Paul McCartney- Solo Acoustic

Here’s an obvious follow up to the rare John Lennon solo acoustic performance of Imagine, a beautiful song entitled “For No One.”

Lots of cool things I’ve noticed about this video.

First he is playing right handed strung up lefty…

The vocal mic he’s using (a Telefunken U47, probably more valuable than the guitar) is pointed upwards and positioned sideways. Reason-  to keep the bleed away from the acoustic guitar as much as possible and attempt to capture a single sound source. What will happen with recording and picking up two sounds sources from two different mics will cause some or even a lot of phasing…. if you are not careful, it could end up ruining the sound of your guitar and/or vocal.

Obviously the people over at Abby Road knew what they were doing in a big way. Even still, Paul did however, have some complaints. It turns out that the Sgt Pepper Album, which was recorded on 2 four tracks tape machines, became an issue for Paul. After the album was completed, Paul found out that the Ampex 8 track had been invented many years ago (late 50’s) and used by Les Paul and Atlantic Records. Hard to believe that it would take that long to make it’s way over to the UK.

Yes, it would have saved a lot of time for sure and reduced the tape hiss but, maybe it was a good thing that they used 2 four track machines and did it that way….. that sound was amazing.

Please let me know your thoughts about Paul’s solo performance, the Beatles, Abby Road, really anything..

Oh and btw, the mic used on his guitar is a small diaphragm mic. Sure it’s probably a tube gain stage but does anyone know what it is?