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John Paul Jones fan club?

#125
One of my all-time favorite Bassists. I have played in a couple of Zep tribute bands and at one point was up on about 80% of the material. I can also play JPJ's keyboard parts with left-hand/pedal bass and somewhat look like him if called for.
 
#128
There were two Bass players on "Sunshine Superman". Spike Heatly likely played acoustic and Jones played electric. Jimmy Page played guitar on the session though there is some controversy over whether he played the lead part. In this live Albert Hall performance Page does play the lead:



Jones also played Bass on and arranged "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan. John Bonham is credited with Percussion while Clem Cattini is credited with drums on the track.

Jones was largely responsible for the success of many Herman's Hermits recordings as arranger and Bass player. He was even asked to join the band but went with Jimmy Page and formed Led Zeppelin.
 
#131
Broadstbully22 said:
Yup. Both for some reason are alluding me.
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Dude, you're also missing "How the West Was Won", this is a must have live CD from a couple of Cali shows in 1972. They have recorded, yet not released Houses of the Holy by this time, and are absolutely on fire. It's not really much time between these shows and when they recorded The Song Remains the Same shows, yet the approach to many of the songs is quite different.

Also missing "The BBC Sessions", recorded from a number of radio performances in 69 & 70, and a whole show in 71. Very good from a historical perspective, to hear how some of the material evolved, but the audio capture of some of the material renders some of it a bit lifeless sounding to me. You will hear JPJ's single coil PBass in all it's glory in the 71 show, though. Also note, I am fairly certain that the 71 show is per ZepIV release, making the playing of that material interesting.

I'm going on a bit here, but bear with me.

You really should also get the Live DVD they released in the early 2000s. It has a show from 1970 @ The Royal Albert Hall that is fantastic, footage from 1973 that was not used in The Song Remains The Same (although the re-release has it now), footage from 1975 @ Earls Court, and footage from 1979 Knebworth Festival ( JPJ playing his Alembics here), plus a bunch of early TV performances that are good/cheesy all at the same time. Highlights of the DVD are the 1970 and 1979 shown, in my opinion. I knicked the audio from those two shows and made CDs out of 'em.

Then there are the bootlegs.........
 
#132
I'm been asked to join a Zeppelin tribute band and decided I'm going to need to drop my Lakland for this gig. I'd like to have as an authentic a bass to what JPH used. I know he used Fender Jazz basses early on. What would be a good copy that would give me "that sound", with the Roto flats? Ironically, I've never been a fan of Fenders. How would a Sadowsky metro work? Was the burst body color and rosewood fretboard his typical combination?
 
#133
Get an old jazz, put ROUNDS on it, play through an acoustic horn cab to get the round rock zep tone. Not flats, based on everything I've ever seen or heard or read other than one quote saying he used flats that flies in the face of the rest where he says he used rounds.

Oh... And a metro is fine IMHO. In fact, any fender style bass. Just play like Jonesy!

By the way I get a pretty convincing jpj first and second album tone with rounds just by rolling back the tone control on a p bass or j through an amp with no tweeter or with the horn turned off. Then you can turn the treble up for the first track on iii or iv etc. But bright flats would sound good too... Just not what he used most of the time.
 
#134
He used flats on his Jazz, rounds on his single coil p-bass and rounds on his Alembics. Not sure what he used on his fretless P. He currently uses rounds on everything, with the possible exception of his fretless P, but I think he only dug that out for the 2007 O2 show.

But....you can get a flatish enough tone with rounds if you do enough to kill the zing (as indicated above).
 
#136
I just checked out a couple of his youtube interviews. The one where he's sitting in some dingy little room on a couch with his bass unplugged, great interview. Then another where he's sitting in a studio. A third he was sitting with Robert skeleton Plant and Jimmy skeleton Page. Paul looks awesome. Those guy looked they were waiting for their coffins to arrive.
 
#137
Favorite band of all time! Makes me feel like all is OK! I know every note, every song!
Had a rough start though, at age 13, I spent months looking for the coolest song on the radio by this Led Zeppelin group
called "talk about love" and gave up. Found "Trampled Under Foot" years later!!!!!! Very happy. I want in the club please.
What's my #? And.....what albums did JPJ play my Fender J Bass? Only been playing for pleasure for 6 months= newbie
 
#139
no number for me, but i've been in this club for a long time; i always tell new bass players, "step one: get LZ II. step 2: learn all the bass parts note for note. step 3: enjoy your new status as a good rock bass player!" jamerson-style melodic finger playing, repeating-rock-riff pick paying, blues improv, it's all there.
taylor16 said:
I'm been asked to join a Zeppelin tribute band...What would be a good copy that would give me "that sound", with the Roto flats?
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rounds! go to the neck pickup (which jazz bass players always avoid for some reason) and roll the tone back for the fingerstyle stuff, then crank the tone for the aggressive pick stuff.
62Jazzbass said:
Seeing that movie at the age of 13 at a midnight showing changed everything for me.

...I have said before that Jimmy Page, having seen him in that movie, made me want to be a "rock star", as I matured, JPJ motivated me to be a musician.
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this, and also this! TSRTS at a midnight matinee turned me around at like 14; page dazzled me, but i later picked up on what jonesy was doing back there.
RedMoses said:
EVERY good BASSIST is a member of the John Paul Jones fan club!
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fixed :D

the old story is that everybody in LZ signed that deal with the devil for fame and fortune except JPJ, so he stayed in the background during the wild glory days but walked away unscathed when it all came crashing down.
 
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#140
taylor16 said:
I'm been asked to join a Zeppelin tribute band and decided I'm going to need to drop my Lakland for this gig. I'd like to have as an authentic a bass to what JPH used. I know he used Fender Jazz basses early on. What would be a good copy that would give me "that sound", with the Roto flats? Ironically, I've never been a fan of Fenders. How would a Sadowsky metro work? Was the burst body color and rosewood fretboard his typical combination?
Click to expand...

Best JPJ tone I've ever gotten was using 1.) LaBella 760FLs, and 2.) the (very dead) stock nickel-plated Fender rounds that came on my American Special Jazz. Both pickups 100%, tone about 80-90%. And I'll play up closer to the neck, too (just watch some Zep videos)... the end of the fretboard makes a great thumb rest for this technique.

FWIW, the new Classic Lacquer series Jazz just happens to come in burst+rosewood with 60s style hardware, which is about as close as you can get to Jonsey's bass without paying 2-3x as much for an American Vintage RI or Custom Shop instrument.
 

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