Explorer bass MSG

[Freuds_Cat]

Anyone know if its an explorer with what looks like a dimarzio P pup added, or a destroyer with added soapbars?
Apparently the bass player is Chris Glen. Seems to be argument on You Tube about weather its from a 1981 show or a 1983 show. I guess if its 1981 then the bass has to be a destroyer.

love the death stare at 1.01 

[Freuds_Cat]

On further inspection I reckon its a Destroyer.

[Basvarken]

But that video cannot be 1981.
Because:

If I'm not mistaken there's Ted McKenna behind the kit
And Schenker used his Flying V with that metal plate at the headstock.
Plus his hair longer.
And I'm not sure but I think it's Andy Nye on keyboards.


Pretty blistering -somewhat hasty- version of Into The Arena.
Schenker in optima forma.

[uwe]

It's the 83 Rockpalast gig where Judas Priest (with a then slightly overweight Rob Halford - the good life on those endless US tours was beginning to show), Krokus and Ozzy Osbourne (with Jake E. Lee and Carmine Appice as well as Don Airey and Bob Daisley - great line up) also played. Where the Scorpions there as well? I don't remember.

That is an Ibanez Destroyer, Chris Glen's mainstay bass well into the early nineties (he still played it on Ian Gillan's Naked Thunder tour then). Great player Herr Glen is, love his work on Assault Attack.

That said, the new MSG album with Gary Barden, Don Airey, Simon Phillips and Neil Murray on bass (an obvious effort to emulate the line up of the MSG debut album) is Schenker's most cohesive work for a long time.

Uwe

[Basvarken]

It's the 83 Rockpalast gig where Judas Priest (with a then slightly overweight Rob Halford - the good life on those endless US tours was beginning to show), Krokus and Ozzy Osbourne (with Jake E. Lee and Carmine Appice as well as Don Airey and Bob Daisley - great line up) also played. Where the Scorpions there as well? I don't remember.

I do remember Quiet Riot and Iron Maiden were there.
Vivid memories of me and my little brother staying up all night, watching Rockpalast, fighting sleep real hard because we wanted to see Micheal Schenker.
 
My brother fell asleep and missed the whole MSG concert...

That is an Ibanez Destroyer, Chris Glen's mainstay bass well into the early nineties (he still played it on Ian Gillan's Naked Thunder tour then). Great player Herr Glen is, love his work on Assault Attack.

My favorite MSG album! The most bluesy album they ever recorded. And the only album with a proper singer.
(Herr Schenker doesn't have a good hand of selecting singers IMHO)

That said, the new MSG album with Gary Barden, Don Airey, Simon Phillips and Neil Murray on bass (an obvious effort to emulate the line up of the MSG debut album) is Schenker's most cohesive work for a long time.

I heard some samples of it. But I wasn't impressed (to say the least) by Mr. Barden. He's not even trying to sing anymore. It's more like talking along with the music...

Uwe
[/quote]

[uwe]

Bonnet can wipe the floor with Barden, but as his band history shows, he is difficult to work with plus his epilepsy raises touring issues.

There is singing on the new album, Barden just doesn't - and wisely so - try to sing as high as he used to. I too prefer Schenker with either Mogg or Bonnet, but in their absence Barden is still the singer most sympathetic to Schenker's music.

[Basvarken]

Barden just doesn't - and wisely so - try to sing as high as he used to.

If only he'd have thought of that while singing on that horrible live album Rock Will Never Die...
it makes my vocal cords hurt when I hear that

[uwe]

That was all the more baffling as it features ex Ted Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes on - solely - rhythm guitar.  I always wondered what he was thinking as he was strumming along and hearing Barden at (and over) his limit.

Schenker had the chance to play with more than a fair share of great vocalist. He was even invited by the Stones in the seventies to an audition (who perhaps wanted another blond guitarist to follow Jones and Taylor) but didn't want to go. He could have replaced Perry with Aerosmith but bowed out after rehearsals, Tyler's then rampant smack and coke addiction making him fear  his own demons. And his chance to play with Coverdale failed due to the inability of the two big egos whether the end result should be called MSG or Whitesnake. And of course he had an offer from Ozzy too, but then who hasn't.  He might have even replaced Blackmore with Purple, but discreet investigations of the Purple management found him to be "an unstable personality". 

[gweimer]

I interviewed Schencker in the early '80s.  It was, in fact, Ted McKenna on the skins back then.  After McKenna finished his stint with Rory Gallagher, he went to MSG, and Glen came on board, as well.  The night I saw them, and interviewed him, they had a backup singer offstage that was just incredible.  Glen was there with a pair of women.  The three of them left the soundcheck, and returned about an hour and a half later, all looking pretty disheveled.
When I interviewed Michael, he told me that the reason he left UFO in the first place was because he didn't think he could survive another tour with them.  All the abuse had reached the level where he seriously thought he'd be dead if kept it up.

[godofthunder]

Cool ! I still have my '76 Destroyer, one of my best sounding basses !

[Basvarken]

Schenker had the chance to play with more than a fair share of great vocalist.

Robbo told me he even was invited to join Thin Lizzy.
But just like the flying Dutchman (Adje Van Den Berg), Schenker declined because of the "lifestyle"...

[Freuds_Cat]

Great pic Godofthunder! 

Graham Bonnet married an Adelaide girl and spent a year or so living here. I went to a barbie once and had a beer and a chat with him. Lovely bloke. Not to mention an excellent singer.

[uwe]

Look at this here, Rob, Barden - you'd think those tight pants would help him hit the high notes! - struggling through "Rock you to the ground", but then at 2.04 Derek St. Holmes takes over lead vocals and pretty much nails Bonnet's demanding vocal line. I can't believe Schenker didn't hire Derek as the future MSG lead vocalist right then and there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0pC5P1BUU&feature=related

[Basvarken]

Yep, that's exactly what I meant Uwe.
Gary Barden's voice is/was shot. I'm suffering subsititutive embarrassment (don't know the exact english expression) when I hear him struggle.

And yes it puzzled me too back then, why Schenker didn't put St Holmes on the spot.
He even hired Klaus Meine to fill in on Doctor Doctor...

Guess the drugs really took their toll on Herr Schenker and his logic...

[Blazer]

Regarding the bass in the first video, I thought I saw body binding but because of the image quality I can't say for sure. But it it does have binding it could also be a Hamer Standard bass with a pickguard added.

And there's also the possibilty that the bass was a custom built number.