Career in gear: The Beatles

The original Beatles Gear book was published back in 2001 and, over the past decade-and-a-half, it’s become the go-to bible for anyone with an interest in the extensive equipment the Fab Four dabbled with during their incredible albeit brief career.

The new expanded Ultimate Edition, which has recently hit the shops, provides fascinating new interviews, 650 new and previously unpublished photos and a slew of surprising recent gear-related discoveries that author Andy Babiuk has helped uncover.

One astounding addition to Beatles Gear is the inclusion of John Lennon’s original 1962 Gibson J-160E acoustic, which had been lost for over 50 years. This was the guitar that Lennon wrote many of The Beatles’ early hits on before it was stolen in December 1963 at the Astoria Cinema in Finsbury Park, London.

“This one happened last summer when a guy contacted me on the phone,” explains Andy, “I get a lot of people calling and emailing with stuff but 99% of the time, it’s nothing or just nonsense.

“Anyway, this guy said, ‘My friend’s got John Lennon’s J-160E’. So I was like, ‘Hey, right, okay… well, send me the picture’ and sure enough, he sends the picture and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ve got to talk to this guy!’

“The grain looked similar. It belonged to some guy in San Diego who bought it for 175 bucks after he got out of Vietnam in '69 or something. It was just his personal guitar ever since. When I examined it personally, the grain was an exact match: it was John Lennon’s J-160E.

“No-one knows how it made it out of England and made it to Southern California but that’s just one of the wacky stories that are in this book.” [NB. Since we chatted to Andy, the guitar sold for a staggering $2.4 million at auction.]

With a little help from my friends

So, how aware are the two remaining Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, of the Beatles Gear book?

“Well, I’ve had a chance to hang out with Ringo a couple of times,” enthuses Babiuk. “He’s great and he really enjoyed the book. He told me he loves looking at it because he gets to see all the stuff he used to use because he doesn’t remember everything.

“He was working on one of his solo albums a few years back and the producer Mark Hudson told me that they were talking about different types of equipment because they wanted to reproduce certain sounds.

Ringo grabbed [the] book and he goes, ‘This tells me everything I used to use!’

“Mark said, ‘Ringo hopped out of his chair and he went over to the bookshelf and he grabbed your book and he goes, ‘This tells me everything I used to use!’’ That story to me was like the greatest compliment.

“It’s been a similar thing with McCartney in that I’ve had this really interesting kind of open door with him and his assistant, John Hammel, who’s been with him for about 30 years… and Olivia Harrison and Dhani Harrison have been great with this book, too. They say they leave the book right in the studio and they’re constantly looking things up in it.

“Then, Yoko [Ono]’s always been really great, and with the original book she was really super-helpful. She basically let me go through and photograph any guitar I wanted. I’ve been fortunate because they’ve all been very helpful on this project.”

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

Magical mystery gear

The Beatles certainly used a vast array of different equipment during their extensive and intense recording sessions, as Beatles Gear Ultimate Edition ably illustrates. But, as Andy explains, they were simply acting the same way that any bunch of musicians would when confronted with veritable mountains of gear options.

“They just acted like a regular band,” he says. “It’s like when you get a new guitar or your friend gives you a guitar. If you happen to be going in the studio with your pals to record, you’re going to use that guitar, right? And, if you’re doing more than one track, you probably won’t try it for more than one.

They got a new toy, they played it for a while, they’d use it on some recordings but then they moved on and they grabbed a new toy

“If you really study The Beatles, it’s kind of what they did. They got a new toy, they played it for a while, they’d use it on some recordings but then they moved on and they grabbed a new toy.”

Is there any Beatles info that Babiuk is still desperate to uncover?

“There’s one thing that would be so great to hear,” Andy replies. “On the December 1965 tour – which was the last UK tour, where I think they only did 10 dates in theatres – during the sets on that tour, McCartney would do Yesterday but he did it on a Vox organ. Can you imagine him playing it with that haunted kind of mysterious 96 Tears organ sound?

“I’d love to hear that but, unfortunately, there are no known recordings of it. All that I have is photos of him doing it and there’s an old report in Beat Instrumental saying that he did it. It’d just be really cool to hear that!”

Hardback writer

Before we let Andy get back to his responsibilities at Fab Gear, the rather amazing boutique guitar shop that he owns and runs in Rochester, New York, he just has time to explain his deep-seated motivation for penning Beatles Gear in the first place (as well as its sister book Rolling Stones Gear, which was published in 2014).

“It is a labour of love,” explains Andy. “I mean, for all the time I spent on it, I probably only got paid a penny an hour! Really, this is a book for historic reasons. It’s really a book for 75 years from now.

“75 years from now, people will be hearing The Beatles’ music and The Stones’ music. It’ll exist in that time period and they’ll wonder, ‘How the hell was this done?’ because everyone involved will be gone… but there will be a written document showing how it was done and what instruments were used. That’s really why I did it.”

Beatles Gear – The Ultimate Edition is available now via Backbeat Books – click through for exclusive extracts on 10 essential Beatles instruments

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John Lennon's 1958 Rickenbacker 325

This was John’s first 'real' American-made instrument, and he used it for the four years of the group’s climb to fame. This first Rick 325 of John’s became a virtual extension of his stage persona and is considered among guitar collectors as one of the most important Beatle instruments.

Through the years, John made a number of modifications to the guitar. Pictured here as it is today, the guitar has its original pickguard changed to a white one and the body refinished back to a natural colour.