Jimmy "Flim" Johnson

[mb94952]

Oh Gosh, I LOVE Flim Johnson, aka Jimmy Johnson. He is the most honest bass player on the planet. He plays with his heart on his sleeve. His tone and playing are uncompromisable. He never pays a "wrong note".

I own Tricycle and two Wayne Johnson Trio CD's, along with all the Allan Holdsworth. Duh.

JJ is amazing. I've had the fortune of seeing him live at New George's in San Rafael, CA in 1989 with Allan and Chad.

I just LOVE Jimmy Johnson, Mark King, Geddy Lee, and Stanley Clarke. In any order. That's my Mount Rushmore. Haha, I made a pun by accident.
Mike B. bass fan, 1992 Europa owner.

[JimmyJ]

Woah Mike, calm down now.  Ha!  Thanks for the kind words, although I can assure you that I've played many wrong notes and I'm still doing so on a daily basis!  Cool that you heard the Holdsworth band way back then, that was a unique musical experience and I was lucky to have been involved.

Fmm, it's a nice surprise that the Gadd Band record got nominated.  Great for Steve - a guy who everybody has heard but not everybody knows.

Happy Holidays,
Jimmy J

[mario_farufyno]

So, watch this Mike, JJ with Vinnie Colaiuta:

https://youtu.be/P8C3S_AyQ-8

[mario_farufyno]

smooth and precious

[JimmyJ]

Yow.  2003 I think.  My hair wasn't even gray yet.  HA!  That was a Zildjian sponsored event honoring Steve Gadd.  Our assignment was to play music that HE had played drums on over his already lengthy career.  It's always a treat to play with Vinnie and Mike in any situation.  And Larry Goldings on keys and Tom Scott on horns.  We also got to play a couple tunes with Rick Morotta.  And then Anthony Jackson spoke at the event - which made me feel ridiculous trying to play these tracks that HE absolutely killed back in the day.  That was the first time I'd met AJ, a super nice guy and a true bass monster!

Jimmy J

[David Houck]

Cool video!  Thanks for posting.

[jalevinemd]

Jimmy...what instrument are you holding in this photo from the Steve Gadd tour date poster?

[JimmyJ]

Hey Jonathan,

That's my slightly unusual graphite necked fretless Series I built in 1980.  Below is a close-up of its odd bridge/tailpiece setup.  What can I say, it was an experimental time.     I still absolutely love the sound of this bass - though in hindsight I doubt the funny hardware has anything to do with it.

Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

Happy New Year Jimmy J. - nice to see your fretless getting a little workout! I watched 2019 land safely last night with mine on my knee... couldn't think of a better idea than Auld Lang Syne on a fretless 5-string.

Is that per chance this same bass we talked about in another thread, with a bone or Micarta nut? I have a Distillate fretless from around that same time with a nut of similar material. (not certain what it is, but I have no reason to believe it came any other way)

Low notes, good fortunes, and safe travels.

*I see now the picture is tagged '82' so probably not...

[JimmyJ]

Hey Gregory,

Happy New Year to you too.  Auld Lang Syne seems like an appropriate tune for some slipping and sliding!

No, this '80 fretless has an adjustable brass nut.  The pic you posted is correctly tagged '82, that's my "backup" fretless which has an equally bizarre bridge/tailpiece setup (pic below). 

I'm pretty sure the nut on that '82 is some kind of synthetic material.  And frankly, I would think that would only effect the tone of the open strings.  Any opinions on that?  Although I've never sat down to compare these two basses with that specific variation in mind...  Different strings, different wood, different mojo... I'd be very surprised if I could hear the difference in the nut material.

Cheers,
Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

I agree, and I think we're 99.5% right, that the material a nut is constructed of mainly influences an open string. I'm leaving some leeway for sympathetic resonances that might be adsorbed by something less hard than brass. Those things count too, but I don't how much. I would expect Alembic electronics, particularly Series I or II sensitivity might 'hear' the difference if there was one to be picked up. Ideally, a nut needs to be something hard and durable. Maybe they were experimenting with synthetic bone at the time... some of that stuff is plenty hard. Here's my fretless Distillate thread: http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=23259.0 (my backup fretless...)

FWIW - know of at least one Series II fretless out there with an ebony nut... which makes perfect sense to me.

[mario_farufyno]

You've probably already wrote a lot about your basses here Jimmy, (sorry) but got curious about that experimental Bridge... What is catching me is what seems to be a massive sustain block on both fretlesses, was it a quest for sustain (or tone)? I see you didn't adopted this in your regular Basses.

[mario_farufyno]

2 Cents...

It's common to take the string after the finger as standing still or not counting, but I really feel that the string still can transmit some vibration to the other portion and when I am using or not one of those hair tie as string muffler I hear (or believe so) that this steals energy from the free vibrating string portion somehow even geting to affect its sustain and tone at least a little during Slap. I feel the Lows get tighter or clearer when I damp strings close to the nut and is a pitty that I can't get used to that thing on the way of my fingers and hate the open strings tone when muffled.

Or maybe I just want to believe...

[JimmyJ]

Yes Gregory, an ebony nut would seem to make sense on a fretless ebony fingerboard.  Maybe with a mechanical soft finger doing a slow vibrato too?  HA!

Mario, I'm not sure where that bridge/tailpiece concept originated but it was an idea about terminating the string at a single point...  Seems kind of ridiculous now.  And in fact, it creates un-necessary strain on on the bridge bolts, requires a double-sized block, and even displaced the batteries on the '82 into the electronics cavity - a case of getting a little too customized.  Ha!

The '82 began life as a fretted bass.  I enjoyed the '80 fretless so much that I tried to "do that again" with frets.  It came out great and had a lovely tone but the graphite neck compressed the dynamics in such a way that - while great on the fretless - it kind of bugged me on the fretted version.  The notes all spoke about the same volume and on live gigs it started to bother me because I couldn't play soft and loud.  So I had it converted to fretless as a backup to the '80 and ordered another wooden bass in '87.  And a couple more in '89.

Funnily enough, there were 2 videos done in '84 on which I played the '82 with frets - Holdsworth in Japan and Ritenour live.  So at least there are some recordings of the bass in its original form.  And in hindsight I have to say that bass sounded pretty good - even with the compression.  Oh well!

Interesting thoughts about the nut question, thanks for your ideas.

Jimmy J

[mario_farufyno]

Generosity is a mark of the greats. Love this place... and you too, Jimmy.