Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
The Beatles finished recording the Sgt Pepper song ‘Fixing A Hole’ during this session, having begun it at Regent Sound Studio in London on 9 February 1967.
The session began at 7pm and finished at 12.45am. The Beatles intended to record a remake of the song, but after one attempt – numbered take 1, despite the previous three – they decided the results of the earlier session were adequate.
Take two from the Regent Sound tape was subjected to a reduction mix to free up space. This became known as take three, even though a take with that number already existed. The mix combined the lead guitars and backing vocals on track three, and two lead vocal parts combined on track four.
This left track two vacant. Onto it The Beatles recorded another rhythm track, which featured Paul McCartney on bass guitar, George Martin playing a second harpsichord part, and Ringo Starr on drums. The song’s final master therefore contained two bass guitar parts, two harpsichords, and two different drum tracks.
‘Fixing A Hole’ was then mixed in mono. Five were made, numbered RM2-6, even though there had been no previous mix numbered one.
The final version of the song was an edit of mixes three and six. This was made at the end of the session; the join can be heard at the 2:06 mark.
Richard Lush claimed that John played a Fender bass, but this is clearly untrue, as a) Paul overdubbed his own bass part and b) there was no right-handed bass owned by the band then.
They’re the beatles mate, I reckon they could have got hold of one!
The Fender Bass IV, which can be played either as a bass guitar or as a regular 6-string guitar, came into the band’s possession around 1968 and they didn’t have it during the “Sgt. Pepper” sessions.
There was also a Burns Nu-Sonic bass, but I don’t know if it belonged to the group or if it just happened to be lying around at Abbey Road Studios.
I don’t know what became of either bass after the group disbanded in 1970 – I wonder if John may have smashed the 6-string bass to pieces or if George sold it? Paul obviously had no use for it, being a left-hander.