Vintage Basses used by Irish bands in the '60s
On these pages we share vintage photos of musicians with their instruments. If you can identify any of the musicians, please let us know. We are indebted to Guy Mackenzie, Paul Day, John Doyle, Stefano Aria, Steve Russell, Jack Marchal, Mike Robinson, Alfons Lahaye and Tommy Dunne for their very generous expertise in identifying most of the guitars. Where possible, we have credited vintage guitar websites with photos. If your website has been omitted, please let us know and it will be added.
Framus Strato Star 5/156-52 bass c.1963. Catalogue photo courtesy of framus-vintage.de The Topic Showband bassist (name?) plays a Hofner 500/5 (1961) Maxie McEvoy of The Strangers playing his Burns Burns Marvin bass c.1964-'65. Photos courtesy of burns-guitars.nl and Maxie McEvoy
Noel Morrison of Sligo's Savoy Swing Seven pictured with his Burns Bison bass c.1963. Photo on left courtesy of Burns-Guitars.Nl Pat Hoey (The Drifters) with his rare Fender Telecaster bass. Colour photo courtesy of rocknrollvintage.com

This is Pat O'Hare of Dundalk's Vikings Showband with his Burns Sonic bass. The band later became The Toronto Showband. Thanks to Anthony B. for info and to burns-guitars.nl for colour photo.

Noel McGann of The Cadets with one of the very few Hofner "violin" basses as used by The Beatles' Paul McCartney. Shift yer head Eileen! The Heartbeats' bassist with his Burns Vista Sonic bass (c.1962-'63). If you know his name, please let us know. Take a close look! Tom Dunphy of The Royal Showband playing his Fender Bass VI with FIVE strings!
This is a Fenton-Weill Contra bass c.1960-61 played by Sean Hunt of The Clefonaires. Colour photo courtesy of sebastian.virtuozzo.co.nz Poor photo but rare bass! This is a Vox Mark IV (c.1965) played by Bobby Hastings of The Trixons. The bass on right is a Vox Wyman re-issue, similar but not identical. Cha Taylor (The Works) playing his 1964 Fender Jazz bass, with body-coloured headstock, in 1974.
Joe Barrett (The Doves) with his Fender   Competition Stripe Mustang bass c.1970-'72. This bass is on the cover of Murphy & The Swallows L.P. The late Des Kelly of The Capitol Showband with his Framus Star bass. Jim Ruane of The Swingtime Aces with his rare Hopf bass c.1958 (thanks to Jimmy Reilly).
Torry McGahey of The Freshmen with his sunburst Fender Precision bass (c.1965) Seamus Carew of the Blue Aces cuddling his Fender Jazz bass. This is a Hofner 500/5 bass c.1960-'61 owned by the bassist in The Royal Viceroy Showband
Dick Close of Ballymena's Cossacks Showband with his Fender Precision bass. (thanks to Billy Swan) A Framus 5/154 Deluxe 4 (1966) played by The Victors (name?) bassist. Two members of Waterford's Atlantic Showband with their Burns Jazz bass c.1964 and Burns Split Sonic guitar c.1963. Do you know their names?
Another Fender Mustang bass - the band is Jed & The Southern Express Garret Brown of Demon Duck (1974) and Medium Wave Band (1975) with his 1969 Fender Jazz bass Toddie Lehane of the Kingdom Showband plays an Arbiter Soundmaster EB1 made by Teisco
Bassist with Tuam's Olly Maloney Showband - can you identify his bass? A Dallas Tuxedo bass c.1959-'60 played by Jim O'Dwyer of The Black Aces from Kilkenny. A Hofner 500/5 c.1960-'61 hollow-bodied bass owned by a member of Dundalk's Young Vikings.
 
Bassist (name?) with Dave Dixon's Band with his 1960/'61 Rosetti (Egmond) Solid 7 bass guitar.
Some great vintage guitar sites! Rudy's Music Fetish Guitars Vintage Hofner Framus Vintage
Hagstrom Vintage GuitarHQ Weird Vintage Guitars Burns Vintage
East European Vintage DDR Vintage Guitars Hopf Vintage Fenton-Weill
rocknrollvintage.com      
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The Irish Bands Archive is an ongoing work in progress. Photos, cuttings, posters, adverts, line-ups, etc. to be added are always welcome and appreciated. If you have anything to contribute, please contact us by email.
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