See photo and attached video, can you guys identify this bass? (I know because I have one). Vintage Guitar magazine said it was a Fender Precision.
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The Dave Clark Five - Identify this bass
- Thread starter ac100X
- Start date
@GretschWretch knows.
We talked about this at length a few times.
I believe it is a VOX Symphonic Bass.
Rick Huxley and his VOX in the DC5
1966 Vox Symphonic bass guitar >> Vintage Guitar and Bass
The VOX Showroom - The Vox Symphonic Bass and the Dave Clark Five
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You got it! You guys are too sharp.
Well, let me post pictures of mine. They were made in England by VOX. I bought this on Reverb from a seller in England a few years ago.
Looks to be in Great Shape!
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I just went through a bunch of pictures on Google and I would say the majority show him with a sunburst Fender Precision, he is shown with the Vox also though. Do you know if he played the Vox as opposed to the Fender for a certain period? It seems to me the earlier pictures show the Vox more. I would would be interested to see what he played in the studio, I always thought he got a great sound.
I see even more pictures of Rick Huxley playing a Burns six string bass. I thought the early pictures were Fender Precision and Fender Jazz, then Burns, then Vox Symphonic.
From what I've read most, if not all, of the bass part of DC5 records were provided by session musician Eric Ford. He apparently used a Burns Split Sound six-string bass (which makes sense since he was primarily a guitarist) and Rick Huxley obtained the same model to use for concert and TV appearances.
I like the bass playing and tone on the DC5 records and I was disappointed to find out the Rick Huxley apparently didn't play on them. There are a lot of DCS videos on YouTube but they are miming in all but one of them, so it's hard to get a good idea what they sounded like outside of the studio.
Here's a DC5 song built around a thumping bass line.
Here's a DC5 song with a bass solo at the 1:24 mark! Rick Huxley is miming it with his Burns Split Sound six-string bass.
- Steve
I was heavily involved in a DC5 fan group and Yahoo group DC5 fan group and Huxley did really play bass. The miming was done by countless bands for tv performances in the 60’s.
Eric Ford didn’t start playing on DC5 tracks until the 18 Golden Oldies and Dave Clark & Friends albums came out which was late in the band’s history circa 69-70.
Dave Clark himself didn’t always play the drums. He used the same session drummer on hits that the Kinks also used.
I have 2 real live recorded shows of the DC5. The sound quality is poor and each show is recorded as one long track.
In earlier versions of the DC5 (pre- Glad All Over) Huxley played rhythm guitar.
A lot of what you read is mostly conjecture.
I lost a lot of this information on a dead PC, but Huxley did play and he played with a pic.
I have all of their vinyl on EPIC, CAPITOL, COLUMBIA and EMI.
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I'm glad (all over) to hear this because I would like to think that Rick played bass on the records. It's not unheard of to have the presence of session players overstated. There are loads of people who think The Beach Boys never played on their own records.
The bass tone and playing style are very distinctive and consistent during the DC5's hit-making years and like that the bass is usually mixed up front. I've also heard those live DC5 recordings you reference and the quality is indeed pretty poor. It's much easier to find good live recordings from other first-wave British Invasion bands.
- Steve
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Other way around.
You must recall how difficult to find and expensive the American instruments were to acquire back then in the early 60's (not talking mid or late 60's). Even the Beatles struggled pre-fame with this and even afterwards would acquire Epiphone. England was still in a post-war rebuilding campaign and specifically had laws prohibiting foreign goods.
When you hear a 'non-pic' bass part it isn't Huxley.
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I would assume that just as Paul McCartney played a Hofner in the beginning because it was hard to get Fenders over there, but then eventually had a Ric and a Jazz, so did this guy start on the Vox until he could get the P.
DC5 was part of my musical upbringing. Like millions of people, I started playing after the arrival of The Beatles although I'd been a solid rock n roll fan for a few years before that.
I never felt the urge to own any Vox bass instrument although I've spent a fortune experimenting with the Vox line of bass amps (never really liked any of them but the V125 came close).
What bass amp did Huxley play through?
I never felt the urge to own any Vox bass instrument although I've spent a fortune experimenting with the Vox line of bass amps (never really liked any of them but the V125 came close).
What bass amp did Huxley play through?
Ok, sure. But what bass was Joy playing in Sex Clark Five?
I have no idea that would take some digging but the recordings sound direct to me. I did used to play through a borrowed Vox Super Beatle here and there years ago and it sounded pretty good for a SS amp and with the well made, sturdy and sealed 4 12 cab (with horn tweeter) it had a punchy sound and the speakers didn't blow. My regular amp at that time was a Fender Dual showman which had a lot more bottom but I liked both of them. That's the only Vox I've ever tried. The Dual Showman was actually a guitar amp too.
That I don't know, but since they played Vox basses, and Vox Guitars and Vox keyboards I'm guessing that they used U.K. made Vox Amps.
This was part of one of my previous links.
The VOX Showroom - www.voxshowroom.com
The VOX Showroom - The Vox Symphonic Bass and the Dave Clark Five
