Jimmy Lea and his.........Jaydee

[godofthunder]

   Not Gibson but close enough? It was about time I did a little video story about my Jaydee Jim Lea bass.

[4stringer77]

Too cool. 
Thanks for sharing.

[Dave W]

That was great, Scott. I remember the story from way back in the early Pit days but that was before YouTube.

Are you using Rotos on that?

[godofthunder]

   The strings are what Jaydee shipped it with,  they are dead. I am going to put some Rotos on it and do a demo with my Slade Hiwatt.

[FrankieTbird]

[Chris P.]

I love the vid, Scott!

What can you tell about the distortion circuit? Is it comparable to an excisting floor unit?

[amptech]

I must admit I pulled out my 'cuz I luv you' LP after seeing your video🙂 I'm no diehard Slade fan, but I've had this record since my teens.. Just one of those albums that reminds me of a happy youth. And yes, great bass on all the tracks!

[Alanko]

   The strings are what Jaydee shipped it with,  they are dead. I am going to put some Rotos on it and do a demo with my Slade Hiwatt.

I feel like something bad would happen if you didn't have Rotosounds on that bass.

I learned recently that Jim Lea played John Lennon's harmonium on Merry Christmas Everybody. I never knew what the extra instrument was on the intro.

Quick Edit: Just stumbled upon this:



Presumably this is his much modified EB-3 that was the precursor to the sunburst bass?

[uwe]

Jim was an accomplished pianist und played all keyboards on Slade albums - und there were quite a few, even among the hits ... My Friend Stan, How Does It Feel, Thanks For The Memory - he wanted the keyboard intro on that played by a "real pianist", but as no one could replicate it, his "demo" version stayed on the recording.

[Alanko]

Jim was an accomplished pianist und played all keyboards on Slade albums - und there were quite a few, even among the hits ... My Friend Stan, How Does It Feel, Thanks For The Memory - he wanted the keyboard intro on that played by a "real pianist", but as no one could replicate it, his "demo" version stayed on the recording.

And of course he played the fiddle as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrasNTwuF1o&list=RDGrasNTwuF1o&start_radio=1


Slade had the right formula. Extroverted singer and lead guitarist, introverted but musically brilliant rhythm section. As in, Queen wouldn't have worked so well as a band without John Deacon on bass, but he was never going to try and steal the spotlight (Roger Taylor might have, just to ruin my theory slightly).


I've dipped back into Slade's music a bit recently, and it strikes me how much of the DNA of each song is coming from the bass lines. Stuff that I didn't even realise was the bass part, in some instances. The intro of this stands out! I had this tune on a compilation CD when I was a kid. If you asked me to hum the intro it would be the bass parts I would whistle!

[OldManC]

Scott, I absolutely love this post. What a great review and bas. These clips have been a highlight for me over the past few weeks!

[uwe]

Even Dave - albeit grudgingly - learned something about Jim Lea und Slade here!

Jim Lea was Slade's musical heart who wrote all the songs - Noddy Holder wrote double entendre lyrics to them and made some of Jim's musical ideas more accessible to the public.

[Big_Stu]

I love the vid, Scott!

What can you tell about the distortion circuit? Is it comparable to an excisting floor unit?

My John Birch SG bass has the same circuit. It was a gizmo designed by John Diggins who built Jim's bass under the John Birch label. It's about the size of a postage stamp and in JD's words is "very simple", so while it doesn't answer the question I'd guess at not as intricate as a pedal. Jim used his when it was in the middle position, ie. both pickups. the level pot on the scratchplate was set to about 8. He then controlled it being in or out by adjusting the lower volume pot which you see him do on the above video when he says he wants to play with his booster. Jim's fullbackline was about 18000 watts through a whole PA range of cabs. The sound was .... immense.

[uwe]

I can attest to that! When I first saw Slade, they had just returned from their self-imposed yearlong US exile (in an effort to crack the market there which proved futile). They played in a club (their fortunes in Germany had waned), but it seemed like they had stuck their whole US arena backline and PA in there und turned it up to eleven! That was the by now legendary "nose bleed incident" - a guy standing beside me - right before the PA bins - got nose bleed from the truly physical volume. And while the band was "louder than war" (a Fidel Castro comment backstage to the Manic Street Preachers when they played Cuba), Jim Lea was loudest. Three songs into the set, he played a bass solo from atop the right PA tower, the place just shook.

[Big_Stu]

I saw Slade live 36 times, the majority of the time I was stood directly in front of Jim. I also saw Motorhead live 16 times.
My tinnitus is pretty bad.