Leland Sklar

Sklar's favorite instrument is a bass put together by parts and consists of a P-bass body, a J-bass neck with mandolin frets and two P-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"

"I record 25 albums this year and I used this bass on 20 of them"

This is my signature Dingwall bass I've been with Sheldon for probably 17 years now

After introducing a prototype at NAMM last year, Warwick has launched the Sklar Bass I Signature bass. Made with legendary session bassist Leland Sklar, the hollowbody four-stringer is based on the Star Bass with modifications for Sklar’s liking including an arm support built into the body.

The German master-built instrument is built with a carved body crafted from mahogany with a AAA flamed maple top. Its flamed maple neck is topped with a tigerstripe ebony fingerboard fitted with 21 small nickelsivler frets. The pickups are a pair of MEC Vintage singlecoils matched to an active Warwick 2-band preamp. It also includes Sklar’s infamous Producer Switch, which has no function except to appease producers who want to “hear” something different.

Sklar’s personal custom version of the bass has a AAAA quilted maple top and an upgraded producer switch that have five positions with LEDs. The fifth position lights up a certain hand gesture for which the bassist is known.

https://youtu.be/QpCEPQwt9Xk

he have an interview on the web site .... http://www.eaamps.com/eafamily-featuredartist.asp

The legendary Leland Sklar, bassist (Phil Collins, Toto, James Taylor... and many others) Is living his Funk Machine! 🤘 Thanks Leland!

https://www.facebook.com/seamoonfx/posts/197949315097026

In the TEC Awards video titled "Jackson Browne Reunited with The Section 'Running On Empty'," Leland Sklar can be seen using the TC Electronic Blacksmith bass amplifier head during smaller shows.

Seen used with TC Blacksmith Head on smaller gigs

In an interview featured on Euphonic Audio's website, Leland Sklar mentions using the NL210III cabinet.

In an interview featured on Euphonic Audio, Leland Sklar mentioned using the Wizzy 12.

In a live performance video titled "Turn it on again medley - Live Knebworth - 1990 - Genesis," provided by Elio on YouTube, Leland Sklar, the renowned bassist, is visibly using a Moog Taurus I synthesizer. This can be clearly observed at approximately 00:57 into the video, where Sklar is seen behind the instrument during the Genesis & Phil Collins Band's performance at a benefit concert in Knebworth, 1990.

In a video by Yamaha Music London, renowned bassist Leland Sklar discusses the construction of the Yamaha BB2024 bass guitar, confirming his use of this specific gear.

In the video titled "1389. Road recording and practice set up!" on his YouTube channel, Leland Sklar shows the Solid State Logic SSL 2+ audio interface at the 1:19 mark.

In a YouTube video titled "27. More Gear," bassist Leland Sklar states that he has used GHS Super Steels Bass Strings "since forever on all of my basses," specifically mentioning the medium light gauge (40-102).

Leland Sklar uses the Leo Quan Badass II Bass Bridge on his heavily modified 1962 Fender Jazz Bass, as discussed in the video "Lee Sklar’s AMAZING Bass Collection" by Scott's Bass Lessons on YouTube.