Guitars

The following instruments are kept in a vault in a castle surrounded by a moat with crocodiles, electrified barbed wire fences and land mines in a far-off distant land where they live happily ever after.

1953 Butterscotch Slab-body Fender Precision
1959 Danelectro Longhorn Bass
Early 1960s Harmony Semi-Acoustic Bass, popularised by the Spencer Davis Group and Ronnie Lane of The Small Faces.
1960 Gibson EBO Bass, brown
1961 Gibson EB3 Bass, cherry finish
1961 Fender Precision, used on many records including: Diary of a Madman, Mungo Jerry singles, Chicken Shack album “Unlucky Boy”, Uriah Heep albums “Abominog” and “Headfirst”, Rainbow's “Long Live Rock 'n' Roll”, Black Sabbath's “Eternal Idol” & Both Widowmaker albums.
1961 Fender Precision with new engraved metal scratch plate from Danny O’Brien (Zemaitis master engraver)
1963 Olympic White Fender Precision, used on the Mother's Army & Living Loud recordings.
1963 Hofner Violin Bass, used on "Flying High Again".
1964 ‘Fireglow’ Rickenbacker 4001S ‘export’ model bass.
1968 Paisley Fender Telecaster Bass
1970 Dan Armstrong bass
1996 Custom-made Rob Allen fretless.
Ronnie Lane's Zemaitis bass that he used with Rod Stewart and The Faces during the early to mid 1970s.
1964 Rickenbacker 360 12-string Guitar, as used by George Harrison in 'A Hard Day's Night'.
Ronnie Lane replica Zemaitis acoustic bass
1954 Fender Stratocaster (first year of the Stratocaster)
1955 Fender Precision, used on most of the tracks on "No More Tears" including title track. Also used on the Hoochie Coochie Men 'Live at the Basement' DVD with Jon Lord
1962 Fiesta Red Fender Precision, used on Gary Moore recordings & tours, and on a few tracks on Ozzy's "No More Tears".
1955 Fender Stratocaster, probably the cleanest example anywhere.
1956 Fender Precision.
Early 1960s Humbug Framus Star bass, formerly owned by Bill Wyman
1961 Hofner "Cavern" Bass, as used by his lordship, Mr McCartney in the Cavern days.
1958 Fender Precision (gold anodized scratchguard), previously owned by John Entwistle.
1963 Desert Sand Fender Stratocaster.
1963 Seafoam Green Fender Precision bass bought from Geddy Lee.
1965 Fender Duo Sonic. Peter Green used it on his late seventies/early eighties albums 'In the Skies' and 'Little Dreamer', so it’s a nice piece of history.
Hofner 2003 Club Bass, Bob recording with Gary Moore on the track 'Torn Inside', from the album 'Power of the Blues'.

I have used Picato strings since 1972.

For the Blizzard album I used one of Randy's 100-watt Marshall amps through a 4x12 cab and Gibson EB3 bass. The Diary album I used an Ampeg SVT vintage head (which I still have) through an 8x10 cab with my '61 P bass (natural finish). With Rainbow for the recording of the Long Live Rock and Roll album I used that same '61 P through one of Ritchie's doctored 200W Marshall heads through 4x12 cabs. Studio and live equipment has usually been similar to the above throughout the years, sometimes with the addition of acoustic bass amps i.e. a 370 or 360 with reflex cabinets. I've never been big on lots of effects other than the odd bit of flange or chorus. As collector's pieces I have a Vox AC30 1960 guitar amp, a Vox T60 bass stack 1964 and a Fender Bassman 1962 stack which is also good for recording.

I also have a 1970 Marshall 100 Watt "Bass Head" & a 1969 50 Watt Marshall "guitar head".

With tunings, sometimes if a song is in the key of D, I'll drop the E string down to a low D. I'll use this same principle even if the whole bass is down a semi-tone making the low string a C sharp. Otherwise tuning is usually normal.

Picato StringsMark Bass