Gather 'round all you Beatles fans (and recultant ones too @Barney)
I give you… “The Long One”
The Long One is a collection of 9 (ish) unfinished songs that were put together to form a 17-minute medley on side 2 of Abbey Road.
I had done two of the tracks separately before (Mustard and Bathroom Window), and had always wanted to tie them together with Polythene Pam. Pam turned out to be quite difficult to nail but once I did I got over-zealous and decided to just do the whole damn 9 (ish) songs.
This was a lot harder than I expected it to be.
All tunes were done at different times except Polythene Pam and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, as they run right into each other.
So grab a bevarage and settle in to the most famous medley in music history
Technical stuff…
Basses
1972 Rickenbacker 4001 - Bass (neck) pickup - various tone settings
1962 Hofner 500/1 Reissue - Bass (neck pickup) / Solo Switch - Paul’s usual settings
No one knows what bass Paul used on what during the recording of Abbey Road, not even him, he doesn’t remember. There are only about a dozen photos from that recording session and one shows his Rickenbacker, so many think that is what he used. I felt like Pam and Bathroom Window sounded more like the Hofner, so I switched to that for them.
Effects
Origin Effects Bass Rig Black Panel - various settings
- All Songs Except Mean Mr. Mustard
Super Beatle (Vox Super Beatle Amp clone of original electronics) - Fuzz Circuit
- Mean Mr. Mustard
What suprised me a bit is how much overdrive/distortion Paul used on most of Abbey Road.
He most likely was playing through a Fender Bassman Black Amp - thus the Bass Rig.
Mean Mr. Mustard has fuzz - and it has been highly debated as to how he got the fuzz and its tone. I used a crazy boutique pedal I got that is handmade in England by a guy who recreated the entire Vox Super Beatler (guitar amp) circuit including EQ/Fuzz/Repeat/MBR effects. The Fuzz on this pedal is tied to the EQ so you can shape the tone of the fuzz.
**Note - Sun King as some artifacts left in it from when Moises seperated the bass out. I tried another AI but same thing - The Beatles beat the AI I guess, lol.
Been working on this for about 6 weeks, including some travel in between.
One of these songs took me 75 takes to get it recorded!
None of the tabs are great, so I mark up the best ones going note by note. I actually enjoy doing this for Beatles stuff, a bit like an archeological dig sometimes.