Introducing: The Fender 400 Beatle Band

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Dennis Montgomery
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Location: Western Washington
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Introducing: The Fender 400 Beatle Band

Post by Dennis Montgomery »

Hi all,

Back in 2016 when I bought a Fender 400 my first project was to add a couple knee levers and develop my own copedent. After too many hours to count, I came up with what I call "Stacked 7ths". b0b liked it so much he decided to feature it on our Steel Guitar Forum's "Pedal Steel Pages" under the "Unusual Copedents" category at:

https://b0b.com/wp/copedents/dennis-mon ... cked-7ths/

After getting that done, my next project was to record an album of Beatle covers. As far as which Beatles songs to cover...I love the Beatles from the first album to the last so chose songs that spanned their whole career. The format was simple, I played the bass parts with my Rickenbacker 4001 and the drum parts with my Roland TD7 drum kit. All the rest of the parts: from the rhythm guitar to guitar solos to vocal melodies and vocal harmonies were all recorded on my Fender 400 run through a Line6 XT Live Pro FX processor.

After all these years I've decided it's time to release these songs! I created a playlist called, "The Fender 400 Beatle Band". My plan is to release and add a new song to the playlist every Friday until I complete the album. Being as this is the first Friday I decided to get the project going by releasing two songs.

Hope you like them and look for my post next Friday announcing The Fender 400 Beatle Band's Beatle song #3 ;-)

Maxwell's Silver Hammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3uY-cL ... pYXvpsYYXH

Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA3ujGL ... XH&index=2 [/i]
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_x ... Ww493qAouK

Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7lPEtsplyW

Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NrvnJObliA
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Larry Dering
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Location: Missouri, USA

Post by Larry Dering »

Thats cool and some interesting tones. Good job.
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Dennis Montgomery
Posts: 852
Joined: 15 Feb 2016 9:28 pm
Location: Western Washington
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Post by Dennis Montgomery »

Thanks Larry!

It was a fun project and I found doing Beatle covers was a great way to wrap my head around that tuning ;-)
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_x ... Ww493qAouK

Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7lPEtsplyW

Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NrvnJObliA
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Doug Taylor
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Joined: 28 May 2019 8:17 am
Location: Shelbyville, Kentucky, USA

Post by Doug Taylor »

What a fantastic idea! I enjoyed it very much
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Roger Rettig
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Location: Naples, FL
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Post by Roger Rettig »

Very well done! I can only imagine how much work went into that.
Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Dennis Montgomery
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Joined: 15 Feb 2016 9:28 pm
Location: Western Washington
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Post by Dennis Montgomery »

Thanks Doug and Roger! I'll keep those Beatles covers coming for the next few weeks every Friday ;-)
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_x ... Ww493qAouK

Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7lPEtsplyW

Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NrvnJObliA
Bob Carlucci
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Joined: 26 Dec 2003 1:01 am
Location: Candor, New York, USA

Post by Bob Carlucci »

Interesting concept. I applaud the talent and effort it took to put that together. Beatles music is not really "user friendly"-melodies are complex and not always "intuitive" to replicate. Must have taken some serious time to record and mix. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the songs over the coming weeks... bob
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......
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Dennis Montgomery
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Joined: 15 Feb 2016 9:28 pm
Location: Western Washington
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Post by Dennis Montgomery »

Thanks Bob. Ya, the full album took 5 months to record but The Beatles are my Elvis so it was all good fun ;-)

I'm very excited to share more in the upcoming weeks!
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_x ... Ww493qAouK

Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7lPEtsplyW

Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NrvnJObliA
Marshall Woodall
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Joined: 6 Feb 2022 10:04 pm
Location: New York, USA

Post by Marshall Woodall »

Nice work Dennis! as was mentioned this could not have been a simple task. It brings home the "malleability" of the steel.
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