Backing to the thread's topic: when The Beatles arrive in Hamburg on 16 August 1960 to perform at the Indra, there were the following English bands playing there:
- Two at the Top Ten, whose line-ups were:
a) for The Jets, Jimmy Ward on drums and vocals, Iain Hines on keyboards, Chas Beaumont on guitar, Colin Crawley -aka Colin Melander- on bass and Rick Hardy on guitar
b) for the Tony Sheridan Trio, Peter Wharton on bass, Ingo Thomas on drums -replaced shortly afterwards by Tony Cavanaugh- and Tony Sheridan on guitar and vocals.
These two bands emaned from the divison of The Jets, when Peter Eckhorn decided -by end July 1960- that he wanted a programme of non-stop music at the Top Ten in order to improve the club's drawing power. It should be remembered that The Jets were the first English band to play in Hamburg, when they arrived on 5 June 1960 to play at the Kaiserkeller. The line-up was Rick Hardy, Colin Crawley, Peter Wharton, Jimmy Ward and Tony Sheridan. The following photo shows this line-up:
The Jets at The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, July 1960. The front line left to right: Pete Wharton (bass), Colin Melander (guitar), Tony Sheridan (guitar), Rick Hardy (guitar).- One at the Kaiserkeller, Derry & The Seniors (=the first Liverpool band to play in Hamburg), whose line-up was Howie Casey (saxophone), Derry Wilkie (vocals), Jeff Wallington (drums), Billy Hughes (rhythm guitar/vocals), Brian Griffiths (lead guitar) and Phil Whitehead (bass). The following photos, dated 10 May 1960 at Wyvern Club in Liverpool, show this line-up:
So, a Framus Star Bass at the Top Ten and a... Kay??(=this guitar is still unidentified!!) bass or guitar_converted_to_a_bass at the Kaiserkeller.
Some time after, Peter Eckhorn purchased a Double Bass for the Top Ten, and Colin Crawley got a Höfner 500/1:
This is -aproximately- the 'bass sound' The Beatles found in Hamburg on August 1960...
Xosé