Ask Me Why- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

John and George both used their Gibson J-160e guitars on Ask Me Why. For anyone who is unsure, George is on the bottom screen, and John is on top

Ask Me Why was not recorded in the marathon February 1963 session that saw the completion of most of the Please Please Me album. It was recorded on November 26, 1962 as the b-side to Please Please Me (the song). The group used their usual lineup of John on rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar, Paul on Hofner bass, and Ringo on drums

The Gibson J-160e's they both used were plugged into Vox amps. The J160 is an acoustic guitar with a pickup in the neck position. This was the main guitar heard on most of the album

John plugged his J160 into his Vox AC-15 Twin and George into his Vox AC-30 amp. John's vocal mic picked up a lot of his guitar's natural strumming, so you hear a blend of amp and acoustic. George's J160 is mostly heard coming from the AC-30, and he most likely turned his tone knob down because his tone is darker

I'm using my 1966 Gibson J-160e, which is 100% original except for the vintage replacement Kluson tuners. I'm plugging it into my 2010's Vox AC-30C2x amp. I mic'd the amp with my Neumann TLM-103 Condenser mic, centered between the two alnico blue speakers and only a few inches from the grill. This was the mic'ing technique used on the early Beatles records

I'm also mic'ing my J160 close to the guitar's body, only for John's part. I'm using an AKG C-451 mic. I then blended the C451 signal and the AC-30 amped signal

My knob settings on the J160:
John- Vol 8.5, Tone 10
George- Vol 8.5, Tone 6.5

John's strumming technique is very unique on this song, and George's lead guitar work is jazzy and played with lots of precision. Below, I will go into more detail regarding their playing

INTERESTING NOTES:
0:00 Some other covers have George playing the intro riff with the higher B note on the open B-string, but I believe he played this note on the 4th fret of the G-string because you can get a more muted, stocatto sound this way
0:03 George plays just a C-sharp note, instead of the 2nd fret of the G AND B strings, which is how he plays this part for the remainder of the song
0:10 Let's get into John's strumming patterns. He alternates between fast downstrum 16ths, occasional simple up-down strums, but mainly plays a pattern with a hard upstrum after a short pause. For this latter pattern, he will sometimes end each measure with three quick downstrums. Otherwise he sticks to down-up-downs after the heavy upstrum
0:18 George plays a low G-sharp note on the low E-string
0:23 I can't tell if John is playing an F-sharp major or minor here. I played it without pressing down on the g-string so it sounded more neutral
0:40 John plays hard downstrums on the low E-string for this G-sharp chord
0:47 John plays the E augmented chord differently from George. John plays it as XX2110, George as 02211X. I was able to pick this out listening closely to the isolated guitar tracks, where George can be heard faintly playing the low B note on the 2nd fret of the A string. Meanwhile, John's A-string is not heard at all; he favors the high b and e strings
0:48 George plays a fast triplet strum on the E augmented chord, briefly with a high F 022111
0:54 George plays a latin-flavored rhythm just for this E chord
0:57 George plays the A chord as X02XXX instead of his usual X422XX
1:09 John plays an open A chord here instead of the usual barred A
1:18 George briefly releases the open D-string before the riff
1:39 George plays an A7 barred chord, emphasizing the minor 7 G note
2:04 While John plays an A chord, George plays F-sharp minor
2:10 George doesn't seem to play the 4th note of the riff here (the low B)

MY GEAR:
1966 Gibson J-160e (Ernie Ball 11 roundwound strings)
Vox AC-30C2X
Neumann TLM-103
AKG C451

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