Baby Blue- Badfinger (Guitar Cover)

You might know this classic song from the final scene of Breaking Bad. Pete Ham wrote this and plays George Harrison's old Gibson SG (the same one George used on Revolver!) for the main electric guitar part

The guitar tone has a distinctive effect on it, which is tape flanging. Also known as Automatic Double Tracking, a technique developed at EMI with the Beatles. I'm recreating this tone with my Strymon Deco pedal!

The song is in the key of B, and the acoustic guitars play a G chord with the capo at the 4th fret. It's possible the electric guitar also had a capo here, but I assumed Pete played it normally. You can see in the music video for the song (it's actually a mimed TV performance) that Pete plays it without a capo very comfortably

Joey Molland, their lead guitarist most likely played the guitar solo, and the lead guitar closing the song. He either used his Gibson SG or Firebird. His guitar also has tape flanging on it

There's a difference in the tape flanging on the two electric guitars. Pete's main SG part has a longer delay time, while Joey's has a very short delay time. This short amount is called zero point flanging. You'll hear this on a lot of records, like Itchyoo Park by the Small Faces. It sounds like a jet plane. As opposed to Pete's which is more like a very short slapback delay

For Pete's flanging my Strymon Deco delay time knob is around 1-2 o'clock. For Joey's it is around 8 o'clock, at it's shortest delay setting

A cool part of the guitar solo that I discovered is at 2:31
After picking the high E note, instead of then picking the F sharp and bending to G sharp, he slides his fingers over to F sharp without picking. It almost sounds like a slide guitar, but with all of that overdrive and sustain he was able to forego picking the F sharp and slide with this left hand right from the E!

I'm playing my 1970 Gibson SG Special for the electric guitars. This is a real vintage Gibson, albeit with P90 single coils instead of the humbuckers in their SG's. It's plugged into my 1965 Fender Bassman amp

For Pete's SG i'm using an Analogman King of Tone on the drive side, into the Strymon Deco, into the Bassman. For Joey's SG it is the same, except I'm using a JHS Morning Glory V4 to boost into the King of Tone

There are two acoustic guitars on the song, panned left and right. The left acoustic is a 12 string, and the right a 6 string. For the 12 string, I'm using my 1967 Gibson B-25-12. And for 6 string, my 1969 Martin 00-18. Both are capo'd at the 4th fret

My Gear:
1970 Gibson SG Special
1969 Martin 00-18
1967 Gibson B-25-12
1965 Fender Bassman (original 2x12 cab)
Analogman King of Tone (normal gain version)
JHS Morning Glory V4 (on high gain red setting)
Strymon Deco
Neumann TLM103 (Acoustics)
AKG C414 (Amp mic)

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#badfinger #guitarcover #gibsonsg

[arcynic]

The isolated guitar really makes you appreciate the bassline on this song

[brixenlang]

This cover aint chemistry, this is ART

[brixenlang]

this cover is TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT!!!

[larrypeek-ityo]

This song 🎵 has one of the best lead guitar 🎸 riffs in all history 🙌

[JacobKMusics]

Digging the Badfinger covers as of late. One of their biggest songs nailed flawlessly. Well done!

[NotSoGoodGamer]

Joey Molland passed away 1 month ago. I just heard about his passing, may his legacy live on!

[pepperz]

Love Badfinger! They're so underrated.

[stewartsnape]

Omg I swear I was listening to Joey Molland playing, amazing cover two thumbs up

[arissongsmusic]

I enjoyed that saw them preform that at a local High school auditorium in my hood in 1971.Sitting 1st row ( Lincoln High, Yonkers NY) Their promoter Pete Bennett also Beatles PR man from my neighborhood worked with my band from time to time (he gave me lot's of Beatle fan club + promotion items that night awesome!.) They used 1 -200watt + 1 -100watt Hiwatt's and an Acoustic 360 bass amp + a Ludwig drum kit, It was almost like a up close private concert.
Great job thx's 4 the memories,
Rock on ArtyThan ☆♡☆

[ordepsmusic]

Greatest Badginger song for the greatest TV show ever!! 🙌 Awesome cover, Sam!

"I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really, I was alive!"

[stevec.]

Sam, 🎧
Great job- I’ve always loved the middle eight in this song. Those curve ball chord changes and production is what made BF and Beatles songs so interesting. Spot on.

[StereoClassics]

Simply one of the greatest songs ever. I discovered them about six months before I watched the Breaking Bad finale, so when I finally saw the last episode, my jaw dropped lol. But anyway, awesome job. I hope I'm half the guitar player you are one day

[rdlftt]

Its sound is great, you make the melody feel so fresh, as you have us used to, overflowing your talent, Sam !

[shocko]

I knew it
As soon as i saw the first badfinger cover i knew this had to come soon

[fbello]

I really love that song - and the whole Straigth Up album

[RockinAllDay]

Sam, I dearly appreciate your Badfinger covers. I love their music so much and it's nice to see such great covers.

[danielfrank]

Wow! That was ridiculously GREAT!!! Sam! You are so good at covering this exactly the way it was done and yet somehow cleaner, brighter, fresher! Amazing work! Thank you Sam!!

[BeatlesCentricUniverse]

Drooling over your guitars, as usual. Drooling over your tone(s), as usual. Great video!

[thebottles]

This is when Sam Popkin knew he became Beatlesberg

[Sticknub]

So nice to see another cover of this song