Potent Pairings: How To Sound Like The Beatles on Guitar, Part I

Photo by David Redfern / Staff / Getty Images

Disclaimer: Our Potent Pairing series aims to get you in the ballpark of the sounds on your favorite recordings using affordable, accessible pedals. The pedals featured are not the exact pieces of gear used on the recordings. Let's be real - the Fab Four didn't use any of these pedals. Some of the effects were studio production tricks. But they're still fun to try and nail down.

Once you're done with Part I, move on to Part II here.

Pedals Used in this Video

MXR Studio Compressor

Boss CS-3

Dunlop Germanium Fuzz Face Mini

Sola Sound Tone-Bender

JHS Colour Box

Keeley Caverns Reverb/Delay

DLS Effects Versa Vibe

Boss Fender '59 Bassman

The Beatles weren't just great songwriters. With the help of the late Sir George Martin, they were innovators in the studio, too. The sounds they were able to wring out of the gear available to them influenced nearly everything that followed in pop music recording.

Recreating the actual rigs they used is, let's just say, out of reach for most.

If you can budget $100k to get a Neumann U47 in front of a ’63 Vox AC-30 pumped with a WEM Pep Box and run through a Fairchild 660, by all means, go for it.

For the rest of us, we'll settle for the delightful JHS Colour Box and a few other affordable pedals to get the job done. We're still smiling over here. Check out the settings below and play along.