Don't Bother Me - The Beatles (Guitar Cover) - Gretsch Country Gentleman, Chickenbacker 325c58 (4K)

A remake of a video I did about a year ago, this time featuring my new Chickenbacker 325c58!

Recorded on September 12th, 1963, Don't Bother Me was George Harrisons first songwriting contribution to The Beatles. The song itself was written in August of 1963 whilst the band was touring the UK, in the Palace Court Hotel, Bournemouth. George had fallen ill with a high temperature and decided to write a song just to see if he could do it. it was the first Harrison composition to feature lyrics. A demo was made of the song on a small tape recorder, featuring George getting to grips with the song, and near the end, generally noodling on the guitar:
   • The Beatles - Don't Bother Me (demo)  
In later testimonies, George dismissed the song, saying:
"It was a fairly crappy song. I forgot about it completely once it was on the album."
Again, in 1970, George stated his discontent towards the song:
"It might not even be a song at all, but it showed me that all I needed to do was keep writing and eventually I would write something good"
A crappy song or not, it's one of my favourites from the album, if not for the tight instrumental work from the band, then for the controversial guitar line up.

Prior to internet sleuthing, the general consensus was that the Lead Guitar was played by George Harrison, Rhythm by John Lennon, and some even say that George overdubbed a Tremolo Guitar.
However, upon inspecting the session outtakes (Takes 10-13), Take 11 can be heard with George on Lead, and John on Rhythm. In Take 10, the Lead has rather unintentionally rubato, as George was singing and playing the lead part. However, by Take 11, the timbre of the Lead Guitar has changed drastically, from deep and clear Gretsch Tone, to the more nasal bite of a Rickenbacker. As well as this, the Lead playing is far more in time, and a lot tighter than Take 10.
These takes can be heard here:
   • The Beatles in the recording studio (Sept....  
By analysing Take 11, at 3:03 and 3:21, George can be heard calling out to the band to stop, meanwhile the Lead Guitar can still be heard playing the riff.

This leaves only one possibility, that John played the Lead Guitar on his Rickenbacker 325c58, and George took up the Rhythm for the song on his Gretsch Country Gentleman. However, despite playing the Lead, John does not play the Guitar Solo, which is still played by George, meaning John takes the Lead Guitar role, and George takes Rhythm/Solo Guitar.
This theory is corroborated by the session photos, which were taken as the Band were recording throughout the session. on September 12th.
The main evidence found in the photoshoot from the day is a photograph of John Lennon, sitting in a famous red Abbey Road Chair, alongside 2 Vox AC30 Amps, playing his Rickenbacker 325c58, with his foot just next to a Vox Footswitch, used to control the AC30's built-in Tremolo Effect.
This, to me and many others in the Beatle community, is hard evidence that John played the Lead Guitar, with George standing in on Rhythm, and playing the Solo also.
In the released version of the song, Georges Rhythm Guitar is nearly inaudible, but with some help from @sampopkin , and from just slightly improvising certain areas, Georges Rhythm can be heard (most likely) as it was performed on the record!
Johns Lead Guitars is very bright and chime-y, which was easy to replicate on my Chickenbacker 325c58, however, the tone of the pickups on my Chickenbacker is slightly brighter than that of a real Rickenbacker, making the tone of my guitar slightly thinner than that heard on the record, which I tried to solve using EQ, which helped slightly!

0:19 - John enters late on the Em Chord, played as XX9987
0:37 - George plucks the open G & B strings
0:41 - John varies the opening riff, strumming the D Chord twice, and hitting the E note on the D string, followed by the open D string
0:42 - John misses the Em Chord, strummed muted strings and dropping out
1:00 - George plucks the open B string
1:17 - John plays last Em (XX9987) Chord before the solo for a shorter time
1:19 - George accidentally plays a D# (Eb) note
1:34 - George again plays the open G and B strings
1:37 - John varies the opening riff for a second time, playing one D Chord, before holding the fretted E and moving to the Open D
1:55 - John repeatedly strums the low strings of the Em Chord
2:00 - John alters the B riff, before playing a shorter A chord and mistakenly playing a D7 Chord, clashing with Georges A.
2:13 - As George strums the A Chord on the upbeat to 1, John accidentally plays the A Chord on beat 1.
2:18 - John moves down from the higher Em and A to a lower fretting of the chords (0220XX and X0222X)

For my video, both Guitars were played through my VOX AC30-VR, with the usual settings of High Treble and Low Bass To replicate Johns Tremolo Effect, I used my TC Electronic Choka Tremolo Pedal (which can be seen in the foot switch cam)

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