That tune... irritating, isn't it?

[MMStingray54]

Hi Jim - the bass sound is quite strange for the era - it sounds like an Ampeg to me - possibly a Baby Bass or AEB1. Not sure what strings were used on them - the whole bass sound is a bit chorus/reverb/Fretless with a bit of drive - which is how those Ampegs sounded - even the fretted versions. Apparently Burns made Ampeg instruments for a time in the mid 60s also.

[JimN]

Hi, Don. Long time no see...!

I think most people here are familiar with the Burns / Ampeg tie-up of the mid-sixties, but I don't think Burns made Ampeg instruments. Rather, Ampeg sold some Burns models (in the USA only) under the Ampeg name.

But... you've got me thinking, and I think you're onto something. The sound of the bass certainly is unusual for that period, and to be frank, only a few UK bassists could play that well on bass guitar at the time. I've listened to the recording a few times and am leaning towards the guitarist being the famous Judd Proctor. His touch and tone are very distinct, and I have a few other library recordings featuring Judd. There is a great similarity in the style of playing as compared with Dine And Dance.

The bass, on the other hand, also, as you say, sounds very distinct, and my thought on this is that it could be Dave Richmond, with his 1961 three-pickup Burns Black Bison Bass, fitted perhaps with the earliest iteration of Rotosound's Swing Bass string sets?

Dave was one of maybe a half-dozen to ten players in the UK with that sort of playing chops and the most obvious well-known sessioneer who would have been available for John Scott library sessions. The only other player who readily comes to mind for the period and who could match those standards at that time would be John Paul Jones...

[Pat Seaman]

Bob Danvers-Walker was on Take your Pick, with Michael Miles.

[MMStingray54]

Hi, Don. Long time no see...!

I think most people here are familiar with the Burns / Ampeg tie-up of the mid-sixties, but I don't think Burns made Ampeg instruments. Rather, Ampeg sold some Burns models (in the USA only) under the Ampeg name.

But... you've got me thinking, and I think you're onto something. The sound of the bass certainly is unusual for that period, and to be frank, only a few UK bassists could play that well on bass guitar at the time. I've listened to the recording a few times and am leaning towards the guitarist being the famous Judd Proctor. His touch and tone are very distinct, and I have a few other library recordings featuring Judd. There is a great similarity in the style of playing as compared with Dine And Dance.

The bass, on the other hand, also, as you say, sounds very distinct, and my thought on this is that it could be Dave Richmond, with his 1961 three-pickup Burns Black Bison Bass, fitted perhaps with the earliest iteration of Rotosound's Swing Bass string sets?

Dave was one of maybe a half-dozen to ten players in the UK with that sort of playing chops and the most obvious well-known sessioneer who would have been available for John Scott library sessions. The only other player who readily comes to mind for the period and who could match those standards at that time would be John Paul Jones...

Indeed long time no see!! I will have to come to one of 7SL's Billabong jams sometime.

For the reasons you mention, it sounds like a jazz player to me - an upright player playing an electric - this could fit the Ampeg Baby Bass possibility - there are one or two You Tube recordings of the Ampeg basses and they do sound very similar to this - even to the slightly distorted Fretless sound. I think you may be right about the Swing Bass strings if it's a bass guitar.

[RayL]

As Jim says, with the Beatles clip being 1964, then Dine And Dance must obviously have been recorded earlier. That rules out Dave Richmond, who was still with Manfred Mann until early 1964 (saw them at Kimbells Ballroom, Southsea in early '64 when DR was still with them). He left after the recording of 5-4-3-2-1 and joined the John Barry 7 for a short time before becoming a session player.

I also agree with Jim that the guitar sounds like Judd Proctor, though if he did record it, it wasn't on July 2nd 1963 as Judd was at Petters Diesel Engine Factory in Staines, Middlesex along with James Moody (piano) and Tim Bell (bass) providing the backings for The Lana Sisters, Gill And Terry and Janie Marden on Workers Playtime!* (I was there, still got the script).

The fast bass run at the end of Dine And Dance could only have been done on bass guitar, and bass guitar with a pick, surely? If we're tossing names around, how about Tim Bell?

* Workers Playtime was a radio show on the BBC's Light Programme. Half an hour of music and comedy was broadcast live at lunchtime from factories and other work-places around the UK. Very popular at the time. The comedian on July 2nd 1963 was Nicholas Parsons. Yes, the same Nicholas Parsons who comperes Just A Minute to this day on Radio 4! I know you're dying to hear a sample of the jokes that he made . . . . (he's talking about tennis) "There's some very attractive girls in the club that I belong to. First of all, there's Betty. She's singles champion. She's been single longer than any other girl in the club". Just the right sort of humour for 50 diesel fitters in an industrial canteen.