The Beatles - Please Mister Postman - Guitar Cover - Rickenbacker 325C58

The early Beatles "wall of sound" guitar style is in full force for their 1963 cover of the Marvelettes' "Please Mister Postman". George opens the guitar for the song slightly later than expected, coming in just after the vocals begin (0:01). He plays a muted A power chord then chromatically walks up from an E power chord to an F#m power chord (0:03). John joins George for the riff leading into the first verse at (0:07). For the verses, George plays riffs in-between the chord changes as leads into the next tonality. These riffs change throughout the song so look out for the differences each time through the chord progression. For example, the alternating riff leading in to the F#m at (0:10) is different than the more straightforward line at (0:26). In the first three progressions, George plays an interesting pattern into the D chord (i.e. 0:14, 0:30, 0:45) that features playing the open A string with fretted notes. He switches to direct walk-downs to the D chord for the rest of the song. To fill in the sound between these lead-ins, George down-strums eighth notes on the lower notes of the chords. George's guitar is mixed extremely quietly in the released recording and it can be difficult to hear his playing at all times, but what I play is an accurate representation of his guitar. To hear George play variations on his part more audibly, listen to the 3 BBC recordings of "Please Mister Postman".

John's rhythm guitar is an excellent example of his early rhythm style and shows his ability to perfectly place his strums. He begins the song by strumming the chords with a double down-strum on the lower notes of the chords and then playing a full down-up on the whole chord. As the song progresses, he starts to incorporate more down-up strums, especially toward the end. This suits John's vocals and lyrics' growing desperation as he begs Mister Postman to "wait a minute!" After the vocal breaks at the end of the song, John strums an A6 instead of an A chord (1:57, 2:12, 2:29). Notice how John strums the E chord at (2:24) as if there was going to be another vocal break and the continues along. Ringo's choice to hit the cymbal instead of the high hat contributes to this temporary break in sound.

George concludes the song with some lead guitar at (2:26) and bends at (2:30), just as the song is fading out.

Both guitars were played with the pickup selector switch in the middle position. John's 1958 Rickenbacker 325's unique sound is created due to the toaster pickups, natural acoustic resonance, and wiring of the tone and volume knobs. The controls allow for many different tonal settings and in "Please Mister Postman", the sound is thin in the top end yet thick in the low end due to the bridge pickup's tone knob at halfway and neck pickups tone 90% rolled off.

In the original recording, the guitars were panned totally left with considerable vocal mic room bleed of the guitar sound panned right. I recreated this by both mic'ing the guitar amp and placing a microphone in the middle of the room to pick up the amp and acoustic sound of the guitar. For ease of listening, I panned the guitar about halfway to the left instead of totally left like the original. I greatly increased the volume of George's guitar as it is nearly inaudible in the released recording.

Instruments Used:
John Lennon Guitar: Rickenbacker 325C58 (2003)
George Harrison Guitar: Gretsch G5120
Amp: Vox AC15C1