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jonas hellborg
- Thread starter johhn smith
- Start date
my favorite as well ... i like a lot of players and i am glad that i don't have to pick one but if i did, it would be jonas. i am just gobsmacked at his musicality and considering that most of the music that he is performing is largely improvised makes it that much more impressive.
He's always seems to be on another level than most cats, plus his tone is his own. He doesn't seem to come at slapping from a funk perspective like most players. Like one of my other favorite players Bill Laswell, he doesn't seem to have any musical boundaries. Even his shaved head in the 80's was ahead of its time.
He's always seems to be on another level than most cats, plus his tone is his own. He doesn't seem to come at slapping from a funk perspective like most players. Like one of my other favorite players Bill Laswell, he doesn't seem to have any musical boundaries. Even his shaved head in the 80's was ahead of its time.
i agree, and he has no prejudices either. i've done some reading on him and his approach to the music business and it is also very well developed. i always find that someone who created a niche for themselves and then occupy that niche to be far more interesting and refreshing than the guys who sound like everybody else. the subleties of his playing are astonishing, i remember after buying icon i listened to it start to finish everyday for about 3 months, and then after that at least once a week. same for good people in times of evil. i still lsiten to them and actually listened to them both start to finish today. you are awarre that he and bill laswell owned a studio in new york in the nineties right. i'm still trying to get some of the laswell stuff that jonas played on.
As it has been said he is one of my favorite bass players one of the first jazz/solo bassists i listened to, Really showed how chords can be used effectivly on a bass.
i am having trouble finding his art metal project with mattias Eklund any ideas?
i am having trouble finding his art metal project with mattias Eklund any ideas?
i bought it through a local music retailer. special order it if you need to.
also check amazon.com as i have bought almost everything else through them, they should have it.
it is a great cd and the band is very impressive.
Huge Hellborg fan here...have most of his works & truly enjoy about 90% of it. Occasionally listen to the other 10% just to see if it may eventually grow on me. Not so much yet. 
He's been a big influence over the past few years and I look forward to hearing more from him in the future.
He's been a big influence over the past few years and I look forward to hearing more from him in the future.
Hell, I don't have a picture, but it looked like a cross between a proto-Warwick and a Gibson eb...if Iìll catch a picture I'll post it there!
Huge Hellborg fan here, too
I have been listening to him ever since mid 90's that I picked up the bass, owning maybe all of his releases. I consider him as a strong unique voice (along with Mick Karn), not afraid to take chances and experiment, with ideas that are a step ahead of the norm, great melody and technique to match.
I have been listening to him ever since mid 90's that I picked up the bass, owning maybe all of his releases. I consider him as a strong unique voice (along with Mick Karn), not afraid to take chances and experiment, with ideas that are a step ahead of the norm, great melody and technique to match.
That was his bass made by "Sound of Sweden". The first iteration of this bass appears on the covers of his "Thumb Bassics" and "Chord Bassics" books, and can be identified by the fact that it has an external wire running from the bridge to the piezo unit!
I'm a huge Hellborg fan. As soon as I heard him I made a connection with his music, which lead to him becoming a favourite of mine! I can't think of a record with him on which I don't like. Here are a few of my favourites:
Elegant Punk (astonishingly beautiful solo work)
Temporal Analogues of Paradise (ambitious improvisational work with amazing melodies strung throughout)
Mahavishnu (his first record with Mahavishnu, his playing on tracks like "Clarendon Hills" is just sublime)
Personae (Blisteringly fast, aggressive electric fusion with Shawn Lane and Jeff Sipe)
Kali's Son (a strong, confident statement of eastern fusion)
Icon (simply for the track "Escape" alone, without a doubt my favourite Hellborg track!)
I really could go on. I am just looking out for a few more albums of his (Adfa, Shining Path, Axis etc etc). And man, what a tone that guy has! Particularly when he was using his Status Hellborg bass during the 90's....wow!
I'm another Hellborg fan - I bought my Wal because of him!
Favourite LP is "Kollektiv", which is sadly deleted (why do they do this?) but well worth finding..
And it's also worth getting the Mahavishnu Live dvd for his performance on the 1986-ish concert.. Amazing despite McLaughlin's daft synth guitar!
Favourite LP is "Kollektiv", which is sadly deleted (why do they do this?) but well worth finding..
And it's also worth getting the Mahavishnu Live dvd for his performance on the 1986-ish concert.. Amazing despite McLaughlin's daft synth guitar!
I thought John's Synth guitar stuff was awesome! He really is wizard with that thing!
Funny you mention getting a Wal because of Jonas, it was because of Jonas that I started looking into Status basses, which is now my main bass (my Matrix, and I used to have a Stealth!)
Funny you mention getting a Wal because of Jonas, it was because of Jonas that I started looking into Status basses, which is now my main bass (my Matrix, and I used to have a Stealth!)
i've only tried a wal bass once but i loved it and i want one, i think my favorite jonas hellborg bass is the doubleneck wal. i have never tired a status as they aren't very common around here, but i would love to try the hellborg signature electro 3 6 string. ( though i would want it in 34" scale ). and he is consistent with where he likes the pickup as he specified the same location on both his status and his new signature warwick. one of these days i'm gonna go to toronto and see if i can find his amp system to demo, it sounds like he put a lot of thought and work into designing it and even without hearing it i can believe, due to his attention to detail, that it probably sounds fantastic.
He was definitely a wizard on it, but it always struck me as a bit of a gimmick..
I saw Jonas live once at the BlueNote Club in London's Hoxton Square - we had to wait till nearly 2am for him to come on due to amplifier problems.. Worth the wait though - he was playing the twin-necked Wal (though that's arguably another gimmick
). I also saw him with Ginger Baker at the Jazz Cafe, though that was slightly spoiled by Ginger tuning the drums after every song
Put me down as not a fan of McLaughlin's synth-axe sound, same with Holdsworth! Two of the best players ever trying to sound like keyboards. The only guitar player who plays a synth-guitar that I dig is Pat Metheny, his use of it just sounds more organic to me.
He was definitely a wizard on it, but it always struck me as a bit of a gimmick..
I saw Jonas live once at the BlueNote Club in London's Hoxton Square - we had to wait till nearly 2am for him to come on due to amplifier problems.. Worth the wait though - he was playing the twin-necked Wal (though that's arguably another gimmick
yeah, i'll admit that a doubleneck wal may be a bit of a gimmick but he sure uses it. and it doesn't change the fact that i want it. hehe
