white album guitars

  • Thread starter Thread starter willovercome
  • Start date Start date
willovercome

willovercome

New member
i am a huge Beatles fan. i thought everyone in the world was until i did a search and found out how many of you disagree. but anyway, i do a lot of fingerpicking and playing like on the white album (Julia, Blackbird etc.). i was wondering if anyone knew of a way to recreate that sort of acoustic sound. i don't even mind the boominess of the guitar and all the fret noise because the sound is so rich.

btw-i'm not looking for how they did it, i'm just looking for how i can do it pretty close.
 
You'll need the following:
  • great guitar
  • great microphone (carefully placed)
  • great player
  • great room
  • great console (well maintained)
  • great recording device (ditto)
The more of these you have, the closer you'll come to the sound you are craving.

That said, I think the basic idea is to use a large-diaphragm condensor mic in the instrument's nearfield. Make sure you check and recheck that the instrument is in tune. Use new strings. (String the instrument a day or two before your session.)

HTH
 
DonF said:
You'll need the following:
  • great guitar
  • great microphone (carefully placed)
  • great player
  • great room
  • great console (well maintained)
  • great recording device (ditto)
The more of these you have, the closer you'll come to the sound you are craving.


HTH
Click to expand...

But the Beatles didn't have any of that. :D
 
scottboyher said:
But the Beatles didn't have any of that. :D
Click to expand...
I could listen to the guitar on "Blackbird" all day long and not get tired of it. OTOH, I plug my ears for the solo on "I'll Follow The Sun". So it's a mixed bag.

I know you're not serious, because you can't say they didn't have great microphones. :D
 
I thought they used marshall mxl603s in George Martin's basement studio with a Mackie VLZ board.

Shows you what I know.
 
A lot of the Beatles stuff was recorded on ribbon mics so that can give you a bit of that sound. Usually any nice sounding guitar with a good player is pretty easy to record if you have some decent gear.

Are you looking for general guitar micing advice or something more specific?
 
DonF said:
You'll need the following:
  • great guitar
  • great microphone (carefully placed)
  • great player
  • great room
  • great console (well maintained)
  • great recording device (ditto)
Click to expand...


  • i have all those things :) just kidding.

    yeah, i want specifics, general techniques, anything you've tried that comes close to the above mentioned sound.

    i guess i want to know about possible mic placement/mic choice, what guitars would sound good...many of the songs have a really clear but colorful high end, and a 'muddy' but pleasent low end (i can't describe it but you know what i'm talking about - if not listen to the white album). i know someone's going to chime in about the zillion dollar this and that, but i think something close to that sound can be achieved in home studio.
 
willovercome said:
i have all those things :) just kidding.

yeah, i want specifics, general techniques, anything you've tried that comes close to the above mentioned sound.

i guess i want to know about possible mic placement/mic choice, what guitars would sound good...many of the songs have a really clear but colorful high end, and a 'muddy' but pleasent low end (i can't describe it but you know what i'm talking about - if not listen to the white album). i know someone's going to chime in about the zillion dollar this and that, but i think something close to that sound can be achieved in home studio.
Click to expand...

It depends on your home studio...I know the best acoustic guitar sound I ever got was with a Royer 121 ribbon mic, with a 2500$ guitar, into an 2000$ mic pre...if you want a great guitar sound with crappy equipment..it's most likely not going to happen.
 
ok i think i have the equipment to get a 'good' maybe not 'great' guitar sound. i can get good guitar sounds, but for one song i really want the guitar to sound as much like the Beatles white album sound as possible.

PRES
UA-610
RNP
DMP-3
DBX 376
Presonus

MICS
NTK
NT5's
SM57
Oktava MK 319
Beta 52

GUITARS (worth mentioning)
Martin D-18
Taylor 512 (small body)
Gibson JC? (like buddy holly-i've seen video of Paul using it too)
 
You've got enough stuff there to get a lot of different tones. The only thing you are missing that is probably key to a more vintage sound is ribbon mic.

Knowing what techniques were used to get a sound really only helps if there is something very obvious about a tone like using a leslie speaker, flanger, compressed room sound etc. The Beatles guitar sound isn't really that technique dependent.

There are usually 3 good places to mic an acoustic-

1. Around the 3-12th fret close to the neck.
2. Above the bridge anywere from 4-16"
3. Anywhere else in the room and any combination of all 3.
 
Is it really the "sound" that you are so attracted to or is the performance, the song the aura etc.

I wonder if the sound would still be great if the song were crappy and the performance mediocre?
 
Jack Hammer said:
Is it really the "sound" that you are so attracted to or is the performance, the song the aura etc.

I wonder if the sound would still be great if the song were crappy and the performance mediocre?
Click to expand...

I've heard a lot of really well-recorded crap. Just turn on the radio.

On the other hand, I've heard some pretty good songs that were recorded very poorly, and I had a hard time listening to them too.

Usually the learning curves of song-writing and recording quality correlate w/ each other to some extent.... unless you are a hottie. Then you can go straight to the great recordings and skip the talent development stage. Me.....? Oh well, umm...... I'm trying to develop my talent anyway.:D

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Theres a great book

Theres a wonderful book i picked up with an extensive guitar and amplifier guide to the beatles, really detailed if you like that sort of thing.

I think McCartney had an Early Epiphone Texan, which would sound weird becuase it was converted to left handed play. And a martin too i believe.
 
I remember pictures of the Epiphone from sessions around that time...and yes, they put another pickguard around the hole for the lefty, so it had both....John using the J45 Gibson a lot...and the J160...These were not the 'best' acoustics that could be had at that time or anytime for that matter...but they do impart a certain sound, which George Martin caught with amazing clarity....must have been those crappy German mics and that rotten to the core EMI console...the one with all the transformers in it.........hmmmmm.........transformers..........
 
i got the guitars to sound pretty good and close to what i want using an sm57 run through RNP on the neck of the D-18 and an NTK through the UA 610 about 3 feet straight out from the sound hole. but i think the main difference is the room. there's no way i can recreate abbey road in my studio, so i'll settle for pretty close. actually i'm happy with the guitars because i knew i'll never get the exact beatles sound - this shows what good experimentation can get you.
 
soon as i get the website updated and running with mp3's (i.e. sometime between next weekend and 2005).
 
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