Irish Showbands and Beat-Groups Rare Instruments (6)

A feature of Irish '60s bands was their quality instruments. There was no shortage of Fender and Gibson guitars, Selmer saxes and Ludwig drum-kits. On these pages we share vintage photos of musicians with their instruments. Some we know, some we don't. If you can identify some of the musicians and/or their instruments, please let us know.

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Take a close look! Tom Dunphy of The Royal Showband playing his Fender Bass VI with FIVE strings!

Noel McGann of The Cadets with one of the very few Hofner "violin" basses as used by The Beatles' Paul McCartney.

Derek Kennedy of The Swingtime Aces with his vinyl-covered (red) Hofner Colorama (thanks to Jimmy Reilly)

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Brendan O'Connell of The Cadets with his white Fender Stratocaster (c.1968)

Art Supple (Fender Jaguar) and Wolfgang Nordt (Gibson 335) of The Victors.

The most famous Strat of them all! Rory Gallagher with his (almost) sunburst Strat which once belonged to Jim Conlon of The Royal Showband.

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Pat Hoey (The Drifters) with his rare Fender Telecaster bass.

Top session-drummer Ian McGarry of The Action behind his Ajax drum-kit.

Guitarist with the Pat Campbell Showband pistured with his Gibson SG with Bigsby tremolo.

Steve Travers recently sent me a photo of his new Groovetools 7-string bass. Here's a description of it:

Groovetools GTBD-7 Natural Curly Maple Top Swamp Ash Body Wings, 7 Piece Maple/Purpleheart Neck-Through, Purpleheart Fingerboard, Bartolini "Bill Dickens" Model Pickups, Custom Bartolini Parametric Frequency Selector, Brilliance Control, Volume, Blend & 3-EQ, Gold Hardware.
 

 

Johnny Murphy (Plattermen) with his rare Trixon drum-kit featuring a "kidney bass-drum"

  Jim Prendergast with his 1964 Gibson ES175 and Joe with his Fender Jazz bass. Both brothers joined The Victors Showband. Sadly, Joe died in 2006.   Garret Brown of Demon Duck (1974) and Medium Wave Band (1975) with his 1969 Fender Jazz bass
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