Beatles icon Sir Paul McCartney, 78, reveals he still uses amplifier he bought aged 14

He is one-quarter of the most successful group of all time, and has written iconic songs including  Yesterday, Hey Jude! and Let It Be.

And Sir Paul McCartney has given an insight into his musical success, revealing he still uses an amplifier he bought when he was aged 14. 

The Beatles legend, 78, revealed his ‘Little Green Amp’ – the Elpico AC55 – as he took a trip down down memory lane at his Hog Hill Mill Studios in East Sussex in a hour-long audio tour included in the re-release of his 1997 solo album Flaming Pie.

The Elpico amp has long been synonymous with the Beatles and was seen onstage with the band in many of their performances.

It was designed to amplify one gramophone and two microphones with Paul revealing he used it a guitar amp.   

Showing off the vintage piece of equipment in the 1997 clip, Paul said:’This is my very first amp I ever had when I was 14, it was called an Elpico. As you can see it is very 50s, it looks like a piece of 50s furniture.

‘Instead of putting guitars into it, it says Mic1, Mic2, Gramophone, anything but guitars really. In those days amps were used more for putting your records through or microphones, for little PAs.

‘That was the first thing and I have kept it ever since. I have now had it fixed up because it is so old.

‘When you put an electric guitar through it now it sounds a bit like a fuzz guitar so it is quite a funky sound that I use sometimes. It is a dear little thing from many years ago.’  

The Elpico amp was a favourite among rock’n’roll acts. The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies revealed he slashed the speaker cone of of his ‘little green amp’ with a razor blade which made it sound distorted, contributing to their instantly recognisable sound. 

According to Premier Guitar, the Elpico AC55 was first manufactured by British company Lee Products around 1956, and was intended to amplify tape recorders and record players.

The ‘fuzz-guitar’ sound on the Beatles 1966 song Tax Man, the lead single from album Revolver’, is said to be Paul playing through an Elpico.    

Although it is unclear how much the amp would cost in 1956, nowadays the amp sells for £800-£1,000. 

Macca’s studio also includes legendary bassist Bill Black’s double bass, which played on Elvis Presley’s songs including Hound Dog and Heartbreak Hotel.   

He says: ‘Step this way, here is a very prized item… this is the original Elvis Presley bass. It used to be played by a guy called Bill Black.’

The bass also appeared in the 1957 Elvis film, Loving You. 

Paul revealed the double bass was a gift to him from his wife Linda, who died one year after the audio tour in 1998.  

He said: ‘Bill Black had died and Linda found out the bass was still around. We were in Nashville at the time and so Linda said to the family ‘would you let me buy it for Paul for his birthday present’.’

‘So they did, they had no other use for it, and they are quite happy it is in my collection. For me it is a very special piece of wood and occasionally I use it when you want a different sound. Nothing complicated but for a very simple bass line.’

 During the tour the star also said he preferred records to CDs, saying: ‘When they get stuck it is the worst sound in the world.

‘George Martin had the first CD ever, Sony were bringing out and they wanted everyone to pay a royalty on it. 

‘And George was sitting around and said ‘you see chaps the wonderful thing is they are absolutely unbreakable and he was ‘bang'(on table) and it broke.’  

Flaming Pie scored the number two positions in both the UK and US charts when it was first released in 1997. 

It was reissued in 31 July 2020 as a part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. 

It comes after Sir Paul revealed he found it ‘pretty hurtful’ when he was blamed for breaking up The Beatles when the group parted ways in 1970.

Reflecting on the misconceptions he faced during his time with the band, the singer spoke candidly with British GQ about how he felt at the time.  

Saying people believed the band – which also consisted of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – ‘hated each other’ after their split, Sir Paul clarified that the group simply had ‘disputes’ like any other family would. 

Of common misconceptions, he said: ‘I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other. 

‘What I realise now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes. And some people want to do this and some people want to do that. 

‘So I think what came about after that … the only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band.   

‘If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did. 

‘I said “Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,” and I wasn’t told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. “You’ve got to sue the Beatles.”‘

Sir Paul’s decision led to tensions between the former members, with John even writing his song How Do You Sleep? which overtly referenced his former band mate, creating even more ‘hurtful’ misconceptions.

‘I remember reading an article, an interview with Yoko, who, OK, she was a big John supporter, I get that, but in this article she goes, “Paul did nothing. All he ever did was book studio,” Sir Paul continued.  

‘And I’m going, “Err? No…” And then John does this famous song, How Do You Sleep?, and he’s going, “All you ever did was ‘Yesterday”… And I’m going, “No, man.”

‘But then you hear the stories from various angles and apparently people who were in the room when John was writing that, he was getting suggestions for the lyrics off Allen Klein. 

‘So, you see the atmosphere of “Let’s get Paul. Let’s nail him in a song…” And those things were pretty hurtful.’

During their time together, The Beatles became one of the most influential bands of all time with their releases making them the best-selling music act of all time.