Leland Sklar
| Leland Sklar | |
|---|---|
Sklar performing live in 2007
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leland Bruce Sklar |
| Born |
May 28, 1947 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Origin | Southern California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Session musician |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1962–Present |
| Associated acts | |
Leland Bruce "Lee" Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American musician. A prominent electric bass guitarist, Sklar has contributed to over 2,000 albums as a session musician. He has collaborated with a number of well-known performers and recorded soundtracks to films and television shows.
Sklar studied at California State University, Northridge. It was during that time he met James Taylor, who invited him to play bass at some venues. They both thought that the work would be short-term, but soon Taylor's career took off with his first hit records, and Sklar came into the limelight. He was soon asked to record with others, and his long career began.
Sklar's favorite instrument is a bass put together from various parts and consists of a Precision-bass body, a Jazz-bass neck with mandolin frets and two Precision-bass pickups. It has been used on 90% of his recordings and he refers to it as the "Frankenstein bass".
"I had a bass built in 1973 by John Carruthers. What happened was, I had a Precision neck – no body, but the neck was real nice – and we took a template from my '62 Jazz and reshaped the Precision neck into that.
"When Charvel first started, I went out there and saw a bunch of nice alder bodies, and I hung them on wires and tapped them until I found the one that really resonated. So I took that body to John and we made a bass out of it. It's kind of my Frankenstein.
"I've got first-generation EMG pickups on it. Also, I have two sets of Precision pickups, and I have them where Jazz pickups would've normally gone. But I reversed their position, which totally evens things out. In redoing the neck, we had to strip the frets off, and we ended up replacing them with mandolin wire, which is very small fret wire. We didn't know if it would work, but it turned out great. So that's been my main bass since about 1983."
In 2004, Sklar began playing a signature model 5 string bass made by Dingwall Guitars of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This was his main bass on tour and he used them in various recordings. The bass uses fanned-frets which result in longer low strings and shorter high strings.
In 2010, Sklar began playing the Warwick Star Bass II which has since become his main bass in the studio.
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Wikipedia