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[Loco Mo]

Okay, I've tried to learn guitar off and out throughout my life but so far I've never succeeded.

I know it takes a lot of work, learning all those chords and needing thousands of hours of practice.

Anyway, I've always secretly believed that George was the best Beatles guitarist - yes, even better than Paul!

Am I wrong about this?  Also, did George play bass at all?  If so, how did he compare to Paul's bass playing?

Thanks for your insights.

[Moogmodule]

I think George started as the best, hence why he was lead, Paul says as much. Then Paul, with his incredible raw talent, overtook him in that blues rock style in the mid 60s. George never was a great improviser or showed much interest in it. He liked to compose parts. He was also distracted by the sitar for a time.

By the end of the Beatles George was playing great guitar in a range of styles, listening to Abbey Road’s The End dueling guitars, where George played the middle two bars on the three passes, shows his playing to be very fluid and melodic. And his Something solo is often rated one of the greatest guitar solos. Then he went on to be a highly distinctive slide guitarist who is held up today as an influence for his style, which was more pop with Indian overtones than blues-based like most slide guitarists. George always seemed to keep developing. The guitar on Brainwashed is excellent and different to the 70s give me love/my sweet lord style. His solos on Real Love and a Free as a Bird really lifted those songs.

Seeing Paul play in concert showed he is certainly a highly competent player.  But I think George managed something 99.999% of us wil never do. Developed a signature guitar style which is highly recognisable.

[Moogmodule]

George played bass on several Beatles songs. She Said She Said was one. Two of Us another. And he says he was on Old Brown Shoe, although the technical quality of the playing seems to suggest it was Paul.

George was a good bass player but he was in a band with one of the greatest rock bassists ever. He mainly played when Paul was occupied on the piano.

[Hello Goodbye]

George was a good bass player but he was in a band with one of the greatest rock bassists ever.

Sometimes Paul played a distinct melody line on his bass...


https://youtu.be/u_rX-WRGZBg

[tkitna]

And he says he was on Old Brown Shoe, although the technical quality of the playing seems to suggest it was Paul.

Bass sounds cool on that song, but I believe George just played the bass like he would the guitar.   Pretty sure that was George.

[Loco Mo]

Not sure if I'm reading these posts correctly but it sounds like no one is saying that George was the greatest guitarist in the Beatles.  Seems like it's more Paul who was.

[Moogmodule]

Not sure if I'm reading these posts correctly but it sounds like no one is saying that George was the greatest guitarist in the Beatles.  Seems like it's more Paul who was.

No no. I think George overall was. Maybe mid 60s talking about the blues style playing you might say Paul had that down better. But overall taking into account a breadth of styles and George’s achievements in developing as a great slide player after the Beatles, George would win for me.  Paul will just have to settle for being an all time great bassist, very good guitarist, very good keyboardist and decent drummer.




[/quote]

[Mr Mustard]

Bass sounds cool on that song, but I believe George just played the bass like he would the guitar.   Pretty sure that was George.

...hope no one minds me digressing slightly since this has arisen, but can someone once and for all explain in simple terms (to someone with zero musical ability or particular interest in/knowledge of instruments) what IS the difference between guitar and bass? I always knew it as "bass guitar" but nowadays everyone seems to shorten that to "bass" as if it's not really a guitar (which just happens to sound deeper?). They look the same instrument to me, and players hold them in the same manner - it's not like you'd adopt a different style of playing like you would if switching between a mouth organ and a xylophone, for example.

If bass is so different from guitar, why isn't rhythm? Why don't we still call them "bass guitars"? or do we? I'm not being obtuse, honestly.

[nimrod]

...hope no one minds me digressing slightly since this has arisen, but can someone once and for all explain in simple terms (to someone with zero musical ability or particular interest in/knowledge of instruments) what IS the difference between guitar and bass? I always knew it as "bass guitar" but nowadays everyone seems to shorten that to "bass" as if it's not really a guitar (which just happens to sound deeper?). They look the same instrument to me, and players hold them in the same manner - it's not like you'd adopt a different style of playing like you would if switching between a mouth organ and a xylophone, for example.

If bass is so different from guitar, why isn't rhythm? Why don't we still call them "bass guitars"? or do we? I'm not being obtuse, honestly.

Bass guitars are still Bass guitars, some people shorten it to just Bass (maybe a throwback to the days of Double Basses)

Rhythm Guitar plays essentially chords throughout a song (groups of notes played together, strumming technique)

Lead Guitar plays single or sometimes double note melodies when there are no vocals ie " a Lead break"  think of Georges great lead guitar break in his song 'Something'..........to play a good lead break a guitarist has to be quite skillfull at things like bending strings (to change the pitch)
Sometimes a lead guitarist will play chords but usually different/complimentary chords to what the Rhythm guitarist is playing.

A Bass guitarist play basically Root notes of the chords to the song, so if the chords to a song are C,F & G the bass will play these but the Bass is tuned an octave lower than the other guitars so gives a sort of foundation to the overall sound of the band. A very basic Bass player will pretty much play C F & G.
A good Bassist will play notes inbetween the root notes of C F & G (embellishments), but sometimes these in between notes can be too many or too frequent so it can be said 'he's playing Bass like a lead guitarist'
Paul was very good at coming up with his own little melodies on Bass that seem to fit perfectly with the song, this was more common on later Beatle stuff like Bulldog, I Want You and a lot of Pepper songs, He constructed a wonderfull Bass line on George's Something, listen to the Bass on headphones, he concocts a brilliant melodic Bassline.

Thats probably clear as mud 

[Moogmodule]

I think Nim’s covered it well.  In terms of playing, bass strings are a lot heavier and thicker (and there’s usually only four strings, although five and six string basses are also available), so the method of fingering the notes and plucking the strings can be quite different to the feel of a guitar. The top bassist tend to use their fingers more than a pick. There’s that classic look of a bass player with their plucking hand at almost a 90 degreee angle to their wrist, plucking with their pointing and index finger. Needless to say you wouldn’t try to play a guitar like that and it’s quite a strain if you’re not used to it. So there’s a quite different playing style even if it’s subtler than moving from a tuba to a piano. Most guitarists who are filling in on bass tend to use a pick as the plucking method is closer to guitar. Even then it’s got differences so not all guitarists can immediately play good bass.

[nimrod]

I dont know who's the best, probably George, maybe Paul, I really like the lead guitar on Every Little Thing, I used to think it was classic George, but then I found out it was John on his 12 string Rickenbacker. 
JOhn also plays nice lead on Get Back.

[Mr Mustard]

Thats probably clear as mud 

Not so, nimrod! It makes sense (mostly. Even to an ignoramus like me)...in fact, that's the clearest anyone's ever been able to explain it to me - and I've asked all sorts of people in my time - so thank you!

There's that line of Ringo's from "Early 1970" about playing guitar and piano but "I don't play bass coz that's too hard for me!"

And thanks to Moog's clarification I think I now understand why playing bass guitar (despite having fewer strings) can apparently be harder than lead or rhythm.

It says something about the embarrassment of riches within The Beatles that John, who has played some good lead and does those magnificent triplets on "All My Loving", for example, is still only the third best guitarist in the group! Did he ever play bass guitar? I always assumed that when he does keyboards instead of Paul it's because only Paul can handle the bass part comfortably?

Gratitude again to nimrod and Moogmodule for their patience and clarity

[nimrod]

Not so, nimrod! It makes sense (mostly. Even to an ignoramus like me)...in fact, that's the clearest anyone's ever been able to explain it to me - and I've asked all sorts of people in my time - so thank you!

There's that line of Ringo's from "Early 1970" about playing guitar and piano but "I don't play bass coz that's too hard for me!"

And thanks to Moog's clarification I think I now understand why playing bass guitar (despite having fewer strings) can apparently be harder than lead or rhythm.

It says something about the embarrassment of riches within The Beatles that John, who has played some good lead and does those magnificent triplets on "All My Loving", for example, is still only the third best guitarist in the group! Did he ever play bass guitar? I always assumed that when he does keyboards instead of Paul it's because only Paul can handle the bass part comfortably?

Gratitude again to nimrod and Moogmodule for their patience and clarity

I think john played Bass on Long and winding road

[Moogmodule]

I think john played Bass on Long and winding road

But reportedly really badly (I haven’t listened to it closely to confirm). Although he might have done that deliberately in protest.

[nimrod]

But reportedly really badly (I haven’t listened to it closely to confirm). Although he might have done that deliberately in protest.

John was no Bassist, he played it on a fender Bass XI , the one George played on the David Frost show for the rendition of Hey Jude

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA</a>

[Moogmodule]

I dont know who's the best, probably George, maybe Paul, I really like the lead guitar on Every Little Thing, I used to think it was classic George, but then I found out it was John on his 12 string Rickenbacker. 
JOhn also plays nice lead on Get Back.

My previous comments aside, I also think we can start chasing down rabbit holes  if we  get to fussed on the word “best”. Best what? John by his own admission was pretty rudimentary technically. And you can hear his rough style. But he did great work on songs like All my Loving, You Can’t Do That and Get Back. It suited the songs. I also didn’t realise about Every Little Thing. I thought George was the only one to play 12 string leads.

Similarly there’s probably 15 year old kids now who are technically more accomplished than Paul and George. But they haven’t done George’s work on Something, or Paul’s work on Taxman for instance.

Eric Clapton has said he thought George was the best slide player he’d seen. But he was talking about taste and expression and feel. George’s playing really spoke to him. Someone like Derek Trucks or Johnny Winter play technically extraordinary slide guitar that leaves you gobsmacked. It’s a different thing.

[nimrod]

My previous comments aside, I also think we can start chasing down rabbit holes  if we  get to fussed on the word “best”. Best what? John by his own admission was pretty rudimentary technically. And you can hear his rough style. But he did great work on songs like All my Loving, You Can’t Do That and Get Back. It suited the songs. I also didn’t realise about Every Little Thing. I thought George was the only one to play 12 string leads.

Similarly there’s probably 15 year old kids now who are technically more accomplished than Paul and George. But they haven’t done George’s work on Something, or Paul’s work on Taxman for instance.

Eric Clapton has said he thought George was the best slide player he’d seen. But he was talking about taste and expression and feel. George’s playing really spoke to him. Someone like Derek Trucks or Johnny Winter play technically extraordinary slide guitar that leaves you gobsmacked. It’s a different thing.

Yes, very good points Moog. 

I was thinking about the Bass player Tony Levin who played on Double Fantasy, brilliant technical Bass player, but could he write Paul Basslines on Pepper or Rain ?