Colin Moulding

Moulding can be seen in this photo playing a Fender Musicmaster Bass.

Moulding can be seen in this photo playing an Epiphone Newport Bass.

Colin Moulding used three basses on Oranges and Lemons, predominantly a Wal. Back-up basses were a Fender Precision and, for the double-bass sound on "Pink Thing", an Epiphone Newport. "It goes 'poun'," Partridge describes helpfully. Moulding's album rehearsal amp was a Trace Elliot -- "so clear it was unbelievable" -- and he holds his group together with Rotosound strings. Instead of a pick he prefers a fingernail (home-grown). He writes with the help of an Ovation acoustic guitar.

Moulding can be seen in this photo playing a black Fender Mustang.

In this video of XTC from the David Letterman show in 1989, you can see Colin playing his Wal bass while singing "King for A Day" from their album "Oranges and Lemons."

In this YouTube video, Colin can be seen playing his Ibanez Musician. He used this bass on a number of XTC tracks during the 80s.

"I put down the three-note piano riff first when I was writing the tune on my Portastudio, and the two guitar rhythms seemed to go well with the piano. I use the 144 Portastudio, the first one, with a cheap drum box and any effects I can get hold of. One thing I find with my 144 is that when you re-record over something you've already done you can hear the previous track breaking through. But it was a good 500 quid's worth. The track didn't really happen until David Lord got hold of it. A local girl came in and sang the 'choir', tracked up a load of times."

I this photo from an interview in Guitar magazine, Colin is seen playing his 1969 Vox V271 Apollo IV bass, gifted to him by T-Bone Burnett during the sessions for the Sam Phillips album "Martinis & Bikinis."