![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride4.jpg)
Part of the furniture
Simon McBride appeared on That Pedal Show, speaking about his gear and his job in Purple. It’s a long conversation, and it gets quite a bit technical at times, but generally well worth setting aside time and listening for the whole thing. Even if you’re less than interested in “plumbing” per se.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Yo,
Good stuff Mr.McBride, whatever it takes is what it takes !
(A Stratocaster would be nice ).
Peace !
September 20th, 2023 at 10:37#1 Aaaaaahhhh…. The same freackin’ thing over and over and over and over and over….year after year after year after year…. Now, why don’t he play a Strat like Blackmore did way back when….? For f…cks sake, let it go!! Blackmore is not here anymore, no one can copy him anyway, these days he can’t play his Strat («Rainbow 2016~2019» or whatever)… Why so stucked in the past? I mean, it’s just that. The past!
And yeah, I’ve seen Purple with Blackmore, I’ve seen Rainbow with Blackmore and I’ve seen Blackmore’s Night(mare) with Blackmore when he was GOD! He can’t cut it anymore!
September 20th, 2023 at 22:39Gregster, will you brand baby PLEASE leave Simon his PRS?! I think he does mighty fine with it, Paul Reed Smith knows what he is doing as a luthier and I can sympathize with Simon’s shtick of neither wanting to play a Fender or a Gibson. Contrarians are nice people, I should know, I am one myself too! I chose playing mostly Gibson and Rickenbacker basses because I didn’t want to be the umpteenth Fender P or J player.
Haven’t listened to all of it yet, but I like the way Simon talks about DP, he seems to be happy, honored, yet has a twinkle in his eye about the whole situation too. And just the right amount of awe of DP, the institution.
Love his Belfast accent too. He really seems a great fit. Purple probably don’t have more than one or two more studio albums in them, so it’s consoling that they have found someone both able and nice to join them for that final part of their journey. Just imagine if they had gotten some old moody guy with fake hair and wearing tights playing gypsy scales all the time! Shudder the thought.
I never knew there were people that specialized in customizing and optimizing your own personal effect board with a minefield of stomp boxes from different brands for you, but it makes sense given how precarious some people’s effect boards actually look!
September 21st, 2023 at 09:04So, it was a year ago this month (Sept. 2022) that McBride was named a permanent member of the band. I’m eager to hear how Purple sounds on the disc next spring.
September 21st, 2023 at 21:19At 01:06:21, no Strat + Marshall + treble booster anytime soon, Gregsie! Shock, gasp, horror, he doesn’t even play the SOTW riff like Ritchie did (plucked and not with a pick)!!!
It really is well worth listening the whole thing through. And revelatory, we now know that Don and Roger are the two guys loudest on stage, tsk, tsk, tsk … With Don, I’m not surprised, but come to think of it, Roger never was an acoustically shrinking violet either.
That mock-Telecaster look PRS Simon plays towards the end of the vid looks (and sounds) good on him too.
The vid is also instructive for how technically excellent and precise Simon is, no need for him to blush before any of his predecessors.
Finally: I have the BOSS Flanger and Octaver on my board too! (Did I just hear catcalls, “You’re a b-a-s-s-i-st, Uwe, you don’t need no friggin’ stompers!”)
PS: In the middle of the vid, Simon plays some jazzy licks and chords – I really like how he does those.
September 21st, 2023 at 21:55LOL, HardRockPete @2: “I’ve seen Blackmore’s Night(mare) …”.
You mean the renaissancy spouses have a horse too???
September 21st, 2023 at 22:01“Blackmore is not here anymore, no one can copy him anyway”
I thought Glenns man Søren Andersen does a good job, coming close.
September 21st, 2023 at 23:16LOL !
@2…This isn’t about RB mate, it’s about choosing a far better sounding & versatile guitar, to improve both sound & performance…Watch the video, & listen to the difference when Simon is asked to play the resident Telecaster…And look at the reaction from the hosts…Says it all…( Shhhh)…
I have nothing against PRS, they come highly recommended, but they’re also a clone of a 50/50 mix of a Stratocaster body ( or Telecaster ), & a Gibson / Epiphone neck…And I can’t understand why the body-top is painted, & the rest of the guitar is left natural on a lot of models. It looks cheap, & unfinished.
Simons board isn’t outrageous by any stretch of the imagination…In fact, any Boss or similar multi-effects unit has a far wider variety of sounds to choose from. The main difference is a preference of brand-types with Simon, & the ability to add-on-the-fly more effects when a programme is already turned on. And it can be wired & used in real-time 2 x ways, both before the pre-amp, & after.
Long live the Stratocaster ! The most versatile guitar ever made.
Peace !
September 22nd, 2023 at 00:11https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDowitqL1Rc
A younger, more hairy and suitably ferocious Simon with someone you perhaps know from the Commitments movie …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL_gRfmja6g
And here a VERY MUCH YOUNGER Simon: “One day, when you’re all grown up, you’ll be the lead guitarist of Deep Purple, chubby cheeks!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwlWgYsyp1k
See, Aussies found him first. Used to the hard and rugged life in the unforgiving bush characterized by deprivation, they will scavenge anything if you let them!
September 22nd, 2023 at 17:03@5 Uwe, I’m a bass player too and I have in my pedalboard a Boss Octaver and a Flanger, and also a DS-1, a CE-2, a DD-3 and an Eno reverb (one of those mini-pedals) 🙂 What is life without fun?
September 22nd, 2023 at 18:07About Simon’s guitar, I agree that he plays what he wants (of course). Deep Purple is a very lucky band regarding guitar players, every one had/has his style and the band manages to fit perfectly without losing its identity. I really want to hear a new album with Simon playing.
Shucks, I’m totally distraught to learn that I gave our resident Aussi twins, Herr MacGregor & the Honorable Gregster, too much credit for once. They did NOT discover young Simon and groom him to be the fifth DP guitarist one day, it’s a Northern Irish TV show, not an Australian one. Alas!, I have erred, but in good faith!
Seriously, think about: By the TV show excerpt, a 12 year old Simon played already at a technical level his predecessors in Purple reached only as adults, if ever at all. It goes to show how much rock guitar technique has improved and been refined over the decades and how the availability of new media has enabled a younger generation to soak up all these influences a Ritchie, Tommy, Joe or Steve could never have possibly had access to.
But there is also no denying that we now have a veritable former guitar ‘Wunderkind’ in the DP ranks. I had read that Simon had started early as a guitarist and garnered national attention at a young age, but I had no idea that he was (i) THAT young and (ii) THAT accomplished.
September 22nd, 2023 at 19:18More mature, but still pre-DP, he’s not a bad singer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Jv9XGySYs
Haven’t we mentioned Hendrix elsewhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZk90CO4f38
I wonder if we’ll get to hear some of his vocals on the next DP album?
September 22nd, 2023 at 23:03@5
IMO, you can successfully play SOTW any way you like, as long as your drummer has the beat down, as indicated by Mr.McBride. It’s not as though people aren’t going to recognise the riff, is it ???
I personally would like to see the guitar & organ back in their original positions, as in far left for one & far right for the other. It keeps that sound-man’s job much easier, & I don’t think Jon would mind.
As for the mock PRS Telecaster, I’d suggest that Mr.McBride has a special deal going on with PRS in terms of sponsorship, & so he should have…
Simon has all the chops & front for success as a rock-guitarist. The “Stevie Ray Vaughn” Maj-9th chords are nice. ( Robben Ford uses these often too ).
I have the same BF-2 from 1985 also. It still works well, though eats batteries faster than a Digital Delay does…But the ME-7 does well enough now-days to cover all bases.
Peace !
September 23rd, 2023 at 05:24It’s nice to flex your muscles and show what you have got but for me it’s about how he can put all his skills into writing with the other four guys.
September 23rd, 2023 at 05:40Listen to Perpendicular and see how Steve Morse flexed his muscles and kicked some ass with his riffs.
Peace ✌️
@ 11- I was wondering what that was all about. Not to worry someone could easily slip by me as I usually don’t watch those sort of shows. Well I did watch the occasional Parkinson back in the day, depending who the guest(s) were, but that is about it. Cheers.
September 24th, 2023 at 01:42@11…I guess there’s no need to correct you leiber Uwe, as you did that yourself, though the host does sound Australian…And to play Satch-boogie so well at 12-years of age is awesome. That Ibanez sure suits Simon, & looks classy…
And without sounding negative, it’s one thing to be a fantastic copy-cat, & another to be innovative with your own song writing & melodic abilities, so the next album should be pretty awesome one-would-think, & help Simon’s solo-career along a bit too…
Us Aussies did have a young 10-year old talent around about the same time, I think his name was Nathan Camalirie(?) or similar, but he was more a blues-player…And though skilled for his age, there’s a massive difference in ability compared with Simon lol !
And Adel said qt.”It’s nice to flex your muscles and show what you have got, but for me it’s about how he can put all his skills into writing with the other four guys”…
“Listen to Perpendicular and see how Steve Morse flexed his muscles and kicked some ass with his riffs”….
I couldn’t agree more, & no-doubt Simon will do just that 🙂 !!!
Peace !
September 24th, 2023 at 08:36Yes I remember all the hype regarding young Nathan back in the day. Regarding McBride I guess the big concern is wether or not he will get the Ezrin treatment. ‘No McBride No, leave it for your solo album’. Although Ezrin did had some history wth Steve Morse going back to the Kansas album ‘In The Sprit Of Things’. In a good way I would presume. That might work in McBride’s favour. ‘Who is this kid”. Cheers.
September 24th, 2023 at 22:40Who knows, we might get a “Come Retaste The Band” with Simon – Tommy’s new energy input into DP Mk IV was palpable at the time. CTTB really jumped at you from the turntable.
Paulo, I have a few more ‘landmines’ on my board too, all of them Boss: Chorus, Bass-Synth, Overdrive & Digital Delay. I had a Phaser too for a while, but I gave it to our guitarist because it never really cut through with bass. It sounds fine with his guitar.
September 25th, 2023 at 21:50Herr Uwe said qt.”Who knows, we might get a “Come Re-taste The Band” with Simon – Tommy’s new energy input into DP Mk IV was palpable at the time. CTTB really jumped at you from the turntable”.
Yes indeed, I’d think at the least we’ll get the continued high-quality musicianship from the band, & no-doubt some classic riffs coming out of both guitar & keyboard…I’m sure the band is smart enough to keep it a band album, especially since Simon already exists with his solo career, so no promotion is needed, just continued excellent music imo.
Tommy was awesome, as the CTTB album proves, time & time again, along with say “Private Eyes”. Had Jimi survived, these two may well have been in competition trying to out-do each other !
Boss has a PH-2 Phaser that has a dial, where in position 2, really screams-out the high-end phase-shifting frequencies Herr Uwe…Take a bass to your local store, & plug into one-of-these, & see if it’s what you’re looking for. Phasers arguably sound more pleasing than “Wha-wha”s with a bass, but whatever…There’s also some really dirt-cheap Made in China pedals that are getting positive reviews too, & you never know, sometimes that tone you want can live inside a $10:00-special lol !
Peace !
September 26th, 2023 at 08:53“Boss has a PH-2 Phaser that has a dial, where in position 2, really screams-out the high-end phase-shifting frequencies Herr Uwe …”
That’s exactly the one I had, Herr Gregster, and it was no good no matter what basses I tried (I have close to two hundred, I know that’s too many!). It weakened the signal no end and the phasing effect was nowhere near as pleasantly “wet” (no matter what mode you used, one of them is a bit wah-wah’ish) as on my mid-seventies piece-of-junk Ibanez phaser which did cut way too much bass, yes, but at least rewarded with a lovely swishy phasing effect.
The flanger OTOH (and I’m using the guitar and not the Boss bass flanger, I tried both, liked the guitar one better) has always worked well.
September 26th, 2023 at 16:51@20…Herr Uwe said “The flanger OTOH (and I’m using the guitar and not the Boss bass flanger, I tried both, liked the guitar one better) has always worked well”.
I’ve always thought the BF-2 a really good sounding pedal too. It can offer similar sounds to tape-flanging, but never sounds too electronic either, as the other brands did at the time. I’d use the BF-2 & PH-2 through different tunes when playing acoustic gigs with success, as 2 x acoustic guitars sound can get a little boring over 2-3 hours, so a little bit of colour is nice. I never ever have the effects dialled-in loud, only ever subtly, so your audience doesn’t really notice that they’re being used, but the music is enhanced. eg, The Resonance dial rarely moves past 09:00 position, & I always had the Depth dial set to just before the flangers “warble” into the low-end. The Rate was set slow, & the Manual to 100%. The PH-2 was set similar, in position 1.
You must have shares with D’Addario to keep those basses strung-up Herr Uwe ! Enjoy all-of-them !
Peace !
September 27th, 2023 at 02:12I’m not particular in strings, Gregster, and try pretty much any brand I can get my hands on. D’Addarios are perfectly fine (and were long my preference) though I like the coated Elixir Opti- and Nanoweb stuff too. Ernie Ball, Thomastik-Infeld, DR, Rotosound, Pyramid, GHS, Dunlop, Fender, Warwick, La Bella – what have you, CNC string winding is of an overall quality by now that you hardly ever get a duff set (which was different in the 70ies when you had to more or less buy two sets of Rotosounds to get one that sounded even and good!). Strings of different brands always sound and feel a little different, but I never find a set that I would consider unplayable. Be a man!
I vary between round-, flat- and semi-roundwound strings too. People always poke fun at me saying “You sound the same Uwe, no matter what string brand and type on what bass with how many strings over what amplification & speakers you play!” I’ve long given up asking my band mates futile questions such as “Do you hear any difference?” Of course they don’t, my they’re guitarists and drummers mostly! ; – ) BTW, have I ever told you that they refer to my beloved effects board as “the torture rack”?!
September 27th, 2023 at 18:12@22…
The torture rack lol ! I guess that’s because to hear some effects, you have to crank-them-right-up !
I settled on D’Addario simply because of availability nationally, the free T-shirts offered, & they made a decent sounding set of 0.011- 0.049’s that could fit through my Strat-Plus’s Wilkinson double-roller-nut. Other brands 0.011’s have a 0.052 for the low-E-string, & it’s too wide to fit through the roller-nut.
And I could easily get 8-hours gig-time with a set of D’Addario’s, so that meant guaranteed 2 x gigs without breakage, & a “maybe” on a 3rd…But I buy boxes of 10-sets at a time, & string cost is about $06:00 per set, even today…
So durability, great tuning stability & tone is why I settled on 0.011 gauge strings, & D’Addario’s fit through the roller-nut.
Peace !
September 30th, 2023 at 01:22