Leland Sklar

Leland Bruce "Lee" Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American musician. A prominent electric bassist, 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.

Early life and career

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.

Equipment

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.