It’s often said that The Beatles used a Gibson J-160E on every one of their albums but is it true?
To start, we must define the criteria. For the guitar, any Gibson J-160E will do because they had a few (3 to be precise). As for what constitutes as a Beatles album, i will first only cover their 11 major UK releases and then go into A Collection Of Beatles Oldies, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Hey Jude. This way, everybody wins. Also, i will try to list at least one song per album that uses the guitar.
Let’s begin.
Their first album, Please Please Me, has both John and George playing the guitar quite prominently, both acoustically and plugged in. On some songs like Ask Me Why, John will use it acoustically while George uses his plugged in.
With The Beatles mostly sticks to John’s Rickenbacker and George’s Gretsch but there ar still a few tracks with the J-160E, most notably John used it on Till There Was You while George played a classical guitar.
A Hard Day’s Night features the guitar quite prominently on songs like A Hard Day’s Night and If I Fell. One thing i find interesting is that John’s actually using George’s guitar, as his was stolen at the end of 1963 and he had yet to get a replacement.
Beatles For Sale also features the guitar on quite a few songs, including Every Little Thing where John plays his Rickenbacker 12 string (not to be confused with George’s) and George plays the acoustic.
For Help!, John got a 12 string acoustic by Framus. However, George still used his on songs like Another Girl and You Like Me Too Much and even John used his on I’ve Just Seen A Face while George played the Framus.
Rubber Soul sees George playing the Framus and John returning to the Gibson, using it throughout the album on tracks like Nowhere Man and Girl. While recording Michelle, George is seen playing this guitar plugged in, which seems to suggest that this was the guitar used to record the solo.
Revolver sees The Beatles drifting away from acoustic guitars but this guitar can still be heard on I’m Only Sleeping, Love You To, and Yellow Submarine.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is quite the ambitious album, using a wide array of instruments, but that J-160E can still be heard on a few songs, most notably the album’s closer A Day In The Life.
The BEATLES is the last time this guitar was featured prominently, as George had moved on to his J-200 and John would soon do the same. However, John still used his on quite a few tracks and was even seen using George’s plugged in during the sessions for Bungalow Bill and I’m So Tired, although he later switched to his Casino for the latter.
Abbey Road is quite barren of acoustic guitar and out of the 4 songs that contain it, none of them use the J-160E. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer has George on his J-200, Polythene Pam/Bathroom Window has John on his Framus, and Paul uses his Martin for Her Majesty.
Myth busted, case closed. While used on most albums, the Gibson J-160E wasn’t used on Abbey Road. But let’s carry on anyways to see if it wasn’t included on any other albums.
To start off where we left, it’s unlikely that John used his J-160E on Let It Be either. Out of the songs he used an acoustic guitar on, we know that he used his Martin on Two Of Us and Across The Universe, so it’s most likely that he used it on Maggie Mae as well.
As for those other albums, Oldies has multiple songs that use it (She Loves You and I Feel Fine has John plugging it in), MMT uses it on the title track and Flying, Yellow Submarine has both John and George using it on All Together Now, and Hey Jude features it on the title track.
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