She's A Woman- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

Thanks ‪@MichaelSokil‬ for lending me the Rickenbacker 325!

This was a rare early example of George Harrison not playing on the backing track. He overdubbed the double-tracked guitar solo later, but the basic track only features John on guitar

‪@TheBeatles‬ recorded the song as the B-side to I Feel Fine on October 8th, 1964 during the Beatles For Sale sessions. John Lennon plays the distinct choppy guitar chords throughout the song on his Rickenbacker 325

I confirmed that George was not on the basic track by listening to all the outtakes (takes 1-5), which are widely available via bootleg. George however does play some great fills throughout the song during 1964-1965 live performances. Instead, on the studio version it is Paul who plays these fills on the piano

John was using his 1964 Rickenbacker 'Miami' 325 model, instead of his older 1958 325 'Hamburg'. For this cover, I'm using Michael's 1982 Rickenbacker 320B model, which is a reissue of the 1958 Hamburg one. I'm plugged into my Vox AC-30 amp and mic'ing it with both a Neumann TLM-103 and a Shure SM-57

George used his 1963 Gretsch Tennessean in the middle position for the guitar solo. He double-tracked it using the same settings. I'm using my 1967 Gretsch Tennessean into my AC-30, mic'd with a Neumann TLM-103

Both John and George were plugged into their Vox AC-100 amps, and some echo was added later onto the track. I'm using the Waves Abbey Road Plates plug-in to mimick this echo

INTERESTING NOTES:
0:19 John slides down from the high D7
0:29 John sustains the high D7 slightly longer here
0:37 John starts to deaden the sustain of the chords
0:43 John's E7 X76750 includes the open high E-string
0:49 John strums upwards (as seen in the live NME footage), playing very staccato
0:54 John slides up from A7 to D7
0:57 John hits a D7, then slides from a low C# to D on the lowest string
1:00 John chugs a ghost note on A7, then slides up the low E-string to an A
1:07 John's high E7 includes the high E-string note, fretted at the 12th fret
1:12 John plays an open D7 for the first time, which includes the open A-string
1:26 John's A7 is a ghost note here
1:28 John plays D7 as X5453X instead of high barred
1:33 John accidentally stays on A7, instead of going up to D7. He corrects this eventually
1:46 John's D7 X54530 includes an open high E-string
1:54 John hits just the open A-string here. For the guitar solo section, he sticks to only open chords
1:59 George's doubled guitars are nearly identical, however there are some slight differences. For example here, the second guitar (upper right) slides later to the F# note
2:24 John plays very staccato, and chugs some ghost notes
2:32 John bends up the B-string as he plays the barred A7
2:49 John plays lots more bends on the B-string
2:54 John continues to bend up on the A7 chord, as the rest of the band has moved onto D7

GEAR:
1982 Rickenbacker 320B
1967 Gretsch 6119 Tennessean
2010's Vox AC-30C2X
Neumann TLM-103
Shure SM-57

#thebeatles #rickenbacker #guitarcover