be used throughout their remaining years along with other instruments. Lennon extensively used his Casino as can be witnessed in the film of their final concert at Candlestick Park in 1966, as well as in the Let it Be film when playing in their studio in London. Lennon's Casino was double-tracked to get sufficient distortion to satisfy Lennon in the intro to Revolution. Although they purchased the guitars with sunburst finishes, both Harrison and Lennon later stripped the finishes off the guitars, claiming it allowed the guitars to "breathe" better. Lennon's stripped-down Casino can be seen in video footage of the famous rooftop concert. Lennon used a Casino almost exclusively from 1966 until the group's break-up and he is even seen with it during the sessions for his Imagine album.
Paul McCartney's electric guitar parts (solos on "Ticket to Ride", "Another Girl", "Taxman", "Drive My Car", "Carry That Weight" and "Good Morning Good Morning"[4] to name a few)[5] were chiefly performed on his own Epiphone Casino or sunburst Fender Esquire. For recordings with acoustic parts played by McCartney ("Yesterday"), he favoured a 1964 Epiphone Texan FT-79.[6] In 1968, he started using a D-28 from C. F. Martin & Company.
McCartney custom-ordered a left-handed Höfner model 500/1 "violin" bass during one of the group's early residences in Hamburg. This model, with two pickups very close to the neck and almost touching each other, was replaced in 1962 by a 1963 model, whose pickups were spaced much farther apart, in a more conventional manner. McCartney continued to use his early model, although very rarely, until the Get Back sessions. It was stolen in 1972,[7] but was later recovered in 2023.[8] He continues to use his 1963 Höfner bass. In October 1965 he switched to a Rickenbacker Model 4001S, during the recording of Rubber Soul (as seen in pictures from those sessions),[9] but certainly by the recording of "Paperback Writer". It would be his principal choice for the remainder of the Beatles' career. He briefly used a left-handed Fender Jazz Bass during sessions for The Beatles double album and again for Abbey Road.[10] He returned to the Höfner during Get Back sessions [11] and played it during the rooftop concert, but returned to the Rickenbacker for Abbey Road.[12] McCartney continued to use his Rickenbacker in his solo career and with Wings.[12] [13]
All four Beatles contributed keyboard parts to their catalogue, supplemented by George Martin, Mal Evans, Chris Thomas, Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston.
Although microphone usage varied somewhat according to the requirements of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey Road most often employed Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for electric guitars and one or more Neumann U47s (unidirectional); U48's "figure eight" (bidirectional) pickup pattern for vocals and most other instruments. The AKG C-12 was used as well, particularly on the bass (speaker) amplifier. Early in their recording career the drums usually were recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG D19 or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later, more microphones were used on the drums. The AKG C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio documentation and interviews with their former recording engineers indicate that this microphone was not used for recording in the studio.[14]
With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with microphone placement and equalization.[15] Many of his techniques were unusual for the time but have since become commonplace, such as "close miking" (physically placing the microphone very close to a sound source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately overloading the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained the biting string sound that characterises "Eleanor Rigby" by miking the instruments extremely closely—Emerick has related that the string players would instinctively back away from the microphones at the start of each take, and he would go back into the studio and move the microphones closer again.[16] The recording of George Harrison's acoustic guitar in "Here Comes the Sun" was another incidence of close miking.
Ringo Starr bought a set of Premier drums in 1960, but in June 1963 made the switch to a four-piece Ludwig set. The American-made drums were newly available in England, but the clincher for Starr was the Black Oyster Pearl finish of the Ludwig kit. He used four similar kits altogether, including two that he kept at Abbey Road. The first two Ludwig kits were 20", 12", 14", plus 14" snare and the second two 22",13",16", 14" snare. Starr played a 20" kit on the Ed Sullivan Show debut in February 1964. He changed to the bigger 22" kit at the end of May 1964. Near the end of the sessions for the White Album, he obtained a natural-tone five-piece Ludwig Hollywood set and set it up alongside his existing Black Oyster Pearl bass drum, according to Mal Evans in the November 1968 edition of The Beatles' Monthly.Starr continued to use the Hollywood kit for the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions, albeit with a Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl snare rather than the snare with the Hollywood kit, and he used it at the "rooftop concert" as well as his drum solo in "The End". Starr experimented with various muffling techniques. He used Ludwig and Remo drumheads. He started his career playing Paiste cymbals, but switched to Zildjian. He has used Paiste occasionally, most likely due to their easier availability in Europe.[17]
Photographs of these sessions reveal the following gear:
George Harrison owned many Indian instruments, including tambouras, a swarmandel (or Indian harp) and at least three sitars. All the Beatles kept pianos, guitars and other instruments at their homes to work on songs and demos. Most of these pieces never made their way into the studio with the well-known exception of Harrison's Moog synthesizer. Lennon's home Mellotron was never brought into the studio, though a Mellotron was rented for use during the Sgt. Pepper sessions and an Abbey Road Studios-owned Mellotron was used for the White Album. Both Harrison and Lennon were given Coral electric sitars. Other instruments were recorder, harmonica, banjo, trumpet, saxophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, accordion,[19] [20] comb and paper, and assorted percussion (congas, bongos, Arabian loose-skin bongo, African drum, timpani, anvil, package case, maracas, tambourine, zill, güiro).
The "Beatle" style instruments have been used many times in pop culture. In Agent Cody Banks 2 during the fight scene, there is a display of the original instruments and Agent Banks uses Paul McCartney's Höfner bass to hit the villain. The instruments have also been replicated into plastic game controllers for the game The Beatles Rock Band.
| Period | Lennon | McCartney | Harrison | Sutcliffe/Newby+ | Moore/Chapman/Best++ |
| January–June 1960 |
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| June 1960 |
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| July 1960 |
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| August–October 1960 |
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| October–November 1960 |
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| December 1960 |
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| December 1960 – April 1961 |
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| December 1960 – April 1961 |
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| Period | Lennon | McCartney | Harrison | Best/Starr+ | |
| July–November 1961 |
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| November 1961 – July 1962 |
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| July–September 1962 |
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| September 1962 – April 1963 |
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| April 1963 |
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| April–June 1963 |
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| April–June 1963 |
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| June–September 1963 |
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| October–December 1963 |
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| December 1963 – January 1964 |
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| February 1964 |
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| February–April 1964 |
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| May–July 1964 |
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| July 1964 |
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| August–December 1964 |
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| December 1964 – January 1965 |
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| January–August 1965 |
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| August – September 1965 |
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| October 1965 – March 1966 |
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| April–June 1966 |
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| June–July 1966 |
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| August 1966 |
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