Leo Lyons

This is the fourth installment in a series of profiles on some of Rock And Roll's most influential bass players.

David Williams "Leo" Lyons was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire England November 30, 1943 and began his musical career at the early age of 16.

Throughout 1962 Leo with his band The Jaybirds with guitarist Alvin Lee regularly performed at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Along with playing with The Jaybirds, Leo was also hired to play in the club's house band with Tony Sheridan. From 1963 through 1966 Leo toured with a number bands, worked as a session musician and still found time perform with and manage The Jaybirds.

1967 was a pivotal year for Leo and the band The Jaybirds. Most notably was the name change to Ten Years After and the release of their first album on Deram Records in October. TYA were to soon build a hugh following in Europe.

During 1968 Leo and Ten Years After toured extensively in the United States playing such venues as the Fillmore West in San Fransisco and the Fillmore East in New York City. TYA was one of the first Rock bands to play the legendary Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

In August 1969 Ten Years After played the now historic Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. The highlight of their set was the encore of "I'm Going Home" which was captured on film and included in the release of the Academy Award winning Woodstock film documentary. This 10 minute appearance in the film firmly established Ten Years After a place in Rock history.

From the late 60's through the mid 70's Lyons and Ten Years After continued to tour almost constantly playing festivals and venues such as the Isle Of Wright Festival, the Toronto Peace Festival, the Miami Pop Festival, the LA Forum, Madison Square Gardens and the Budokan in Tokyo Japan. It has been estimated by Lyons that TYA were performing to 75,000 concert viewers a week.

In addition to the touring, Ten Years After recorded and released ten multi-million selling albums between 1967 and 1974. In 1975 guitarist Alvin Lee quit the group to concentrate on a solo career and TYA faded out of the music scene. There has been three short lived attempts throughout the 80' and 90's to reform Ten Years After with the original lineup but each time, Lee quit to return to his solo career.

In 1975, he was hired as a studio manager by Chrysalis Records to re-equip and run Wessex Studios in London, England. Leo was also producer for the band UFO from 1974 to 1976, working on the albums Phenomenon, Force It and No Heavy Petting. He has also produced albums for Frankie Miller, Procol Harum and Motorhead to name just a few.

In the late 90's He moved from his farm in Cotswold, England to Nashville, Tennessee to work as staff writer for Hayes Street Music. Leo continues to be active as a songwriter, musician and record producer/engineer. He has been guest bassist on CDs by Savoy Brown and Leslie West and toured extensively in the United States with former Buddy Guy guitarist Scott Holt. Leo currently plays in a reformed Ten Years After with new frontman Joe Gooch.

Leo has used a number of basses during his career. Some of his earlier basses include a 1960 Fender Precision, 1962 Fender Jazz, 1955 Fender Precision, 1970 Acoustic Amp Company Acoustic Fretless bass and the occasional Rickenbacker. He currently uses Lakland and Warwick guitars.

Leo's interests outside music include the paranormal, alternative medicine, martial arts and technology. He is a vegetarian, married with two grown up sons.

Isotropic Carbon Guitar Pick

Obbligato Releases the World's First Isotropic Carbon Guitar Pick

Obbligato, Inc. releases the world's first Isotropic Carbon guitar pick with tone and feel that is very reminiscent of true tortoise shell. The patent pending design is made from a very fine grain carbon not well known outside of the medical community.

The standard shape is .022" thick and is so precise you can feel the strings. The Black Diamond surface is smooth to the touch yet will not slip or rotate in your fingers even when wet. The Black Diamond Picks ship complete with a protective carrying case and care instructions.

Tested for over two years playing with steel and bronze strings on a wide variety acoustic and electric guitars and show zero wear…even under 4X magnification. Unlike metal picks, Black Diamond does not prematurely wear strings before they go dead.

Best of all, the tone and playability is better than tortoise shell, ivory, metal, stone, or plastic. If you do not lose it you will never need to buy another pick ever.

How Does It Compare to Plastic?

Cost: Higher initial cost but quickly pays for itself in under a year by not having to replace it.

Volume: Slight increase in volume and punchiness over plastic picks.

Tone: Unparalleled rich tone compared to any form of plastic.

Wear: Does not wear or warp like plastic picks ... exponentially longer lifetime than plastic.

Grip: Better abilty to grip than Tortex® plastic picks. Even with sweat and oil.

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.obbligatoinc.com/.

Wish List

Rickenbacker 4003 MapleGlo

In a perfect world with unlimited funds, this would be my next guitar. With an MSRP of $2,195.00 and the cheapest street price I've found being $1,949.95 I may have to wait awhile. We can always dream though. By the way, when I bought my 1977 4001 I paid less than $600 new. Those were the days.






Specifications
Body Type Solid
No. Frets 20
Scale Length 84.5 cm (33 1/4'')
Neck Width at Nut 42.9 mm (1 11/16'')
Neck Width at 12th Fret 54.0 mm (2 1/8'')
Crown Radius 25.4 cm (10'')
Body Wood Maple
Neck Wood Maple
Fingerboard Wood Rosewood
Weight 4.1 kg (9.0 lbs.)
Overall Length 113.8 cm (44 13/16'')

Overall Width 34.3 cm (13 1/2'')
Overall Depth 31.8 mm (1 1/4'')
Neck Binding Yes
Fret Marker Style Triangle
Tailpiece RIC
Bridge RIC
Neck Type Through body
No. of Pickups 2
Type of Pickups Single Coil
Output Type Mono and Stereo
Machine Heads Schaller Deluxe

Passive Analog Bass Guitar Modeling System

World's first 100% Passive Analog Bass Guitar Modeling System released

Obbligato has released Turnstyle, the world's first 100% analog bass guitar modeling system that installs directly into any Fender Jazz Bass Guitar and most similar instrument. This marks the first of many Turnstyle applications born out of the Obbligato Custom Shop.

The patent pending design uses the bass guitar's magnetic pickups and a convenient rotary switch to enable bass players to seamlessly switch between six instantly recognizable bass guitar tones. The growing Turnstyle product family continues to offer a significantly lower-cost alternative to most digital processor guitars and can be installed by anyone with basic soldering skills.

The unit is 100% return to stock friendly with no routing required and is a completely reversible mod. Price was kept to a minimum by leveraging the customer's existing pickups. This also allows the freedom of using Turnstyle with virtually all makes and models of Jazz Bass compatible pickups.

Turnstyle ships fully assembled with control plate, knobs, master volume and tone controls, Turnstyle switch, new mounting screws and a genuine Switchcraft output jack. Turnstyle for Jazz Bass is available in Chrome, Gold and Black and can be installed by anyone with basic soldering skills. No need to remove pickups or even the strings.

Turnstyle replaces the consumer's control panel instead of their guitar, is completely analog, requires no batteries, and provides instant access to six top bass guitar tones.

Obbligato is an exciting new company focused on introducing products that will enhance the sound and or versatility of stringed instruments. Our current products center around our unique and patent pending Turnstyle alternate guitar type switching system for guitars and basses where your favorite guitar can sound like other popular guitars with a simple twist of a knob and our proprietary Black Diamond material for guitar saddles and picks.

For more information, please visit www.obbligatoinc.com

This is a Press Release

American Soldier In Stores March 31

Lyon LE-2 C By Washburn

My wife bought this guitar off eBay about five years ago for our daughter to learn to play on. I think she paid a hundred dollars for it including shipping. The guitar was going to need some work to make it playable again but we knew that before she placed a bid. It wasn't until the guitar arrived that it became evident that this instrument had been very used and a bit abused at some time in it's life. From the chips in the paint it had been dropped more than a few times too.

Other notable issues were the Strat style tremolo bridge was missing the E string adjustment saddle along with the tremolo bar. There were also some electronic issues with the pickups, they weren't working. This was a fairly easy fix though. A bit of soldering corrected that problem. Once everything was put back in order it was surprising how nice this little guitar is. I don't feel that we found a real diamond in the rough but for $100 and a little work this Lyon does roar.

The body of the LC-2 C is made of lightweight basswood. The bolt-on neck is maple with a 22 fret rosewood fingerboard and pearl dot inlays. Other features include three passive stock pickups: single/single/hum configuration. One volume knob, one tone knob. Bridge is chrome-finished traditional Strat style w/tremolo arm, with 5 springs inside of the body cavity. The tuners are chrome plated sealed Washburn tuners. Volume /Tone knobs are black plastic with with lettering. There is also a five-position pickup selector switch.

Because of it's 7/8 size, the Lyon LE-2 C is a great guitar for beginners. It's also a decent guitar to have around as a spare.

Jack Bruce: Songs For A Tailor (1969)

Jack Bruce's 1969 solo debut is worthy of the "classic album" tag. It's a long way from Cream, although Jack's aggression and authority shines through just as powerful. His partnership with lyricist Pete Brown was kept intact for this album even after Cream’s demise. Pete Brown's lyrics, whose writing partnership with Bruce provided some of Cream's most memorable material.

There is an underlying Cream feel on this album though but it comes only from the songwriting. Jack did all he could to get a very different sound with this recording. It's almost like Bruce tried to create his own personal musical genre. What do you get when you mix rock, jazz, folk and the psychedelic sixties ? Songs For A Tailor.

The only draw back to this album for some is in it's production. Legendary bassist and producer Felix Pappalardi handled the production on this recording and his work here has been referred to as muddy, dry and even mediocre by some listeners. I for one believe the production fits the material very well and Pappalardi has done a masterful job.

Don't overlook this album. Give it a good listen, you'll be glad you did.

Track Listing

1. Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune - 3:41
   
2. Theme from an Imaginary Western - 3:30
   
3. Tickets to Waterfalls - 3:01
4. Weird of Hermiston - 2:23
5. Rope Ladder to the Moon - 2:53
6. Ministry of Bag - 2:49
7. He the Richmond - 3:36
8. Boston Ball Game 1967 - 1:45
9. To Isengard - 5:28
10. Clearout - 2:35
    

Personnel
Jack Bruce - Bass, Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Cello
George Harrison - Guitar
Chris Spedding - Guitar
L'Angelo Misterioso - Guitar
Jon Hiseman - Drums
John Marshall - Drums
Harry Beckett - Horns
Henry Lowther - Horns
John Mumford - Horns, Drums
Dick Hackstall-Smith - Saxophone
Art Themen - Saxophone
Felix Pappalardi - Vocals, Percussion

Andy Johns - Engineer
Felix Pappalardi - Producer

Awesome Lunch

There is a small Mom and Pop diner about two blocks from my office and every St. Patrick's Day the lunch special is corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and cornbread. Every year it seems to just get better and better. I even had an extra helping today. I'm stuffed. Do I really have to work the rest of the day? Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

1977 Model 4001 Rickenbacker

This is my first real bass guitar. I bought this bass new in 1977 after a long search for the right guitar. I had been looking at Fender basses and almost bought a Fender P-bass but decided against it and kept looking.

I found this Rickenbacker by accident really. A friend of mine was looking for a couple mic stands and asked me if I wanted to check out a new music store that has recently opened in the area.

After about two hours of driving we found the place. The store was in a very rural part of the county and behind the owners house. There was a small sign in the front yard of the home but we missed it twice while driving around. I also didn't even go in this hole in the wall.

Boy was I surprised when we walked in. The show room was small but it was packed with guitars, amps and other gear. Hanging on the rear wall was an array of acoustic and electric guitars from Fender, Gibson, CF Martin, Ovation and Rickenbacker. There was my future 4001 hanging between two six-string electric Rickenbacker guitars. After playing the bass for almost an hour in the store, I was hooked. I had to have this guitar. Two days later with cash in hand I returned and the Ric came home with me.

For those who have never played or even held a Rickenbacker bass the first thing you notice that this is a heavy guitar and a lot of the weight is toward the neck so it feels a bit unbalanced. This feeling soon disappears. I can't say anything negative about this guitar. It just fits me and it produces the sound I was always looking for. This bass is another guitar that will always be in my collection. We've logged a lot of miles together and made many good memories.

Here's a short run down of the 4001 Model specs.

Model	Rickenbacker 4001	Rickenbacker 4001S / 1999
Available	1961-1986	1964-86
Pickups	2 single coil/horseshoe
Scale	34"
Body	Bound maple	Unbound maple
Neck	Maple and walnut through neck with rosewood (occasionally ebony) fingerboard. Twin truss rods. Bound, with triangle inlays. Fretless models were listed in the catalogue from 1984, but had been available by special order from the 1960s	As the 4001, however unbound neck with dot inlays
Hardware	Two pickups, two volume and two tone controls, selector switch. Stereo Rick-O-Sound wiring first listed from 1971, although available by special order earlier. Nickel or Chrome hardware
Finishes	Sunburst, Cherry, Black, Walnut, Natural, White

Greg Ridley 1942 - 2003

This is the third installment in a series of profiles on some of Rock And Roll's most influential bass players.

One of the very first albums I bought when I started collecting LPs years ago was Humble Pie: Performance Rockin' The Fillmore. This album started my addiction for anything Pie. Humble Pie's founding members Steve Marriott on vocals and guitar, Peter Frampton on vocals and guitar, Jerry Shirley on drums and Greg Ridley on bass guitar comprised in my opinion one of the best Blues/Rock groups of the late 60' mid 70's.

At the time of the release of Humble Pie: Performance Rockin' The Fillmore in 1971 I was just becoming interested in playing music and bass guitar was my choice of instrument, so Greg Ridley naturally became one of my first guitar heroes.

Alfred Gregory "Greg" Ridley was born in Aspatria, Cumberland, England on October 23, 1942. Greg began his musical career as a member of a local band called "Dino & The Danubes" as well as other small club bands until longtime friend and classmate Mike Harrison asked him to join the "V.I.P.s" in 1964. The "V.I.P.s" did some recording and experienced a small amount of success but membership and name changes were the only real constant. In 1968 with the addition of American keyboardist Gary Wright and guitarist Luther Grosvenor the band finally decided on the name "Spooky Tooth".

Greg performed on both Spooky Tooth's debut album, It's All About and their second effort, Spooky Two. The band had developed a very strong following coming off these two releases and it looked like Greg and Spooky Tooth were heading in the right direction.

In early 1969 Greg was approached by former "Small Faces" front man Steve Marriott and asked if he would be willing to leave Spooky Tooth to join a new band. Marriott and Peter Frampton were just forming "Humble Pie" and with the recent addition of Jerry Shirley on drums a bass player was needed to round out the group. Ridley accepted the offer. From 1969 through 1975 Ridley was at the center of Humble Pie's sound as their bassist and along with drummer Jerry Shirley they made up one of the best rhythm sections in Rock music during this time.

In 1975 the members of Humble Pie disbanded to pursue other interests. Ridley actually left music for almost a decade after the break up.

In 2001 Greg participated in a concert organized in memory of Steve Marriott, who tragically died in April 1991 in a house fire. At that time Greg was very much involved with Jerry Shirley to reactivate Humble Pie with Humble Pie MkII guitarist and vocalist Bobby Tench. Out of this collaboration came the album Back On Track released in 2002. In 2003 during a tour of Germany in support the album Greg fell ill and the tour was cancelled. Unfortunately he wasn't able to recover.

On November 19, 2003 in Alicante, Spain Greg Ridley died from complications resulting from pneumonia. He was 56.

Just A Note

Along with the continuing Rock And Roll's Most Influential Bassists entries to the blog, I'm going to continue with the album reviews as regular feature of A Bass Player's Blog as well.

Chris Squire: Fish Out of Water (1975)

Chris Squire is a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes and one of my favorite bassists. This album was recorded during a break from Yes and released in 1975. Chris not only played bass on the album but also performed all the guitar work and vocals. All the songs were written by Chris and he also served as producer. This recording has often been referred to as the missing Yes album by fans of the group. Partially because of the assistance from Yes's drummer Bill Bruford and keyboardist Patrick Moraz who appear in the line-up. Fish Out Of Water charted at number 69 on Billboard's Pop Albums for 1976.

If you are a fan of Yes or Progressive music and this album isn't in your collection you're missing out on a classic recording. In my opinion this is the best of the early solo projects by the members of Yes.

Track Listing
Side One

1. Hold Out Your Hand - 4:13
2. You By My Side - 5:00
3. Silently Falling - 11:27

Side Two

1. Lucky Seven - 6:54
2. Safe - 14:56

Personnel
Chris Squire - Bass, Vocals, 12 String Guitar
Bill Bruford - Drums, Percussion
Patrick Moraz - Synthesizer, Organ, Keyboards
Barry Rose - Pipe Organ
Andrew Jackman - Piano, Conductor, Orchestration
Adrian Bett - Woodwind Leader
Jim Buck - Horn
Mel Collins - Saxophone
Julian Gaillard - Strings
Jimmy Hastings - Flute
David Snell Harp Leader
John Wilbraham - Brass Leader

1973 Fender Model F-65 Acoustic

My second guitar was this Fender acoustic I purchased new, I was 16. After playing the bass for awhile I wanted to try my hand with a six string guitar. I found this one hanging at a local music store and the price was right so I bought and brought it home.

I first thing I noticed when the guitar got home was how easy this thing was to play. This was going to a great instrument to learn on, this was a good buy I though to myself. The only thing that gave me any difficulty while learning to play the guitar was playing with a pick. I just couldn't get the hang of it. I never played bass with a pick. I always used my thumb, index and middle finger. So this is how I learned to played the six string.

The F-65 has a very thin neck and the action is almost like an electric. Anything I can play on an electric I can play on this acoustic. The neck, I believe is rosewood and has mother-of-pearl inlays on 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th and 17th frets. The tone is rich sounding and the brightness of the sound is amazing. The sound has matured with age and gotten even better. The F-65 has never disappointed me with anything I wanted to play.

This is another guitar I will always have in my collection.

Hercules Stands GS414B Auto Grab System Guitar Stand

I have been using this stand for a few months now and I can't say anything negative about it. The Auto Grab system works flawlessly and the stand is extremely stable. The Auto Grip System works off the weight of the guitar or bass. When an instrument is placed in the yoke, the housing slides down, rotating the arms to secure it. When you are ready to play, lift up and the AGS automatically releases! All contact points between the stand and the instrument are covered by Specially Formulated Foam (Hercules description) rubber. The easy-to-use height adjustment is equipped with a locking pin to ensure the stand stays where you put it. If you're in the market for a stand, you can't go wrong with this one.

The GS414B stand can be found on the web at zzounds.com, musiciansfriend.com, samedaymusic.com and other retailer. Prices range from $40.00 to $42.00.

Auto Grip System yoke
Comfort Grip
Specially Formulated Foam
Height: 950-1150mm (37.4-45.2")
Weight: 1.9kg (4.2lbs)
Base radius: 310mm (12.2")
Load capacity: 15kg (33lbs)
Folded size: 710x155mm (27.9x6.1")

Terence "Geezer" Butler

This is the second installment in a series of profiles on some of Rock And Roll's most influential bass players.

As the founding bassist for the groundbreaking metal band Black Sabbath's Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler's bass playing and songwriting have been an inspiration to many later bassists.

Butler was born in Birmingham, England on July 17, 1949, and began his musical career in late 1967 as a rhythm guitarist when he and classmate John "Ozzy" Osbourne started a band called Rare Breed. This short lived band dissolved after the departure of Osbourne. Butler and Osbourne would soon work together again when guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward asked them to join an upstart blues band called Polka Tulk. At this time Butler was still playing guitar, but Iommi made it clear that he didn't want to play with another guitarist so Geezer moved to bass. "I never picked a bass up before Sabbath started," he stated.

After Butler and Osbourne agreed to join, the band soon changed the name to Earth, but this name didn't last either after finding out that the name Earth was being used by another English club band. So in 1969 the name Black Sabbath was suggested by Geezer and and Rock and Roll history was made.

Though Osbourne was the focal point of Sabbath, Butler wrote almost all of the band's lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with religion and the black arts to explore recurring themes of death and destruction. He said, "I would not want to write something about something I do not think about."

Butler is noted as being one of the first bassists to use effect pedals on on his bass. An example of this can be heard at the beginning of the song "N.I.B" from Black Sabbath's self titled 1970 debut album. He is also one of the first bassists to down-tune from the standard EDAG to the lower C#F#BE in order to match Iommi who had started tuning to C#.

Butler remained as bassist for Black Sabbath until 1984 when he left to form the Geezer Butler Band. In 1988 he joined again with Ozzy Osbourne (who had left Sabbath in the early '80's) to take part in the "No Rest For The Wicked" World Tour. Butler rejoined with Black Sabbath in 1991 for the reunion of the "Mob Rules" lineup but quit the band again after the 1994 "Cross Purposes" tour.

In 1995 Butler again worked with Osbourne on the "Ozzmosis" ablum. He then went on to form the band G/Z/R and released the album "Plastic Planet". Butler's next album "Black Science" followed in 1997. Butler returned to Black Sabbath in 1997 and has remained with the band since. 2005 was the release of his third solo album "Ohmwork".

Through the years Geezer has used various guitars and amp setups. Early in his career with Black Sabbath he was known to use Laney amps with Laney cabinets. Later on he gradully switched to various pre-amps running through Crown power amps and custom built JBL speaker cabinets. Some of his earlier guitars included a Fender Precision and a Dan Armstrong plexiglass bass. Later guitars included custom made John Birch and Jaydee basses with the occasional Rickenbacker. Currently Butler is endorsed by and uses Lakland basses and for amplication he uses Ampeg SVT-2PRO Heads and SVT-810E cabinets.