Jet's Shads P basses

[bassboogie]

Does anyone know what happened to Jet's sunburst and later "fiesta red" Fender P basses ? I assume Licorice inherited the fiesta red one.
Also be interested to know about Licorice's "cricket bat P bass" which he has used at Shadowmania, and if I recall, used on the Atlantis recording.

Thanks, Luigi

[Iain Purdon]

Jet''s red Precision was certainly passed on to Licorice. I don't know about the sunburst one. If it was supplied to the group it may simply have been taken back. Anyone know?

Lic's own P-Bass will be the one in this picture taken at Warwick Club several years ago: Daniel Martin on Burns Marvin, Lic on harmonica and me on his bass, which he certainly used on Dance On

[bassboogie]

Thanks Iain, seems to be the only surviving P bass from the Jet/Licorice era. Did Licorice only use it in the studio, can't recall him using a sunburst live ?

Regards, Luigi

[Iain Purdon]

Hi Luigi

I think there's a difference between live and studio in that the group's deal with Fender and later Burns was that the instruments were supplied free in exchange for being exclusively used for live, TV and photo appearances. What they used in the studios when the cameras were away would have been up to them, I assume. There are others here who will know a lot more about it, the above is just an educated guess.

In the Locking era the supplied Fender basses were initially red and later white. That's all you would see him using.

I know John had a Fender Jazz as his own favourite instrument but I don't know whether he used it on any of the records. Lic's sunburst P-bass was his own and he did use it on some recording sessions. I don't know whether Jet's sunburst was his own or supplied for stage use until the red Fenders came along.

[donna plasky]

Hi. I thought I would re-post this video, but I apologise in advance if this annoys anyone. That wasn't my intent. Licorice is saying essentially what Iain says...Lic used his personal sunburst bass to record "Dance On" and he's holding that bass in the interview.

I find this topic very interesting. I always try to observe what brand/model guitar someone is playing, when I see them performing in different settings. And then I wonder if that's their favourite guitar, or was there some other reason for the selection (like the band told them to use that one). For example, I've seen Mark Griffiths plays all sorts of bass guitars, and I've seen Alan Jones with at least a few different ones.

Kind regards,
Donna

[Jay Bass]

Hi
Heres Brian Licorice Locking with his working bass he uses at the moment
Its a quite new american Standard precision, fitted with roundwound strings
although it looks very red it's actualy a see through orange finish, it plays and sounds great
probably safer carrying this around on trains etc ,rather than the original s/burst bass.
regards
Jay

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[Nick Smith]

Brian also had a fiesta red Fender Jazz as seen in this video from 1962 - he told me he did not get on with the neck of the Jazz since he has massive hands, being more used to the wider neck of the Precision basses! He also owns one of my fiesta red Precisions that was made in Mexico (the '50s re-issue model with the gold anodised scratchplate!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldjzBm-plXM

[RUSSET]

Does anyone know what happened to Jet's sunburst and later "fiesta red" Fender P basses ? I assume Licorice inherited the fiesta red one.
Also be interested to know about Licorice's "cricket bat P bass" which he has used at Shadowmania, and if I recall, used on the Atlantis recording.

Thanks, Luigi

I spoke to Jet some years ago at the 'Music Live' show at the NEC, Birmingham & he told me that his Fender basses while he was in the Shads were given to him 'for free'. He didn't mention by whom, but I guess it was probably Jennings Musical Industries, who also supplied the Vox amps. I understand that when they changed colours to F.Red & when he eventually left the Shads they went back to Jennings, & obviously the F.Red one was passed on to Brian Locking.

Tony.

[JimN]

I spoke to Jet some years ago at the 'Music Live' show at the NEC, Birmingham & he told me that his Fender basses while he was in the Shads were given to him 'for free'. He didn't mention by whom, but I guess it was probably Jennings Musical Industries, who also supplied the Vox amps. I understand that when they changed colours to F.Red & when he eventually left the Shads they went back to Jennings, & obviously the F.Red one was passed on to Brian Locking.
Tony.

That accord entirely with what the ex-employees of Jennings Musical Industries told Jim Elyea when he was researching his book "Vox Amplifiers - the JMI years".

Sometimes, the used instruments (guitars and amplifiers) returned from The Shadows were sold off cheaply to JMI employees. But they were just secondhand equipment and no-one treated them as objects of reverence or extra value.

JN