Jimmy "Flim" Johnson

[funkyjazzjunky]

Mr Johnson,
 
When you shared photos of your graphite necked Alembics I noticed the you have experimented with the bridge/set-up of some of you Alembics.  
 
What electronic modifications have you tried?
 
Vann-Di

[to_81_0190]

Hi Jimmy,
 
Thank you for very exciting gig tonight at STB139. It was much more powerful than I expected. Your play from 5th string open to 1st string 24fret with many techniques was impressive. You seemed to be making various tones only with your finger, not instrument control knobs. Wow!! Then it was funny that triangled strings at machine head.
 
Toshiaki

[JimmyJ]

Vann-Di,
No electronic mods really.  My basses all have master volume controls and I set the output trimpot balance at probably 55% bridge pu, 45% neck pu.  The only internal change is one resistor on the preamp boards which I've switched to produce a bit more output.  I've built a few power supplies and modified my DS-5 with a mono/stereo switch and line-level/pad switches.  I think that's it.  As Toshiaki mentioned, I rarely turn the knobs.  Ha!
 
Toshiaki-san,
Thanks for coming to STB and for the nice comments.  I obviously really enjoy playing this music with these guys.  The bent strings on the headstock are just because I don't carry a wire cutter, just trying to get them out of the way.  I know, it looks a bit funny...
 
Jimmy J

[room037]

I'm JEALOUS !
 
Unfortunately I didn't join tonight.
Toshiaki reported to me at the time. Thanks Toshiaki !
 
Jimmy, I will join the next tour in Japan !
 
Eiji

[chuckc]

So Jimmy, I need the inside scoop. I have seen a couple of vids of you and JT, most notably the Mill Worker vid and the Only One vid and you and JT seem to have this thing going with an almost extreme oriental like bow. The first time it kinda just went past me and then I saw it again in a different video/different song and wondered if there is some story behind it. Any juicy insider tidbit bones you can throw us regular folks?

[JimmyJ]

Chuck,
 
Funny you spotted that.  At the end of Only One the arrangement has 3 ascending final chords reminiscent of a Beatles ending (think Bill-y Shears).  So that led to us doing the Beatles bow like they used to do...  Probably just confusing to the audience but it made us giggle onstage.
 
The mutual bowing as JT introduced me at the beginning of Millworker was genuine.  I've probably been to Japan too many times.  Ha!
 
Jimmy J

[funkyjazzjunky]

Is there a link where we can see  your collection of basses?
 
 
Vann-Di

[jakebass]

Language is a funny thing sometimes. I was reading the bowing question from Chuck and could not for the life of me grasp what was being discussed as I was pretty sure that there was no incidence of either you (Jimmy) or JT employing arco technique on your electric instruments in any of the JT repertoire that I am familiar with...!?!?
Then bending forward at the waist hit me like a bolt from the blue.... HA HA (it was when I re read the been to Japan too many times)  
Jake

[chuckc]

That's funny Jake, I actually had to double check my spelling to make sure I had bow spelled correctly since I thought that it might be construed as bowing ala Jimmy Page not bowing as in Take a Bow

[JimmyJ]

That's funny!  In any other bass forum we'd be talking French or German style bowing, not Japanese.
 
Vann-Di, I posted some pics of my 2 fretless basses in this thread: http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/79924.html?1275547115 but I haven't taken any shots of the fretted models.  I'll try to do that someday.
 
Jimmy J

[bigredbass]

Jimmy:  
 
I wouldn't ask you to talk out of school, but I've always heard of session guys being called in to, ahem, finish projects for bands that have gone late, over budget, what have you, when the principals involved can not finish them for any number of unfortunate reasons.  I'm generally thinking along the lines of 'The Decline of Western Civilisation, Part 2'.
 
I often think of certain hair band records, then seeing vastly dumbed-down versions of the same tunes in their live shows.  Was this a common thing then, or now?  I even heard of guys having to sign confidentiality agreements that they were never there !
 
J o e y

[JimmyJ]

Hey J o e y,
 
I never saw that movie but I have heard a couple funny ghost player stories.  I was never personally in a situation that required non-disclosure docs, never replaced a band member as such.  I did anonymously replace a rhythm section guy in a large ensemble once.  And I might be on a Quiet Riot track or two (long story - really nice guys).  It's probably less common now that you can photoshop anybody's performance into whatever you can imagine.
 
Jimmy J

[mario_farufyno]

Quiet Riot??? Now you've surprised me...

[2400wattman]

I remember a short interview with Jimmy with him stating that he had done some metal sessions with big amps and the such and the the bass sounded like a twinkie. This was his response for recording direct as opposed to amp and direct. This was close to twenty years ago that I read this so please forgive me if anything is wrong.  
Lots and lots of beer in between now and then.  
Get down!

[JimmyJ]

Your memory is working fine Adam.  That rock production house where I worked for a minute had me bring my rig one day.  At the time that was bass in stereo - neck pu through a pair of 15 cabs and bridge pu through a pair of 12 cabs.  They took DIs, close miked the cabinets, added room mics, far away shotgun mics, something like 10 channels of bass all together.  That can work pretty great on drums but when you're playing pitches (especially low, slow waveforms) you run into some funny cancellation and phase issues.  It seemed like every time they un-muted another channel more fundamental went away.  Thus the twinkie tone.  Oh well.
 
Jimmy J