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.

The SNAKEBITE Features

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.

YOUR BASS - YOUR WAY

All Bass Collection and British Bass Masters instruments are re-strung and set up prior to despatch by Chris Ward, long serving Bass Centre guitar tech since 1984. Accordingly, you can choose which gauge and type of Elites Strings you prefer and specify personal set-up requirements — Please use the "Comments/Requests" box when you check out.

The Story BEHIND THE SNAKEBITE

From information posted by Neil Murray on BassChat.co.uk December 2020

I bought that bass in spring 1975 as a late '60s P-bass body (had been resprayed black, which I stripped and varnished) already with a Tele bass neck (maybe 1968, can't remember, and it's in storage so I can't check). Immediately I added an EB3 mini humbucker at the bridge but as the pole piece spacing was narrower I had to use Mustang bass saddles pulled together with a piece of thick wire. I used it like this with Colosseum II (Gary Moore, Don Airey etc, 1975-76), mostly using both pickups, and National Health (1976-77), generally just the J pickups, but I think in 1977 I changed the EB3 pickup for two J pickups wired as a humbucker. The P-bass pickup was still as standard then but I don't have any pics that show it in this configuration.

I removed all the frets in 1977 (Jaco! See photos above from rehearsals for the Bruford album "Feels Good To Me", standing in for Jeff Berlin who was the actual bassist in the band) and sometimes had to borrow other necks or basses for particular songs, sessions or gigs. I had it refretted in late 1977 or early 1978.

Soon after joining Whitesnake in early 1978, I needed to change from the mid-heavy tone of the EB3 or J bridge humbucker to a more full sound, so I started using the P pickup (at this time and in Colosseum II I was using flat wounds for more definition - the treble of roundwounds was swamped by guitars, cymbals etc. Later with Whitesnake I changed to La Bella Quarterwounds then La Bella Hard Rockin' Steel) but wasn't very satisfied by the tonal difference between the two halves of the pickup.

I discovered there was a type of replacement P pickup (Mighty Mite, I think) which had a single polepiece under each string, like Sandbergs today. The coil size wasn't as wide as in regular P pickups, so I could shave the ends of the bobbins and put two coils side by side, similar to the two coils in a Dimarzio J pickup. I made a cover (as seen in the photos above) with two pickups (4 coils) underneath, and wired it so I could try the various combinations. Until halfway through 1978, it was my only bass, and to make changes to my gear required me to make modifications to that one, as I couldn't afford to buy new instruments.

I discovered that I preferred the sound of the coils wired in 'reverse P' configuration, which wasn't a thing then, though Yamaha started doing basses like that soon after. So that's how the bass was when I used it on the Whitesnake "Snakebite" EP and "Trouble" LP, through a miked-up Peavey cab and no DI. After that I moved to Kramer, then Aria, plus a borrowed Alembic for some albums.

Later, with Black Sabbath in 1995, I reinstated a normal Precision pickup (Bartolini) for some touring, and I used the bass for periods during my 12 years in We Will Rock You in the West End. I shaved down the back of the Tele bass neck during the '70s as I found it too chunky, but went too far and exposed the truss rod! So that neck was retired in the '90s and I've had a couple of different P bass necks on there since then.