Mowac

My favorite Level 42 songs that I know on bass:

Can't Walk You Home
Sunbed Song
True Believers
Are you Hearing
Running In The Family
Something About You
Living it up (The Sun Goes Down)
Leaving Me Now
Two Solitudes
Children Say
Love Meeting Love
Lessons In Love
Kansas City Milkman
Forever Now
Weave Your Spell
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
Love Games
Hot Water(90% of it)

Favorites I want to learn to play:

Last Chance
The Chinese Way
Man(currently working on)
Almost There
I Want Eyes
The Sun Goes Down
The Machine Stops
The Pursuit Of Accidents
43
88
Turn It On
The Chant
Micro Kid
Coup d'etat

Mark King is the ONLY reason I got into playing bass. Why? Because his style of playing and the many different basslines he used was a welcoming challenge unlike the boring rock basslines that have been shoved down our throats since conception. When I played guitar, It was Alex Lifeson of Rush. However, after 20 years of playing guitar, I had lost interest because I felt I was a good as I'll ever get. I took up the bass because for every 15 guitar players out there, there is one bass player. Most of the idiots in the U.S. don't have a clue who Mark King is. That's why I got my first Jaydee. If I want to at least sound like the man (let alone play like him) you need the correct tools of the trade. Mark himself said to get as good a bass as you can. Whenever somebody sees one of my Jaydees for the first time, they don't know how to act or what to think of it. If you even mention Level 42's name in the U.S., the person your talking to is going,"Who are they?" I wished I lived over in the U.K. sometimes simply because the fans are so loyal to their bands. The best music I've ever heard has always came from the U.K. (With the exception of '50's, 60's, and 70's country music......Sorry mates.....I have to stick with my homeland on that one )

ERNIE BALL BASSES: Built well, look good, but sound like garbage. A cottonball has more sustain than any Ernie Ball I've ever played.

ANYTHING BY FENDER: Look good, sound somewhat 'tolerable'. The U.S.-made models are waayyyyyy over-priced. The active models have no character. The Mexican models aren't much better but you can work with them. The best value for your money is the Vintage Squier models, half the price or less, and respectable sound quality.

GALLIEN-KRUEGER: TOO ugly to have on stage at any given time.

MARKBASS: Small package, sounds good, OVERPRICED, looks like a piece of construction equipment with the hazard-yellow paint scheme.

ANYTHING BY IBANEZ: Too sterile sounding and too light of a bass. Not much sustain. Fender Affinity basses made in China sound better than Ibanez.

YAMAHA BASSES: Crappy factory pickups that make their basses sound 'hollow'

AMPEG: I'd rather spend the money that they want for Ampeg stuff and just get a new car.

LINE6: Very useless features that no bassist would ever use.

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='578651' date='Aug 23 2009, 06:01 PM']Heheh!

All basses come to me eventually, its like a law of attraction thing!!!

Seriously - just to add about the bridge - funnily enough my GA24 has one the same - the saddles are not adjustable for height, unlike most of John's bridges (you can of course raise or lower the entire assembly as opposed to individual adjustments per string). Since John made basses to order, some exhibit such features - its a very solid design.

I don't know the name Mike Ellis but he was definitely the guy who sold it on Ebay originally as he'd said he'd had it custom made.

Cheers!

Nick[/quote]
That's interesting to know about the bridge. It is a solid design like you said and you don't have to worry about the individual saddles falling out when changing strings like the traditional bridge design. Daveski said that the guy he got the bass from hadn't played the bass in 10 years which explains it's near mint condition. I don't know how long Daveski had the bass so I'm thinking I'm the third(?) (and the last) owner.

Best Regards!

[attachment=31437:DSC00117.JPG]Here is the first picture of this bass as it looked when it first arrived.(far left) It didn't look like it does now after I first got my hands on it three years ago. I won the bass from a lovely gentleman by the name of Alistair Bibby in the U.K. on Ebay. I refurbished it with all new hardware and also replaced the active control board myself. I also had it refretted and the fingerboard re-planed (sanded down high spot till it was flush with the rest of the fingerboard) as it had a high spot around the third fret. I also had John Diggins make me some of the new SN2000 humbucker pickups and I installed those myself. It looks like a new bass now. A labor of love that has given me back it's reward in being able to play this commodore of a bass the way it was meant to be played. My very first bass was a Yamaha BB614(no longer have), and this Jaydee was my second bass. Here is the bass as it looks now after refurbishment:

[quote name='daveski' post='578023' date='Aug 23 2009, 02:04 AM']Yeah that was a lovely bass, but i sold it on as the series 1 is a bit to big and bulky for me! That is why i have a series 3 on order.
The Guy i bought it off had not played it in over 10 years, hence the condition and i only had it for four or five months. The Doctor nearly had this off me.....
Mowac wheres the original red Jaydee supernatural embossed case i sold it in, hope you still have it and i'm glad to see you are enjoying the bass.[/quote]

Greetings Daveski. I still have the old red Jaydee hardshell case but had a problem with the rubber gasket that lined the edge of the case as it wouldn't stay in place and it was stretched. Basically, I didn't trust the case. (You have to love that black shag carpeting the case came with....eh mate?) However, my '07 white Roadie that I have came in a hiscox case that was meant for a Series 1 but it was used for the Roadie when it left John Diggins shop. This case was too big for the Roadie, but a marriage made in heaven for the pink Series 1. (I don't like my instruments sliding back and forth inside the case.) I simply bought an aftermarket case for the Roadie and now all my Jaydees have a happy home. I love this bass! I take full pride of ownership in this gem. Thanks for the opportunity of owning my dream bass. I went to the annual guitar show in my area and I only saw 2 Jaydees in the show's history. Why?..Because I brought them! I get a kick out of educating other musicians about Jaydees because they haven't a clue what one is. Nearly all bassist in the U.S. are sold on the run-of-the-mill, production model, store-bought instruments and they are not the best of quality I might add. As for myself, I truly understand the quality and value of the U.K. made basses and the Jaydees are a prime example. To say that I got my hands on this bass before the 'Doctor' is a true understatement! Ya can't have them all, Doc!

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='577925' date='Aug 22 2009, 06:00 PM']Lovely bass!

The guy who had it built originally used to play at a Shadows meeting over in Warwickshire - he then sold it to Daveski on here and now its Mowacs!

Nice colour! My GA24 is more of a pinky lilac colour but not the standard lilac that John does![/quote]

That gentleman's name wouldn't be Mike Ellis by chance would it? I also have the original JAYDEE Certificate of Authenticity bearing that name in question with the serial number, year model, and John Diggins signature. It has a typo on it indicating that it's a Mark King Series 2 instead of a the Series 1. Can you tell me what kind of Jaydee bridge that this bass has as I haven't seen it on other Jaydees. (check picture of body) Does it come from the Sessions series?
I really do appreciate that bit of info you had on it. Since I'm 'across the pond' from you.....that was very helpful and I'll take any legitimate info I can get. Thanks.

[color="#0000FF"][/color]As promised are a few pics of my beloved Jaydee in pearl pink finish. It was made in 1987. As you can see, it was ordered with the rare 'infinity' inlays that I had never seen before I got my hands on this one. It is in near mint condition. I live in the U.S. so trying to find a Series 1 is like trying to find an honest car salesman. It didn't like the pearl pink color at first but after a while it grows on you. I'll post some of MK2 in cherry red in another post. Enjoy.

You can check out some videos of this bass here, you may have seen them before:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mowac&search_type=&aq=f"]http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer..._type=&aq=f[/url]

The pictures files are very large as I forgot to size them down so please be patient.
Keep on slappin'!

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='478107' date='May 3 2009, 05:38 AM']Here's a nice little number that I picked up from a really nice guy in Scotland yesterday.

This isn't my photo, I hope Alex doesn't mind me putting it on up here.

I'll have to wait until tomorrow before I can play it properly through an amp.

It was built for a guy called Thom Boyle, and was originally pearl pink before being changed to white. I'm going to have John Diggins refinish it, possibly keeping it white and I fancy a change of the neck inlays. I spoke to John a couple of weeks ago and he quoted me a great price for doing this.

Anyone know how to date them from the serial numbers ?

Here's a nice clip of Mark King with his 'Star child' bass.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxMt0CN5lM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psxMt0CN5lM[/url][/quote]


That's a sweet looking Jaydee with the Rickenbacher inlays.

Hello my fellow Jaydee enthusiasts. Newbie here to the forum. I wanted to be apart of this for sometime as they don't have any interesting forums in the U.S. regarding British made basses. You may know me by the same screen name on Youtube as well as I have several videos posted of my Jaydees. I'll be more than happy to post many pics of all my Jaydees here in the near future. You gentlemen over in Europe are more educated, dedicated and take great pride in your U.K. made basses. Thanks and best regards.