Jimmy "Flim" Johnson

[pace]

Hey Jimmy!...
 
My co-worker and I will be at the Mohegan Sun gig in a couple of weeks. Should be a good time as always.... LMK if you need to get 'off the reservation' (literally, not metaphorically) pre/post show...

[JimmyJ]

John Z, thanks.  If I were a coffee drinker I'd be all over that.  But I will enjoy a nice midnight sandwich while I'm down here.  I know what you mean about bad sounding venues.  Our FOH guy is mighty fine but sometimes even he can't win.
 
Mike P, maybe I'll see you there.  Casino gigs are odd in that they pay very well but then they don't want you to play too long. Because when people are at the show they aren't gambling!  That's a bit harsh, they're not all that way.  I think we get to play our whole show at the Mohegan Sun (and we'll probably know the tunes pretty well by then) so that should be good.  Let me know what seats you're in as it gets closer.  If you know.
 
Nice to see Ed V. and his gals the other night.  Thanks again for the CD.  Hope you all enjoyed the show.
 
Jimmy J

[eddievig]

Jimmy J,
 
Many thanks for taking the time to visit... The show was stellar, but the company was even better! It was truly an unforgettable night for us all.
The gals and I are still buzzing about all of it a week later...
 
Safe travels and Happy Holidays to you, yours, and the whole gang on tour.
 
Ed V

[rustyg61]

Not sure if this has ever been posted, but Roy Vogt posted this on Facebook today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k5EQWfqVOQ
 
Which lead to this amazing clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiQMXgfnUVI
 
Here's Roy's Facebook post - https://www.facebook.com/groups/162730003749416/868430789845997/?notif_t=group_activity
 
Jimmy. you have been the tone master since the beginning! Incredible playing too!

[sonicus]

That was great !

[dead_head]

Wow! That was some amazing stuff! I just love that tone...

[JimmyJ]

Over 30 years ago, yikes!  I had no idea any of that Wayne Johnson stuff was recorded, much less on video.  (For you youngsters, this was a year before cell phones were rolled out in the US).  We had some good fun with that trio.
 
I sure wonder where that bass went...  76-418 was stolen out of a van in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1987.  A particularly odd axe too.  The tailpiece was a plate with pins sticking up onto which you slid the ball ends of the strings.  Cracked top on both sides of the bass pickup.  5-strings on a 4-string neck...  Where could it be?  In a closet somewhere?  On the wall of some restaurant?
 
Thanks for the attention and nice comments my friends.  Now stop googling me!  HA!
 
Jimmy J

[jacko]

Just pre-ordered Gadd's '70 strong'. If it's anything like Gadditude it'll be another great album. looking forward to listening to your playing on something new Jimmy, do we have long to wait?
Hard to believe Steve's 70 this year; when we chatted last September I'd have put him in his early 60's at most. Must have a very effective fitness regime :-)
 
can't be long till the new JT album comes out?
 
Graeme

[David Houck]

Those videos were a pleasant surprise on a cold rainy afternoon.  Thanks!

[edwardofhuncote]

JimmyJ, I'd like to read more about that 5 strings on a 4-string neck, sometime when you've got time. I've thought about that a lot here lately, the logistics of how to do it.  
 
I hope to read here one day you have finally found 76-418. I've never had the misfortune of having an instrument stolen, but my Dad had a Gibson banjo stolen from his office in 1976... he still carries the serial number of that banjo and the phone number of the Wise Co. Sheriff's Office in his wallet to this day.

[bigredbass]

Gregory, I don't know Alembic's original work with JJ on his first, but it was common at the outset of 'off-the-rack' five strings.  
 
My original BB5000 Yamaha was essentially a 4-string BB3000 with an 1.75 nut width, modded with a five-slot nut, an updated 3+2 Yamaha P-pickup (strangely, an idea only now becoming common 25 years later), a slightly bigger head with the 'add-on' G-tuner, and a five-saddle bridge, all tooled to work inside the original four-string spacing, and these were fairly simple mods from the four-string blueprint.    
 
You essentially wound up with a five string with very tight string-to-string spacing, like a Ric or a very narrow Jazz Bass.  Really 'cozy' down at the nut, but you got used to it.  I had a Peavey DynaBass (I know . . . .) that was done the same way.
 
This was not uncommon back in the late 80's, and the widths have been all over the map ever since.  IF there's a 'standard', it's probably the ubiquitous Sting Ray Five that introduced it to most people, the first fairly easy five for most people to get their head around, plus they had that Music Man tone which a lot of guys were used to.  And getting that big pickup to work on the B-string was not quite the hurdle required to make a P-pickup sound good in the same situation, a classic illustration of 'narrow' vs. 'wide aperture' tone.
 
Joey

[edwardofhuncote]

Right on Joey, I know what you mean. I have an '87 Gibson V Thunder Series 5-string. Essentially it's an ordinary (well, by Gibson's standards anyway) shaped bass, wired up like a Thunderbird. Darn thing looks uncannily like a cone headstocked Spoiler, painted Ferrari red. The string spacing is pretty much 5 strings squeezed into the same space as the 4-string model, even used the same pickups. They made them for less than a year, and they're not well regarded at all, but it has enormous sentimental value to me. (and the string spacing as you say, you get used to it)  
 
Anyway, I'd given some thought to an Alembic restoration/conversion. Since it's partly Jimmy's fault I play 5-string basses, thought I'd go to the original Alembic fiver guy.

[JimmyJ]

Hey friends,
 
Graeme, thanks for supporting the team.  Gadd record coming momentarily.  James' record probably in a couple months.  (Holdsworth record? Within the decade, we hope.)
 
Gregory and Joey, I think you guys have got it right.  When there was enough interest in 5-strings the builders felt the need to offer it but didn't want to retool everything.  So what came out first was tight string spacing on whatever they were already making.  Then later the Fender players complained enough that many went to standard P-bass +1 spacing.
 
What I landed on and got used to is a 1-3/4 nut and around 2-3/16 from the outside edge of the B-string to the outside edge of the G at the bridge.  My fretless is even smaller with a 1-5/8 nut and that was clearly because Alembic only had one graphite neck mold to fool with at that moment in time.
 
For a few years before discovering Alembic in '75 I was playing a Gibson Les Paul Recording Bass which was probably already tighter spacing than Fender (and a couple frets shorter!).  So the spacing didn't feel too weird to me right off the bat.  I also started on electric so I wasn't coming from upright.  I guess that makes me a bass guitarist
 
Again, it's just what I got used to and happens to fit my fingers, the way I play, etc.  Almost every other bass player who tries my bass finds it a tight squeeze.
 
Jimmy J

[bigredbass]

I also prefer a narrow five-string.  Both of mine are the Alembic 'Classic' taper, 2 nut by 2.5 at the last fret, so the strings almost feel parallel to me.  Yamaha later went crazy with those crazy-wide fives on TRB's.  
 
If I had mad money to build a couple of 'what if . . . ?' axes, one of the first things I'd try would be like the fingerboard on a nylon string classical:  Utterly straight end-to-end, no taper at all, and a flat-radius (i.e., NO radius) fingerboard, backed with a flat-back neck profile, REALLY a 'U-shaped' neck profile.
 
It's interesting to me that I was never at home, a four-string was always too much work, the notes just didn't line up right to me.  I'd read about Jimmy and Alembic, and a bass with FIVE strings just said to me I'm waiting,Joey, and then when I got my first, the little light went on and everything made sense.  There's a part of me that always wants a little P/J Precision (the current candidate is the ESP Frank Bello), but every time I pick up a nice one, something is STILL missing, so it just remains a daydream . . .  
 
Joey

[rustyg61]

Jimmy, your neck sounds very similar to my new Europa. Mine is 1.77 at the nut & 2.5 at the 24th. I haven't measured string to string, but with about 1/8 from the edge of the string to the edge of the fretboard, that would put it at 2 1/4 string to string. I love my narrow neck, & your bass was my inspiration for getting the narrow neck! My string spacing feels natural to me. Now when I play my Jazz Bass it feels like I'm missing a string in between the others!