Are you familiar with Allan Pollock’s ‘notes on’ series about Beatles songs?
https://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/awp/awp.html
Scholarly but not stuffy analyses of all the songs.
I haven’t seen that before. That information is very helpful. Mike P may have referenced it too for the recording dates.
Thank you for linking. .
It’s a fun series. I don’t always totally agree with Pollock’s interpretation, but now and again I’ve found it illuminating when I’m wondering: just what chord did they use at that point in the song…? 
For recording dates, though, I think the accepted authority is Mark Lewisohn:
That’s a nice bit of work Allan Pollock’s put in there.
I was very pleased with myself lately for having figured out how nice tenths sound on guitar when learning (just yesterday) “Blackbird.”
Prior to that, the only Beatles tunes I knew were “Get Back” and “Blackbird” (B.Preston’s cover), but on keyboards. Yeah, I “knew” the rest of them, as in could follow along with the chords at the keys.
But, yesterday I learned my first Beatles (Paul McCartney) tune on guitar. Sounds good, even on an unplugged Squier Tele.
And it’s all thanks to this thread for reminding me! I should try to trade in this new Squier Classic Vibe 70s Custom for an acoustic of some sort, or a Squier P-Bass…it’s still taking quite a bit of work to set it up correctly. I now own radius gauges, a string action ruler, a set of feeler gauges, but I do not possess the patience to persevere.
The Squier Sonic Tele is just beautiful with the 12s (flatwound) on it, though. Got lucky, I guess.
So, at the end of last summer, I was having trouble sleeping and could only sleep 3 hours at a time. I used all that up time and frazzled brainwaves to work on a music project. It was mostly synth songs but this song has some guitar in it and I am pretty happy with it.
Emergent Properties of Triplon Excitations
I used a Kemper, Genesis RG, Nuendo and a bunch of VSTIs. My inspirations were No Quarter and Tom Sawyer.
Very nice!
I also heard some Miami Vice drum fill inspiration
Yes, it’s obvious that he likes the songs as well as having the musical training to analyse them. I occasionally used to discuss stuff with him by email years ago (in the ancient days of usenet), but I don’t know if he is still around & active. There was some talk at one time of collecting the articles into a book, but I don’t think it ever happened
I’m with you there. I never really wanted to get into the craft of being a luthier… I want my instruments to Just Play Properly so I can concentrate on the music.
Likewise I want my DAW software to Just Work so I can record without having to fight the tools. (I’m an experienced programmer, so I might in other circumstances enjoy working on music software, but wearing my musician hat, I don’t want to be distracted)
As for an acoustic: surely everyone who plays any guitar needs at least a basic one, if only to be able to pick it up and work on an idea at a moments notice!
@wguy123 Thanks. I normally like dry 70’s drums. I forget why I used so much delay/reverb on them.
I think they fit well as is.
Ooo, I like it. Big ol’ filter sweep to kick it off. Lots of Giorgio Moroder in there, to my ear.
Indeed, I like the drum treatment a lot, esp the phaser on the snare.
Agreed. Since we’re in the realm of synth composed music rather than live performance, why not use any effects that work for the track.
Hey now, synths can be used for live performance. Don’t make me have to torture you with a modular DAWless jam just to prove it. 
Really? Must be very difficult operating all those plugboards and potentiometers and oscilloscopes etc in real time; you’d need to be an octopus!
Oh, I just read that someone has managed to connect up a keyboard!
What will they think of next…?
Hhehe, I didn’t say it was easy! And yeah, a keyboard is totally optional. If you’re good a manipulating an arpeggiator or sequencer, it can be completely unnecessary.
Here’s Sonic Boom doing one I particularly love. If you could wear out a YouTube video, I would have worn this one out.
But not everyone is doing drone stuff with a modular. Dan Deacon basically does pop, though a very quirky version. This early clip has him manipulating most of a Radio Shack. The ring modulator goes off the rails at the end.
Sounds very Devo, they could have covered it!
But is it rock & roll?
Well, I guess “Won’t get fooled again” has to count as such…
Hmmm…still trying to sell this Ensoniq SQ80!!!
Never mind. Old joke.
FINALLY got the action about right on the Squier CV '70s Custom. Yes, the “trick” was to move each of the tilt-compensated saddles up as far as they could go, and then tune it to open G. I have 11/49 D’Addario nickel wounds on it now, and while I’d envisioned that as my E-standard electric, I like the Squier Sonic Tele with the 12/52 D’Addario flatwounds for standard tuning, just for general use.
The latter actually sounds pretty good unplugged, and the finishing and setup was perfect out of the box how many months ago. Still is, after filing out the nut pretty carefully with just some rough equipment/files.
But some fun starts happening when I reach over and grab the open-G CV '70s…I mean, just about any Stones/Keef tune falls right into place.
So, no regrets. No word from me yet if the screws/pole pieces on the WR humbuckers are actually functional or just for show, as is suggested. Just haven’t bothered to turn the screws and listen. You know, “Turd On the Run” isn’t going to just play itself, you know! (Yeah, I remember playing the main thing in E-std but it’s more fun this way!)
Hmmm…
I think this is going to be an ongoing source of fail.
I was just watching/listening to a live performance of Dire Straits’s “Heavy Fuel” (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdavnDzZ80).
Much like “Money For Nothing.”
The actual notes couldn’t be simpler. And I’m comfortable playing without a pick.
No. Not quite measuring up to Mark Knopfler. Not in the real sense of feel, time, and some pretty subtle (to me, anyway) palm muting. And not on these two very simple tunes.
Sorry, Keef! I think I’m stuck copying you for a while on the basic riffs and rhythm playing…a little less maddening! No offense to Keith Richards at all! He’s not a simple player doing child things, nor is he an illiterate barbarian. A sophisticated player with a lot of time.
I just can’t handle Mark Knopfler, even at his most basic. Some people can, including those who just go “close enough” and slap everything together with a pick and a touch of dirt. Not the way, IMHO.
Mark is an amazing player and yes, open G Richards will be an easier approach! I saw Knopfler when he was touring with Dylan in 2012 and I loved his live show so much, I saw him again in 2015. In 2012, he was traveling in a very cool old bus…I would guess 1950s. I have a picture somewhere I need to dig out.
I’ve been playing stringed instruments (guitar, uke, bass) for 36 years and in all that time, I’ve never been in a Guitar Center. Well, that was until today. Now that I am getting serious about bass and have been playing with a couple others guys, I thought I would try out a couple other options since I’m currently playing a Craigslist $300 G&L special. We had to go to the “big city” and we stopped by the GC. I saw a used Fender p-bass and had to get them to unlock it (it seems that if it is over $500, it’s locked down). First thing - it had flat wounds which I had never used and they were freaking alien. Second, I don’t know what tuning it was supposed to have, but it wasn’t close to EADG. Third, it looked like somebody ate an entire bucket of KFC as they were handling this thing, and the fretboard was pretty gross. I think I liked the p-bass neck and tone I got out of in the Rumble I plugged into, but with the flatwounds? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I would’ve tried a Jazz bass, but they were locked up and the GC dude vaporized.
I wanted to try a short-scale bass so the guy pointed me to a couple after I didn’t see anything from Fender (I’m a Fender guy). The new Ibanez I took off the rack was so badly buzzing I put it right back (HORRIBLE fret buzz). The next something-or-rather didn’t buzz as bad, but the fret ends would’ve drew blood in short order. I picked up a fourth bass and realized it was setup like shit too. None close to being in tune.
That was a wasted trip. I still don’t know what I want and I know I will never step foot in a GC again. I bought one guitar from Sweetwater and it came perfectly setup. I guess I’ll have to roll the dice on my bass choice (probably a p-base of some sort) and order from SW. I would’ve loved to try a short-scale bass but I didn’t see a playable option at that GC. The local guitar store option is long gone.
Is this store unique, or is the GC way? Do they not do a minimal setup on their instruments? Do they not clean them?
GC does no setup on display instruments. However it comes from the factory is it. I don’t recall ever hefting a truly dirty demo model there, that sounds out of the ordinary.
Last time I was in the San Jose GC, the only instruments I saw locked up were in a special room for things like Custom Shop Fender models and high end Gibsons. The ones on the pegs anyone could pick up, even fairly expensive ($1000 to $2000ish) ones. Same with the acoustics.
Try a J Bass, they’re quite nice.
I wanted to try new P and J basses, as well as a short-scale bass, but my experience with the used one that I had unlocked and the under $500 available without tracking someone down soured me (there were many basses on an upper level but he said he had to get them even through the step ladder was right there). If I knew the guy was going to disappear I would’ve had him unlock the new p & j basses that were on the lower level.
We are driving through Seattle in February and I’ll be looking for a better location to try a few basses. I’m hoping we’ll be driving a new EV and can use this as an excuse to charge the car. "Sorry honey, we need to stop to charge. Oh look, a guitar store " Of course, I would never do that…she was patient at the GC today which she described as the Ross Dress for Less of guitar stores.