The End- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

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The End is an epic song for many reasons. It includes one of Ringo's rare drum solos. It's the only song ever to feature John, Paul and George all taking guitar solos. And it is a fitting farewell to the greatest band of all time- "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"

John, Paul, George and Ringo recorded the basic track on July 23rd, 1969. It was called 'Ending' at this point, which acknowledged that it was intended to be the closer of the album and medley. But this did not yet include the final piano section of the song, or space for the guitar solos. To hear how this basic track ended originally, listen to take 3 from the 2019 Abbey Road box set
I'll be calling this section one

George Martin cleverly stretched out the 'love you' section by duplicating some of the measures. This enabled John, Paul and George to add their multiple guitar solos, on August 7th
Later, the final section of the song was recorded with Paul's piano and more guitars from George and John
I'll be calling this 'and in the end...' section two

Section one features John playing his Epiphone Casino with a capo on the 5th fret.
This is confirmed from pictures of the actual July session.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
He is seen plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp
George is seen playing his Gibson 'Lucy' Les Paul, also into a Twin Reverb.
I believe it's possible that George was also plugged into a Fuzz Face pedal, because listening to take 3 you hear lots of distortion on his guitar. He might have cleaned up the fuzz a little, using the volume knob on his guitar. This is a trick he used on You Never Give Me Your Money

The guitar solos-
Paul: Epiphone Casino into Fender Twin Reverb
George: Gibson 'Lucy' Les Paul into Twin Reverb or 1964 Fender Blonde Bassman (with fuzz face?)
John: Epiphone Casino into Fuzz Face pedal into Twin Reverb

Section two guitars-
George: Lucy Les Paul into Twin Reverb
John: Epiphone Casino into Leslie Speaker
*John does not use a capo for section two


I'm using my 2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard into an Analogman Sunface BC108 (fuzz face clone) for George's section one guitar. My amp is a 1974 Fender Pro Reverb
I'm rolling down the volume knob so the fuzz pedal isn't too distorted. I believe this is how George got his section one rhythm guitar tone
For section two, I'm using the same setup but without the Sunface fuzz

For John's section one part I'm using my 2021 Epiphone Casino USA into the Pro Reverb, with an Analogman King of Tone overdrive pedal. I'm using the capo on the 5th fret
For John section two, it's the same guitar and amp but with a Strymon Lex pedal, which simulates the Leslie speaker

Here is my rig rundown for the guitar solos:
The Casino i'm using for John and Paul's solos is the same guitar, which I had modded with a bigsby after I completed John's parts

Paul:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA
Analogman King of Tone (both sides engaged)
1974 Fender Pro Reverb

George:
2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard
JHS Angry Charlie v4
1965 Fender Bassman

John:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA
Thorpy Fallout Cloud Fuzz
1974 Fender Pro Reverb

INTERESTING NOTES:
0:12 George's bent note is slightly flat in pitch
0:08 John ends this riff by accidentally hitting an Esus, not E chord- 0222XX
0:35 John does hammer-on on the D-string while playing E7 chord
0:47 George plays an A9 chord
0:49 George plays a D with a high E note on the 12th fret
0:54 The guitar solo section begins
1:17 John does fast, intricate slides and hammer-offs in his solo
1:19 Paul's open A-string rings out during his third solo
1:30 section two begins. The overall pitch of this section is several semitones higher than section one, for unknown reasons

MY GEAR:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA Royal Tan
2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard (OX4 Low-Wind PAF Pickups)
1974 Fender Pro Reverb (Weber 12F150 speakers)
1965 Fender Bassman (George's Solo)
Analogman King of Tone
Analogman Sunface BC-108
JHS Angry Charlie V4
Thorpy Fallout Cloud
Neumann TLM-103

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