interesting....very interesting

That is fascinating, Philip! Thanks!!!

Hi Philip.... great post. I think the mellotron part on Jigsaw Puzzle is totally brilliant... simple, yet adding great atmosphere and as always with Brian only he could have done it. As far as Factory Girl, most websites credit Dave Mason with playing the mellotron mandolin part and Rick Grech as playing the fiddle.

Brian was brilliant with the mellotron!!!!

Mellotrons were very cool in their time.  King Crimson used them to death 1969--1973, but they showed up nicely as late as in Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone".

It could well be Nicky Hopkins then.... the crediting of parts attributed on some web sites is basically just conjecture.... people assume so much. I have read that Dave Mason played 2nd acoustic guitar on Dear Doctor and Shehani (an Indian flute) on Street Fighting Man. The same source claimed Dave played the Mellotron on Factory Girl... but I think you may be right.

Just had another couple of listens to 'Dear Doctor'.... I think the harmonica does sound like Brian. It is consistent with the sound he gets on other songs such as 'One more try', also includes some of his signature flourishes that he uses at the end of some of his phrases. Brian's harmonica playing tends to use a different tremello to Micks. I am not familiar with Dave Mason's harmonica playing so I can't comment.... I have not heard the Traffic stuff.

Guitar wise I agree with you - it's Keith all the way in the right speaker. At about 25 seconds in the 'tack piano' or whatever they credit it as being comes in on the left speaker.... this could also be something else too.... what do you pick it as? It has the struck quality attack of an appregiated 12 string acoustic part almost, but with enough other tinkling sounds to suggest it's not a 12 string.... an instrument that is like a mandolin but not a mandolin? Then at 1.39 when it modulates from E to A it begins to sound more like a harpsichord..... all part of the fun of listening to Beggars Banquet really!!!!!!!

Thanks Philip.... Bill seems to have got some of the details mixed up quite a bit here and there.... for instance in Rolling with the Stones he claims the main guitars Keith and Taylor used on Sticky Fingers were Les Pauls, when in fact they used quite a few different guitars - Taylor used a Strat, a Tele and a Gibson 345 among others... Keith also used an SG on Brown Sugar..... I think Bill filled in a lot of details retrospectively and as a result relied on memory, not on notes.

I haven't heard the outtakes for Dear Doctor.... is there very much in the alternate takes that is different to the way the Beggars Banquet version sounds? To me it comes across as one of those songs that was pretty well written in full before being recorded.

Tack Piano as I understand it is simply a piano with tacks nailed into the felt piano hammers, which alters the tone that is made when the piano hammers hit the piano strings, resulting in a sound which is pretty well what Dear Doctor has.... but what's confusing me is the occasional sound of what seems like strumming.... kind of like what you might get on an Autoharp.

Thanks again Philip..... it's great to get your posts.