Revolution- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

I recommend wearing headphones or listening on good speakers, because I panned George and John's guitars hard left and right. On a smart phone this can sound odd

John wanted Revolution 1 to be the Beatles next single, but George Martin said it was too slow. They rerecorded a harder rocking version, as the b-side to Hey Jude. This faster version was recorded during the White Album sessions, on July 10, 1968. John and George's guitars were plugged direct into the EMI console (Direct Injection) and nearly overloaded it, producing the distortion heard on the record

MY CAPO THEORY:
There is some debate about what key the song was recorded in. The released version's pitch is somewhere between Bb and B. John often played the song in A, so it would be natural to assume that they recorded it in A and sped it up to the higher pitch. HOWEVER...

If you listen to the 2018 box set outtakes, you hear that they were playing in this Bb-B pitch from the very start of recording. Check out this early rehearsal, which is in the exact pitch of the record
   • Revolution (Unnumbered Rehearsal)  

If this is true, John and George both had to have used capos because when I listened to the isolated tracks I heard them both release the lowest string to an F-sharp note. This proves that they both used capos on the 2nd fret

The song therefore was not sped up at all, although Nicky Hopkins probably recorded his pianet part with some tape speed manipulation. Their pianet wouldn't have been in tune with the odd Bb-B pitch they recorded in, so they probably slowed it down to A for Nicky and sped it back up. A trick they used a lot in 66-67 (Lucy In The Sky vocals, Rain, Lovely Rita, etc.)


All of the stereo versions of this song summed John and George's guitars to one side. This makes it hard to dissect the parts. Fortunately, the LOVE version separated the two guitars left and right, and I used the 2009 RockBand stems to isolate the two parts. For my cover you'll hear George's SG on the left, and John's main Casino on the right. John also overdubbed a guitar solo, which I placed in the middle

For my cover, I'm using a 2021 Epiphone Casino USA and a 1970 Gibson SG Special. George's SG was a Standard, which had humbucker pickups and trapezoid inlays. The Special has P90 single-coil pickups (the same pickups in a Casino), and dot inlays.

My signal chain is pretty simple. I plugged my guitars with my instrument cable directly into my Focusrite Scarlett interface. I set the gain knob very low, so the signal was actually very clean going into my DAW. In Pro Tools, I used an REQ plug-in set with maximum volume to boost the next plug-in. I used the REDD.37-51 console plug-in to get the distortion sound. This plug-in mimicks the exact console that the Beatles used for this song

The REDD console plug-in is set to the 51 mode, the later desk they used. The gain knob and drive knob are set to maximum, with a bass lift and some eq shaping. Remember that the REQ plug-in is boosting into the REDD, so it's really pushing the fake console

Interesting Notes:
0:01 George hits a B-bar chord along with John's intro. An f-sharp note resonates after each hit. You can hear this more clearly in the LOVE version
0:09 George sometimes starts the B5 chord with a lower F-sharp note on the 14th fret (E-string)
0:14 For the majority of the song, John plays the D-shape chord (E) as normal. However, with his right hand he's picking the A and G string, no D-string (with some exceptions)
0:17 John does hit the D-string here briefly
0:40 George hits only the A and G strings of the Bm-shape chord (C-sharp minor) so it's a C-sharp octave he's playing, just here
1:02 At the end of the chorus riffs, John ends on an open D-string
1:13 John extends the barred 4th fret A-shape to the 6th fret, even on the b-string which is unusual
1:26 George slides down to play an open E chord
1:36 From now on, George slides up to the F-sharp chord at 14th fret before each chorus
1:52 The 3rd guitar enters- John's lead Casino overdub
2:04 John plays the end-of-chorus riff over and over, while George plays low E chords
2:14 Faintly heard, the 3rd guitar plays two f-sharp notes as the verse begins
2:22 John again plays the extended barred riff from 1:13
2:52 George uses the maestro-whammy bar
2:54 John plays the D and G strings, instead of A and G
3:15 For the outro, George plays a C7 shape on the 9th fret, hits a B-bar chords then slides from C6 to B6. John does a fast riff on the 9th fret as well, then slides from X03330 to X02220

MY GEAR:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA Royal Tan
1970 Gibson SG Special
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Interface
REQ and REDD.37-51 plug-ins

#thebeatles #revolution #guitarcover

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