Adjusting tone in the material world, George Harrison, Rocky

[dylanhunt]

I'm working on my Scouts George Harrison Detective badge, which includes 1) identifying the way Harrison got his tone on Take 10 of "Let It Be", 2) identifying the provenance of the Sonic Blue stratocaster he used in Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios (Tittenhurst) for the Imagine sessions in 1971, and 3) determining whether he switched the knobs only or the circuitry too for his bottom tone and volume controls on his Rocky strat.  Here is a photograph from Fender's analysis of the guitar.  I wonder if it is possible to tell from this photo whether the bottom pot is being used for volume or is connected to the brown ceramic cap that can be seen, and whether the pot in the normal volume position is being used for volume.  Is it it mere illusion, or something deeper?

In case you're wondering what I mean by the knobs on the guitar:

[newey]

As to #3: I dunno, I can't tell much from the wiring photo.

As to ##1 and 2, I doubt that Harrison himself, or anyone else in the sessions in question, would remember those details. And I doubt anyone recorded the details, either. As far as modelling a particular sound, that's another rabbit hole to go down . . .

I don't mean to come off as being overly negative, I truly wish you luck in your quest. But I think you will need that luck.

[MattB]

To me it looks like the white wire from the jack is heading towards the pot closest to the strings, and the yellow is insulation for the cap leg, heading towards the third pot. That suggests the pots weren't switched around or rewired. Also, it makes sense to me that the knob with the paint worn off would be the volume, because that's probably used a lot more than the tone controls.

[dylanhunt]

I was joking about #1 and #2 for this forum... and about the fictitious "Scouts badge" if that wasn't clear from my dry sense of humor.  However, for the "Let It Be" take in question (#10, recorded January 25, 1969), he used a Leslie Model 251 (Type 145/147) on the slow/Chorale setting; though there is an extra warbling effect that originates either in his fingers or some other place of mystery (I use a six-stage phaser and a univibe sound to get the warble, along with a Leslie simulator.  The Sonic Blue stray he used in the Ascot Sound Studios on the Imagine Sessions is either a 1960/1 Strat with overlap in the use of maple necks after they were discontinued, or a post-1963 with a maple neck replacement of the original rosewood neck along with a 1959-1963 pickguard (or it's John Lennon's 1961/2 Sonic Blue strat with a maple neck and a missing screw).

[dylanhunt]

Feb 2, 2023 20:00:58 GMT -5 MattB said:

it looks like the white wire from the jack is heading towards the pot closest to the strings, and the yellow is insulation for the cap leg, heading towards the third pot

Thanks MattB (That's a hat trick for the week as far as I'm concerned.)!  That's what I thought I was seeing too, so it is good to have that confirmed: just the knobs.   I'm impressed with your observation about the rubbed off paint on the "tone"/volume knob.  I didn't notice that until you said it and I think the reproductions interpret that as a dot of paint, rather than what's left of the original paint, or repeat lines similar to what is on the other knobs. 

The reason this is slightly more than academic (okay, it's completely "academic") is that the Sonic Blue stray in the Imagine sessions also has the volume knob replaced with a tone knob--and we know it is not the same guitar as Rocky, even though they both started out Sonic Blue.  So Harrison replaced the volume knob with a tone knob on TWO of his stratocasters, but NOT because he wanted to move the volume control to the bottom of the guitar.  This is no longer a wiring question, but a bizarre Beatles psychology trivia question...  Thanks MattB!

[unreg]

Feb 2, 2023 18:12:10 GMT -5 dylanhunt said:

Perhaps he switched the knobs on this guitar bc of how they looked… the “tone” part of the knob was contained within two short dark green vertical lines; while “volume” was sandwiched between long horizontal lines. The design (painted picture) seems cooler if the long horizontal lines are near the edge of the instrument; at least, it would look confined, I guess, if the long horizontal lines were in the center of the guitar. (That’s why I’d make the switch.) Maybe he switched the knobs on his second strat to match this change.


This makes sense to me, but I’m just me.

[cynical1]

Feb 4, 2023 4:33:38 GMT -5 unreg said:

Perhaps he switched the knobs on this guitar bc of how they looked…

Or maybe he was just stoned...

HTC1

[dylanhunt]

I'm sure the lightning of being stoned struck George twice (maybe twenty thousand even), but I'm less willing to believe that the lightning of being stoned and switching the tone/volume knobs on his guitar struck twice.  I don't know how often parts like the knobs (or pickguard screws) came off, got misplaced, but the guitar he used for the Imagine sessions (Sonic Blue strat with maple neck) also has a tone knob where the volume knob "should" be.  That makes me think it was less for aesthetics having to do with his paint job (or being stoned) than for some other reason.  It would have made a lot more sense if the volume pot and tone pot had been switched.  I would say it might help him to identify his guitar, but he seemed to give them away at the drop of a hat.

[newey]

By the time we're talking about, I suspect George had a guitar tech. Maybe it means nothing, the tech switched them and no one ever paid any attention.