Alan Jones bass gear in old video

[Kawarthabass]

Does anyone know what make of bass and amp Alan Jones is using in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZ4ISS ... w&index=74

Thanks.

[dave robinson]

Alan was with me in Past Masters until the middle of 2019 and he told me that he was using a series of Aria SB1000 Pro basses at that time and he also touched on the Alembic, before The Shadows went back to red Fenders' when he was bought a Squier V series P bass tat they had sprayed red for hm. He told me that Squier was on quite a few recordings. He also recalls using Custom 'Trucker' amps at some point and it could be one of theirs, though I am not certain. He was given stuff to use and didn't rake too much notice what it was.
Sadly I haven't seen Alan for six months as he has been forced into retirement after surrendering his drivers licence due to his glaucoma.

[Iain Purdon]

It’s always a delight to hear Alan playing. You’ve only to listen to this clip to remember what an asset he was both on stage and on record. Crisp, rock solid, full of little fillers but only where there were gaps.

The bass he's playing does indeed look like an Aria.

Aria SB1000RIB.jpg (4.93 KiB) Viewed 7618 times

[Hank2k]

Thats a great clip! Hank using his 58 strat with the RE301? Bruce with 34346 before it was resprayed red again! Fantastic!

[Kawarthabass]

It’s always a delight to hear Alan playing. You’ve only to listen to this clip to remember what an asset he was both on stage and on record. Crisp, rock solid, full of little fillers but only where there were gaps.

The bass he's playing does indeed look like an Aria.

The attachment Aria SB1000RIB.jpg is no longer available

Thanks for the Aria confirmation. I checked around and this certainly looks like Alan's:

Aria SB-900.JPG (40.15 KiB) Viewed 7571 times

[Kawarthabass]

Alan was with me in Past Masters until the middle of 2019 and he told me that he was using a series of Aria SB1000 Pro basses at that time and he also touched on the Alembic, before The Shadows went back to red Fenders' when he was bought a Squier V series P bass tat they had sprayed red for hm. He told me that Squier was on quite a few recordings. He also recalls using Custom 'Trucker' amps at some point and it could be one of theirs, though I am not certain. He was given stuff to use and didn't rake too much notice what it was.
Sadly I haven't seen Alan for six months as he has been forced into retirement after surrendering his drivers licence due to his glaucoma.

Dave: Thanks. Looks like a combo amp with a couple of 10's or 12's .... and a 15" speaker extension cab. I didn't recognize it because Custom was made in the UK.

Sorry to hear Alan has had to retire because of eyesight problems.
He was, and still is, an inspiration for me. I have learned several of his original bass lines in addition to the nifty way he approached the older standards.....always with that infectious smile.

[dave robinson]

I'm not 100% sure that this is a Custom rig, but Griff appeared with one on his first tour after he replaced Alan, though his was a 15" combo about the size of a Peavey bass combo of the period. I asked Griff about that and he told me that the amp was provided for him by the Shads, though they wouldn't have had any input, probably hired in cheap knowing Goody .

To give you an idea about the gear thy used, I once had a three hour chat with Hank after his gig with John Farrer when they did a week in my local night club and he was using a Vox AC30 bass combo. When I asked about it he said it was the first one out of the office when they loaded up the van and the fact that it was a bass model didn't bother him, he still sounded great.

The amps for the tours are normally sourced by the office and a load of them including spares, are delivered to the rehearsal rooms. One tour they did in the early eighties, ten Voxes were sent and six broke down during rehearsals so that's when they switched to Mesa Boogie for a while. I heard that Hank said he didn't want to use Vox ever again because of the unreliability that became them - and he never did. The nearest thing to Vox he/they used were the JMI replicas on the Reunion tour in 2009 and they were sponsored.

[Iain Purdon]

...he said it was the first one out of the office when they loaded up the van and the fact that it was a bass model didn't bother him, he still sounded great.

I love that. Some of us are desperate to get the “right” gear. Not Hank, he uses what they put on the stage. And ditches the Vox completely when they keep failing.

Ditto Alan Jones. That’s not a Fender bass. Doesn’t matter.

[Kawarthabass]

...he said it was the first one out of the office when they loaded up the van and the fact that it was a bass model didn't bother him, he still sounded great.

I love that. Some of us are desperate to get the “right” gear. Not Hank, he uses what they put on the stage. And ditches the Vox completely when they keep failing.

Ditto Alan Jones. That’s not a Fender bass. Doesn’t matter.

Iain: Exactly. The common quality Hank and Alan have is their firm touch and great setup skills. I saw that Alan is not afraid to make adjustments to his tone during their set, depending on the material he is playing.The amplifier should simply reflect the sound from the pickups. That's why I never liked the sound of their Burns guitars and basses.To me those instruments lacked a decent bottom end and the midrange sound had an unpleasant nasal sound no matter how they were set up. I have never heard a Burns instrument in a live setting ....or played one. So maybe I am missing something.

But the sound of Hank's Strat and Alan's Aria in the video I referenced in my original post was as good as I have ever heard in their recorded concerts.

[abstamaria]

What surprises me is that, when they decided to go back to red Fenders, they bought a Squier and had to have it repainted. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to buy a red Fender? Was budget a problem then? They were already known all around the world and big stars. The Fender distributor would have been happy to give them new Fenders again.

Lovely to see 34346 in white.

Sorry, I know very little of the Shadows post 1960s.

Andy