Bass Collection The Neil Murray Snakebite – Maple

Brand new for 2024, the Snakebite celebrates the Bass Cente’s long standing friendship with veteran Scottish bassist Neil Murray with a recreation of the workhorse P-Bass that has been his go-to instrument for almost 50 years.

Although most famous for his decade-long tenure with David Coverdale’s brilliant blues rock outfit Whitesnake, Neil’s astonishing CV also includes work with Cozy Powell’s Hammer, Colosseum II, National Health, ex-Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, Babe Ruth, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, Japanese rockers Vow Wow, Black Sabbath, Peter Green’s Splinter Group, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Brian May.

Since 2002, alongside collaborations with Queen + Paul Rogers, Michael Schenker, Bobby Rondinelli, Company of Snakes (with ex-Whitesnake comrades Bernie Marsden and Mickey Moody), M3, Empire, and Snakecharmer, Neil has also been a regular performer in the West End production of We Will Rock You.

Neil has used a number of instrument brands, including  Aria, Sandberg, B.C. Rich, Modulus, Warwick and Yamaha, but his 1970’s Fender, heavily modified over the years, has always remained a favoured companion for stage and studio work.

The Snakebite Bass — available with a choice of maple or Macassar ebony fingerboard — has been informed by Neil every step of the way to create a superbly playable and supremely versatile modern instrument suitable for rockers, ravers, saints and sinners alike.

Neil’s well-travelled Fender P-Bass was bought secondhand in 1975, originally re-sprayed black and equipped with a ’68 maple Telecaster neck and tortoiseshell pickguard, but has undergone quite the evolution over the decades. It has been stripped down to a natural finish and fitted with a succession of different necks and alternate pickup configurations, including a Gibson EB3 humbucker, a dual coil unit fashioned from two Jazz pickups, and twin Velvet Hammer split pickups trimmed down and placed side by side, to provide multiple 4-coil combinations.

In 2024, its current incarnation, and the inspiration behind the Bass Centre’s Snakebite build, features a maple neck, P / MM pickups with coil selector switch, gold pickguard and Badass bridge.