Helter Skelter bass track

[ninjascience]

Fuckin gnarly as all get-out.

[NouvoRich]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Paul actually intended Helter to be a more softer track and worked out the bass line on an acoustic guitar and later on they blew it up to what it finnally became and the song was actually a collage of pieces of a serie of long jams but still this is definitly John on the bass...Whatever, thanx for posting this!

[BassManDan101]

this tone sounds like a wasp in a shoebox but i absolutely love it. John's line makes the song - it's no McCartney'esque melody-fest, but damn he knew what to do with that nasty ass VI !

[KoolKorey1011]

John shreds that bass

[roxy9354115]

isn't paul playing the bass guitar?!?!?!

[jamrush123]

@roxy9354115 not on this track...this track includes Paul: Rhythm guitar,vocals George: Lead Guitar John: Bass Ringo: Drums

[totaldrambeatles22]

@jamrush123 paul played lead george played rhythm

[moo2thetube]

clever what can be done these days

[fazeka]

@moo2thetube - I could be wrong, but I think this is merely it's own track from the original 8-track tape, nothing clever really if true.

[FredDude27]

John Lennon on bass..can the Beatles be any cooler!?

[RogueRotting360]

Is this roundwounds or flatwounds?

[GlowInTheDarkTV]

John doesn't play bass in this picture, if you'll look it has six strings, bass guitars only have 4.

[blahblahy0y0]

@GlowInTheDarkTV Look up "Fender Bass VI" on Wikipedia.

[GJWM1]

@GlowInTheDarkTV There is in fact basses that have 5 and 6 strings... in the picture you are referring to John Lennon is playing a Fender VI (6 stringed bass that was shared with George Harrison)

[FredDude27]

@GJWM1

Hear hear!

[HeroesJukebox]

Thats a fender bass 6in the picture...they are tuned one octave higher than a normal bass and an octave below a 6 string guitar also can be tune as a baritone guitar and it has six strings.....used by John on Let it Be and George on Hey Jude while Paul played piano

[TheGargoyleLives]

@HeroesJukebox What?? The Fender Bass VI is in the same range as the bass guitar, but it is indeed an octave lower than the guitar.

[TehBuzz]

@GlowInTheDarkTV basses can have 6 strings, just like you can get 12 string basses.

[stevenjromero]

To be perfectly honest something in the transfer went out of synch as the can with these "home-made" computer programs. It ruins the timing all around and so screws up the total bass response as to render it virtually unlistenable.

What made it funny though is Paul's whoops, funny noises, you kinda get the sense it was a fun song to cut. And For crying out loud, for the last time it's BILL WYMAN's blisters...oh, forget it!

[outtacastatv]

fucking awesome

[johnsain]

Don't criticize Lennon so much here,..........he had blisters on his fingers!!!

[will179ea]

@johnsain actually, ringo had !

[westftballstar31]

@johnsain Ringo said the blisters on my fingers part at the end of the song.

[sirpaulmccharmley]

i'm really sure that's john playing fender VI. there's so many sources you can confirm that information. and if you consider drums and lead guitars of this song recorded by paul...

[GoucheGizmo]

@xxxRORYKxxxable umad broski?

[gorpusasasa]

I don't understand why he play like this, he makes 3 or 4 notes, sometimes 2... i don't understand ><

[oOJimmySueOo]

@gorpusasasa it fits the song perfectly though. It's not about how many notes you play

[gorpusasasa]

@oOJimmySueOo I'm sorry, i'm french so I can't really say what I want to mean. But we see this way of playing is (perfect sure, but) strange and for me, it's impossible to understand the "logic" of this way of playing.

I hope i'm understand ? u_u

[Fjord76]

@gorpusasasa logic! what for? this is rock'n'roll dude

[TheFilthy4]

@gorpusasasa He's a guitar player... not a bassist

[gorpusasasa]

@TheFilthy4 Yes but it's not the reason here, His maneer of improvise with "temps" and "contre-temps" is really hard to understand...

[passiize1]

@TheFilthy4 no shit sherlock

[MrIvanEvil111]

i love this sound.....crunchy and dirty xD...the Fender VI is the coolest instrument ever...

[TerraceYouth]

I would have given ten years off my life to have had access to these things when I was a kid.

[Gnomitolindo]

hey its john!!!!!11 people its jooohnn!!!!!11 *.*

[kn1ght0fcydon1a]

i thought this was Macca playing

[pfootball43]

Best bass track I've heard that's what I love the most about this song

[fazeka]

I know what the 'S' stands for, my reply was a quote from rockerdude59, not me.

[LesPaul2006]

LOL Lennon can't play bass

[scarface12347]

no wonder it sounded weird and unhappy lennon was playing it.

[FredDude27]

I gotta agree by the way: Helter Skelter sounds dirty and ugly! Of course thats exactly what Paul McCartney wanted with this song :D

[FredDude27]

Well it definetely looks like a Fender Jazz VI at 01:00.

Three pickups, six strings and whammy bar. Doesnt look like a traditional bass.

[TeamMastaPr2]

Paul played guitar on this song - while Lennon played the bass (6-string Fender IV).

[TheGargoyleLives]

I doubt this is John playing Pauls left handed Rickenbacker bass.

[Charlie101HD]

@xxxRORYKxxxable no it isn't. It is lennon on a six string bass

[Tuberman67]

I can't imagine McCartney playing so sloppily, in light of the fact that he was meticulous about his bass parts. Unless, as some books indicate, they were o"ut of their minds" during recording.

[ghonzalo]

very punk rock.

[shuckslbj]

Sounds much less full than I'd imagined it would by itself. Sounds pretty bad, actually.

[velorutionary4]

so awesome and shitty at the same time

[mattsabby]

Ok, I LOVE The Beatles and love this song, and I have also been a bass player for 30 years. With that said. does anyone else agree that technically this bass line is pretty sloopy and every now and then sounds a little out of tune? It definitely does not sound like McCartney playing it and does not sound like a Rickenbacker either. I would say Lennon on the Fender Bass VI.

[higher3392]

@mattsabby that cause john played it

[mattsabby]

@higher3392 I figured that's what it was, but John was actually a really good lead guitar player (see You Can't Do That) but that bass in Helter Skelter is very odd, bad, but yet fits the song totally. Knowing how they were Paul may have asked him to sloppy it up a little too.

[Jim5150jvc]

it sounds like two mics are being used to record this bass: one in front of the speaker and one being used to capture the plucking sounds of the pick against the strings. On this mix you can't hear the former one as well as on the released recording.

[fazeka]

@Jim5150jvc

I doubt that the Abbey Road engineer separately mic'ed the strings on the Bass VI; that sound that you hear is just the distinctive sound of a Bass VI. Note that this is not really a mix, but more representative of one of the tracks from the 8-track recording (done on a 3M M23, IIRC).

[636117]

@Jim5150jvc Wrong all around, this is one of the tracks where Paul uses his new Fender Jazz Bass, which Fender gave him, along with the boys new amps at the same time, in order to try to get them to be more associated with their brand than Vox. The Bass VI has a distinctive "thump" sound. John Plays it on Let It Be, and George on Hey Jude. COMPLETELY different sound. I'm not just a fan, but retired engineer/producer. Add the combination of flat wounds, and a pick like Paul uses, that's the sound

[ShatteringGlassGlass]

As per page 154 from "The Beatles Recording Sessions" by Mark Lewisohn, John Lennon played bass on this session (doesn't specified the instrument used), anyway,it gives us some more light on what happened that crazy night...

[Stebaan250]

The riff sounds like paranoid (black sabbath)...

[Stof31]

I have a Fender VI strung up with flatwounds, and I can tell you that this is undoubtly what I hear here. Thanks for the vid.

[fazeka]

rockerdude59 originally said:

Well Capitol dude is totally right. I own a 4001 S The "S" stands for stereo. yes I have played the 4001S in stereo mode, primarily Yes tracks, but you can get this sound  along with the bottom bass in stereo mode check out . Go to rickenbacker's website go to the pdfs/19507.pdf

[jimboobism]

@fazeka The S stands for "special" which was the European model, which was mono, I should know, I own a 4003S (an updated 4001S) and I can assure it has a single mono output. The non S models are the stereo ones. If you are thinking of Chris squire from Yes, he had a 4001S but he had it custom converted from mono to stereo.

[636117]

@fazeka I have both a 4001S and 4003S, they are both mono out basses.

[fazeka]

Sorry, no. That pdf shows a stereo bass schem, not the original export 4001S, which is what Macca owned.

The original 4001S (and reissue) schem is here at Rics site: pdfs/19524.pdf

Still say it's the Bass VI...

[capitolemiproducer]

I was told this is actually Paul's Rickenbaker 4001 in the stereo mode. The main bass is centered and the Ricko sound channel is panned right.

[fazeka]

Not sure who your source is, but it would be difficult to get a stereo mode with the Rickenbacker 4001S mono bass, which is the model that Paul owned.

Unless someone can prove otherwise, I'd still argue that it's Lennon playing bass on this track with the Fender Bass VI.

[k0stil]

@fazeka

yeah.

as far as i know only paul played the 4 string bass.

george and john played the six strung bass (fender bass VI)