Mr. Moonlight- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

Thanks ‪@MichaelSokil‬ for lending both of these guitars!

Mr. Moonlight is not one of the most beloved Beatles songs, but I personally love it! The Beatles based their cover on the version by Dr. Feelgood and the Interns. They recorded it on October 18, 1964 and it was released on their album Beatles For Sale

There are just two guitars- John's rhythm and George's lead. John definitely used his 1964 Rickenbacker 'Miami' 325, most likely in the middle position. Which guitar George used is up for debate. At least I think so...

George had switched from using his Gretsch Country Gentleman as his main guitar to his Gretsch Tennessean in the summer of 1964. He continued to use the Country Gent in some live performances in '64 and '65, but the Tenny had become his main studio and live instrument

Almost all of Beatles For Sale features his Tennessean, but the tone in Mr. Moonlight sounds different to me. As an owner of a vintage Tenny, I find it hard to get the quacky, spongy attack that is heard on the record. The Gent's Filtertron pickups have a much higher output and more midrange. The Tennessean's Hilotron single coil pickups are scoopy, metallic and bright

I believe George used his Country Gent on this song instead of the Tennessean, which if true would make it one of the last appearances of the Gent on a Beatles record. If I'm wrong, I will gladly do another cover using my Tennessean at some point to try it out!

I'm using Michael's 1982 Rickenbacker 320B into my Vox AC-30C2X. This guitar has old thick flatwound strings on it

For George's part, I'm using Mike's 2016 Gretsch Country Gentleman reissue, also into the Vox AC-30C2X. This guitar has Ernie Ball roundwound 11 gauge strings on it. I'm playing it in the middle position

INTERESTING NOTES:
0:10 Sometimes, George will hammer on the G AND B strings to form a B major chord (XX444X)
0:24 George plays an interesting descending pattern on the Ebm chord
0:44 George plays an ascending lick on the A-string, then plays a glissando on Eb7
0:47 George plays a Gsharp-minor, while John plays Gsharp-major
0:53 George plays the Fsharp-sus4 hammer-ons at a more drawn out, slower pace here
1:25 George slides from the 1st to 2nd fret of the low E-string to start the solo section
1:26 George plays lots of B/Eb hammer-ons and glissandos
1:33 John plays straight up-downs without syncopation
2:01 John plays a cool glissando

GEAR:
1982 Rickenbacker 320B
2016 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman G6122-62 GE
Vox AC-30C2X
Neumann TLM-103

#thebeatles #gretsch #rickenbacker