Just a little addition to the Mellotron post/comments (and a slightly unusual then & now shot); being fortunate enough to attend a session at Abbey Road a while back, I was shown some of the microphones that remain there from the '60s (ie those not sold/chucked in a skip/etc).
Off the top of my head, I'd say these are AKG D19cs (I jest - I identified them with the help of the weighty Recording The Beatles tome, a veritable pornucopia (if you will) of vintage gear).
The mics are kept in a little room off the corridor running outside Studio 2, and staff assured me that these very ones were used on many Beatles recordings. An example of the AKG D19c in situ can be seen in the photo of John getting wiggy on Richie's traps during the AYNIL rehearsal.
They have three of these, presumably the ones shown:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abbeyroad.com/services/equipment-and-tech-facilities/microphones/
Must order that book (Recording The Beatles)!
Yes, that's them. According to the book, these were the "workhorses" of Beatle microphonology (not a real word) - mainly used on the drums and pianos, but also on virtually everything else at one time or another, from late 1963 till the end (or should that be Her Majesty).
ReplyDeleteThe book is incredible!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked our book. Sadly, the original staff told us the D19c were the most commonly stolen mic (back then) so possibly these are not original to the Beatles era.
ReplyDeleteVery hard to know for sure, as some of the Abbey Road mics can be dated to those days - but the D19c was common, and also commonly taken!!