GEORGE PLAYS A GIBSON SG LIVE - Weird Moments in Beatles History #4 

George was more into guitars than John & Paul and he was always looking for something different. Considering how big they were they had relatively few instruments through their career. Nowadays when you see a band live they have tons of guitars on-stage, even a different one for every song!

for what i know,George fell in love with the sg because of the distorted sound he got with it,and being a solid guitar ,it didn't feedback like crazy like the casino.

Broken String Theory: Dont assume that if one of the beatles broke a string, that was the end of that guitar for the rest of the show. Its very likely that they just handed off the instrument to Mal Evans (or some other roadie), who changed the string then handed it back during the next 'break in the action'

Technically the last time The Beatles played live in the UK was on 30th January 1969 on the Apple Rooftop. But the NME concert was the last show in the UK with an invited audience.

Awesome review! These are the days when The Beatles ruled the earth! I love your Beatles guitar - equiment breakdown. Day Tripper is still (59years Later) one of my favorite songs ever.They were still hard at work touring the world.

I had no idea The Beatles ever had three front-stage vocal mics for any of their shows! That was a revelation for me 😳 As for why George used the SG on "Day Tripper," I think it's because the SG has greater output. SGs are ballsy, punchy sounding guitars which is the sound George was looking for on that song. And perhaps he used the SG in the studio recording (?)

Great detective work, great stuff, thank you.

I heartily enjoyed your analysis and this video.

Great video Nick, thanks! I've always wondered about George's SG too. Also fascinating bit about Ringo's mic placement indicating different concerts!

I live in Munich near the Zirkus Krone-Bau . Every time I drive past I think of this Beatles performance. Even though it was two decades before i was born. I still have bootleg recordings of both shows somewhere. I should listen and see if I can hear a difference in the guitar sound.

Love your channel very much! Thanks a lot for the content

Dude you’re awesome! Amazing video with tons of great info!

Nice work, Nick!

Thank you, Nick. Very interesting..

Outstanding video ‼️

6:54 I assume that photo of all the guitars is taken on the road? If so, what's with the Rickenbacker bass?? I didn't think Paul ever played that live with the Beatles.

Oh wow! Incredible video Nick. Yet again an amazing discovery! I remember watching I clip of the German show and seeing George use the sg for day tripper. If I had to guess maybe George’s casino went out of tune or was having some feedback issues with the song which is why he switched to the sg, or just felt like playing the sg for the song.

Great content. Loaded with facts and details and entirely accurate as far as I can tell. Nice job.

I believe George used that SG later on Bulldog, i think i read that in Geoff Emericks book? Right before they left for the Ashram in India the last song they recorded before leaving was Hey Bulldog, I believe george played the SG, with a real tasty solo.

Wow, super cool content!!! It’s an honer to know you from bgc board:)

Wow, great video. I was not aware of this. As a guitarist, the only reason I can think of for using a guitar for one song is that it is easier to get something on that particular guitar than on another. It might have been tuned differently (most likely) or something electronically allowed him to play a solo for the song better than on the Gibson.

Any guitarist knows you only need one guitar......one more.

Same SG you see in Bad Finger I believe..

Fantastic. Had to sub

It’s like the story when they’re on stage playing and George looks over at someone off the stage, unplugs his guitar, keeps “playing”, plugs it back in, shrugs his shoulders as no one could tell over the screaming….. My guess is it was just George being quirky and feelin like screwing around with the SG for a tune, because why not!! Awesome video as always, Nick!

To be precise - it was me who pointed out the microphone stand of Ringo in my book "Komm gib mir deine Hand - die Beatles in Deutschland 1960 -1970" in 2008 as a proof for the use of two shows in the famous ZDF TV coverage of the Munich concert. I repeated this in my english and german follow up books about the tour in the following years. Likely the fan read one of my books. Yes - he only played it for Day Tripper and the SG could be seen on various backstage images from the tour and on stage on the drumriser. Cheers Thorsten Knublauch

I owned two casinos and one SG. My guess would be, that on the SG were thinner strings, than on the Casino. To play the Day Tripper Solo might have felt more comfortable.

More weird Beatles moments please !

Very nice video and analysis. Thank you. Did you notice that the rickebacker that george used is actually a later model and not the one that he was originally given by the company?

I'm here from BGC. I have a ,97 Gibson SG because of George. I also collect photos from the NME '66 show , and have been since 1966. Yes I'm a old guy lol.

Very Good Info Nick! Can you do a video on the Beatles 65 Christmas UK tour when they do We Can work it out live? Thanks

The Kinks also played at the 1965 NME Poll Winners Concert. According to Ray Davies he felt The Beatles had out played The Kinks in answer to his band getting one over on The Beatles when both groups played Blackpool in 1964.

Never mind the guitars, what model Vox amps are those?

String vibrations at carefully positioned finger nail? Or was that I FEEL FINE?

Mal Evans could have very well changed the broken string on his Casino during 'Day Tripper'.

What about: Has ever Paul played his 4001 Rickenbacker bass on stage?

I've just watched the Circus-Krone-Bau performance, there's a very short fragment of Day Tripper and the guitar sounds quite out of tune so I assume maybe George initially wanted to use the SG on more songs but had to go back to the trusty Epi wich was well in tune.

Great Video ... I would've love to seen and hear his red SG live, sad there's no footage with audio. Nice pics of it. .Anyone know where that Guitar is now? Probably the most iconic SG on the planet next to 'he Fool' owned by Todd Rundgren. Since I was a kid I've been in love with that red style SG!

Well George Harrison used his Fender Stratocaster for 90 to 95 % of the songs he played electric guitar on after receiving it in late 1964. It was his absolute main guitar from Help untill the last album. The guitar George Harrison called ” The worst guitar I have ever played ” the Rosewood Telecaster was not used on Let it be. George rerecorded his guitar parts with his Fender Stratocaster Rocky before releasing the album. The only reason George used the Rosewood Telecaster on the Rof top concert was because he knew the police was going to come and possibility take their equipment. So he took the guitar he really hated ( tThe Rosewood Telecaster ) and used that one. The police could take that one. He gave it away almost directly after the rooftop concert to Delany Bramlet Anyway. George Harrison played a Telecaster. Once in his caree for less than a week than a week before throwing it out the studio. The Fender Stratocaster though was George Harrisons absolute favourite guitar from 1956 untill he died. The reason you dont see the Beatles on stage or in videos with Stratocasters ( songs that were recorded with a Stratocaster which in Georges part was almost all) is that Fender tried to bribe the Beatles manager Brian Epstein who got furious at Fender, and forbid The Beatles to use Stratocasters in public. In the studio Brian Epstein allowed George Harrison to use the Fender Stratocaster as much as he wanted though, and George cerainly did. From the day in the end of 1964 when he finally got his belowed Fender Stratocaster untill he died George Harrison almost exclusively recorded with the Fender Stratocaster. George Harrison tried to buy a Fender Stratocaster in 1956, but because of a US embargo Stratocasters did not exist in England. A very dissapointed George Harrison who had been painting Fender Stratocasters for hours everyday in school as a 12-13 year old boy instead of listening to the teachers had to settle for a Stratocaster copy called Futurama. George continued to try to Find a Stratocaster the years 1957 to 1963 but They were impossible to find in England or Hamburg. Even a tripp to his sister who lived in US in 1963 was unsucessful because her city did not sell Fender guitars. Finally in approximadely September to December 1964 England imported 13 Fender Stratocasters and George bought one of them. At his death They accounted he owned 350 Fender Stratocasters. Stratocasters he had bought himself because The Beatles had a policy of not allowing sponsorship. He was Happy though to be interviewed for 7 days for the official Fender Stratocaster book for 7 days, a book he as a Beatle got the lion part of. George Harrison is considered the biggest fan of the Fender Stratocaster of all musicians.

Sometimes happen strings broke during concert so he quikly pick another guitar...so this is the probably reason that he used casino ,rics and gibson or other guitars sometimes

Great work on this Nick. You won me over and I sub'd for this Excellent video of my Fav band Ever. I think he used it because he could not get that Tone for the Paperback Writer ou of the Epi Casino probably without getting uncontrollable Feedback.

Funny, doesn't the roof top in London count as a UK live performance?

The circus krone bah backing band has gibson violin bass too😊

The Beatles were in their prime playing live before they were famous..... especially in the Cavern.

George gave the Guitar to Pete Ham of Badfinger. After Pete passed his wife had a garage sale and it disappeared. In recent years it reappeared.

Your pronouncing is right! CIRCUS CRONE BAU means Crown Circus construction! O.k.??🤔😎

Maybe he liked the tone of the SG for the particular song

I was born in 1964, and ironically enough many of my favorite guitarists, as well as some of the periods most famous guitarists, all used at least one, in a few instances, their main guitar turned out to be made in 1964. The George Harrison SG mentioned in this video, Eric Clapton's famous 1964 Cherry Red ES-335, Robbie Krieger's 1964 Gibson SG, used to record the Doors first two albums, Eric Clapton's famous "Fool" Gibson SG, One of Jimi Hendrix Fender Stratocasters was a 1964, which was one of his main stage guitars before getting his now infamous Olympic White Strat, and there's a few others that played a 1964 of one type or another. I'm assuming country and western artists as well.

Nice Beatle Detective work brother Nick! I have a Rick 325 question please...How well does your 325 stay in tune? Mine goes out of tune more then it should...probable after 2 songs or so. Do you think this is normal for a short scale guitar. Thanks, Peace, Sal 💪🏻🎸

You really did an excellent job of research to track down all those images. Now to answer your questions: 1. Why would george use the gibson Sg to play Day Triper? 2. Why weren't the performances where George used the Gibson SG recorded? Answers: 1. Since the Gibson Sg is a solid body, it must have had a much more powerful and higher pitched sound than the Epiphone Casino which was a semi-solid body, so I guess that on those occasions, George tried to hear how it sounded live. 2. The reason we never saw a performance by George with the Gibson Sg was because they already had a promotional contract with Rickenbaker and Epiphone. We all know that the Rickenbaker 330-12 was a gift that was part of that promotional contract. On the other hand, although it is known that Lennon was the one who introduced the Epiphone casino to the band, but the fact that they used the casinos for the '66 tour sounds more like Epiphone promotion, rather than technical sound reasons. In this case, Brian Epstein probably banned the Beatles from using any Gibson instruments live to avoid promoting them for free. It may sound silly when on Rain and Paperback Writer George used the SG, but I guess maybe the contracts stipulated these conditions. The last is speculation, but the fact that the only 2 times George publicly used the Gibson SG, they refused to allow the public to take photos or videos is too suspicious to be mere coincidence.

Nice job researching and collecting all that footage and details regarding the SG. Did George not play the SG during the Hey Jude, Revolution live video taping with David Frost?

The group hated the two show "double shuffle day. They just got the money.

I've been a Beatles fan since the early 60s.. Love everything they have done. But does it matter what guitar he was playing at any given time? He just exels at every performance...to be fanatical about what brand of instrument he was playing on any particular song at any particular time is just unbelievable I guess the ones that do are probably social outcasts who have never been with a woman 😅 .

SGをライブで使っていたのですね。初めて見ました。このSG は確かアメリカのコレクターが手に入れたと何かの記事に出てました。 どんなギターを持っても似合うんですよね。

SG’s are awesome guitars. Even epiphones are good. Great flat fretboard that you can dig into on riffs

I can definitely get behind the Day Tripper theory. Especially if we were to assume that George used a Gibson ES-345 on the recording of the song. The SG would have had similar Gibson humbuckers to the 345 and would have pushed the amp a bit harder than the Casino, so maybe he was trying it out to get closer to that sound. This would have worked well to give the solo a bit more bite as well. Well done, friend! Cheers!

Quick clip of the evening show's performance of Day Tripper showing George playing the SG. A bit fuzzy, but you can see it's a different guitar than the Casino. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B1Nostm73g4.htmlsi=DedJF7HDhYu4sDKT&t=358

Their last gig in the uk was in 1969

5,6弦を主に使うからハウリング防止の為かもしれないですね 私もCASINOで弾いてハウリングした事があります

This is easy. The Gibson SG is good for heavier sounds with distortion. George played either the SG or Les Paul when going for heavier distorted leads.

Thanks that was very interesting, I always wondered if George used the SG at any live concerts. I do recall the videos of him playing it on Rain and on Paperback writer. Do you know if George actually played the SG when he was recording those songs and did he use the SG much on any Albums or singles during the 3 years that he owned the SG?

7:03"...the string broke, but it didn't, because he went right back to the Casino". A guitar tech could have changed the string on the Casino backstage during Day Tripper, and handed it back to George afterwards. Great video, btw!

Strange that at NME 1966 he used the SG for If I needed someone since he had the Rickenbacker 12

The photo/image at 6:53 is as cool as it gets

Did you ever see them live ? i did.

😀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🏼

6:55.... beautiful instruments

Didn't George gift this guitar to 'Badfinger's' PETE HAM ???

interesting you mentioned Ringo’s mic placement; could that have been my comment? because I always wondered why the ride cymbal was so loud on the vinyl bootleg of this show and once I saw the footage, it was obvious; I’ve owned a Casino & an SG; I woulda stuck with the SG 😎

Maybe there is a clue about the SG on the Beatles Sgt Pepper Album, everything else was

Beats the heck out of a Gretch or Rickenbaker.

Well IF a string broke... it would be possible to change it meanwhile even a short Song.

@3:18 Wasn't their last live UK performance the rooftop concert in London?

The Rolling Stones played that NME 66 show too but were not taped.

God Bless George Harrison.

Cliff Richard & the Shadows closed the 1963 show. thanks google!

Questões para serem perguntadas a Paul McCartney

Great video. Is there any instances of Paul playing his Ricky live with the Beatles? 😮

I believe he might have given it to Pete Hamm

I would use the SC for Day Tripper because the humbuckers and the solid body give it more sustain and power!

What about the left handed Rickenbacker bass in the photo? It appears to be prior to him sanding it.

3:15 does the rooftop concert count? Also the NME 65 concert was pretty cool, like it a little better compared to the 64 concert

Man O" man would I love to play that guitar just once.

So freaking what ! So he played a sg because he liked it if he didn’t he wouldn’t have had one !

Beadle?

mAybe the SG broke his shoulders so he changed to the Casino for a lighter experience ???? lol

Would be a great question to pass on to Paul and Ringo. Paul by then was kind of the one that did not really run things but was very hands on about details like this assuming he remembers after all those years. Would be worth a shot.

I think he used the SG on Day tripper since riff and solo needs really hard sound and Casino with P90s sure is great but PAF humbuckers are pushing little bit more. Maybe it also had more of that solid tone compared to hollow body. Really need to compare my Gibson ‘61 reissue with my Casino with rewound pickups. Even tho that is made in China it’s great guitar.

I have seen Pete Hamm playing that SG and NEVER knew it was Georges. Great video. Thanks for this deep dive.🎉

One of the first artists of note to play the iconic 1961 Les Paul Gibson SG Custom electric guitar was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. To this day, it is one of the most versatile guitars on the market.

It's pronounced "Circus Krone Bau"

George Harrison rules!

It's pronounced enemy, NME !

Maybe somebody already said that but I think the Humbucker pickups and solid body of the SG were more suited for the distorted riff of Day Tripper than the P90s of the Casino (plus the possible feedback issues with its hollow body)

It's possible George used the SG on Day Tripper because he may have broken a string on the Casino. So he reached for his spare guitar while Neil or Mal put on a new string on the Casino. He certainly wasn't going to use the 12 string for Day Tripper. Also I believe the 1966 Poll-Winners Concert was the first time John and George played their Casinos.

I guess George used the Gibson SG because of its sound, strong microphones with sound and it is a not heavy guitar and the red one looks cool. I think he used it on the recording of Day Tripper and Rain.

Have a look at the footage closely - George is tuning the SG quite frantically. What’s more likely? He chose to use the SG on Day Tripper for some reason but didn’t tune it before they started then found it out of tune or he broke a string on the Casino during the intro to Day Tripper and quickly swapped to the SG which wasn’t in tune as it had been sitting on the band stand all show? I think he had to swap to the SG quickly and was tuning up during the beginning of the song. Mal would easily have been able to change a string on the Casino in two minutes. I wonder if photo 7 comes at the end of Day Tripper when the Casino is back, restrung, on the bandstand.

Also would be cool if Paul had used the Ric bass in a Beatles concert.

The SG would make that day tripper riff sound mega that’s why!

Pete Ham died a long time ago, who has it now?