Untitled Document

Dave Hill's "Dad's Gibson" guitar.
Probably the most ever-present guitar in the whole Slade story.......

Slade guitars

This guitar was used at the beginning. It is still there now, despite a brief lay-off in the mid 90's when Dave had a rather pointless flirtation with stock Gibson Les Paul guitars. It is the one guitar that Dave Hill trusts to get his sound across properly.

The neck is from a Gibson 335 or 345. The maple body is made by Sam Li. The small rectangular 'CUSTOM MADE' plate behind the bridge does not relate this guitar to a Gibson model at all and this guitar bears no resemblance to any Gibson model available.

The neck pickup is from a Fender Jaguar. The bridge was a typical Gibson TuneOMatic style, but John Birch replaced it later on, however. Either Dave knew exactly what he was doing, or this guitar is made from whatever was lying about!

It has certainly been very good to him over the years.

DAVE HILL'S SAM LI / GIBSON GUITAR is featured in the June 2015 issue of GUITAR AND BASS MAGAZINE.
This excellent feature is also on the net: Part One | Part Two.
An extra web article about some of Dave's other guitars is here.

Looking at the John Birch J2 guitars that are shown in the panel below, one can maybe see clearly why Dave Hill had the scratchplates fitted onto the bodies of them as an attempt to make them resemble this guitar. The lacquer on the upper rear bout of the body is worn away by forearm friction - probably from the sparkly jackets.

A replica of this guitar was made later on by Jaydee. It did not have scratchplates
fitted and was heavily flamed. It has not seen much stage use.

Meanwhile, Flamin' Slade strike again, with another quite
accurate replica of one of Dave's best known guitars!

The original John Birch 'SuperYob'

One of the most desirable guitars to a Slade fan would have to be the original John Birch 'SuperYob' guitar (below), which was a one-off guitar custom made for Slade's Dave Hill. The man who designed it was a schoolteacher in Scotland.

A true one off barking mad signature guitar, made for a true one-off barking mad guitarist, designed around the time of the 'Old New Borrowed and Blue' album and was used onstage for part of the show in the period from then up to the Flame film.

This guitar went through a couple of refinishes in silver and also in black before Dave eventually gave up on it as a dead loss, because it was so uncomfortable to play and didn't actually sound particularly good. It suffered from terrible neck-dive, due to the heavy decorative metal plate on the front of the headstock. It was of little use in the studio, compared to the trusty 'Dad's Gibson' and onstage, it was just horrible to play, as the action (string height above the neck) was unbearably high. It's all very well a guitar looking great, but when it's painful to play and sounds bad, well..........

It was traded in unceremoniously at a Birmingham shop, Musical Exchanges, against a Jaydee Explorer guitar (which made it onto Top of the pops and was then stolen shortly afterwards) plus an acoustic guitar and a Strat type guitar and was left languishing on display in their shop window for a couple of years, as some sort of trademark, until Marco Pirroni from Adam and The Ants spotted it, while in Birmingham with Adam And the Ants on their December 1981 'Prince Charming' UK tour.

Tracy Michelle, kindly told us:

"He went in and promptly asked the two men, "How much for Super Yob?”
One of the guys laughed and said “You couldn’t afford it, mate!”
His reply was “Try me “
To which the guy said "£500."

Marco told him he’d have it and paid the £500 happily, telling the guy that he would send someone to collect it later that day. The guy said “Done” and under Marco's breath, he mouthed “You have been!!"

Getting back to the venue, he sent one of the roadies to pick it up. Upon his return, he was laughing, and said the guys had apologised, as they hadn’t realised who Marco was. Baffled by this, Marco said "What difference does that make? A customer is a customer, regardless." He was just happy he’d got a bargain piece of history and he thought, going by their attitude that they were not impressed by it, nor that kind of poncy scene that they must’ve thought it represented.. There were a lot like that.

Marco was not sure exactly how the guitar ended up in the shop and was also unaware of the Madness connection until he was shown the video recently - they hired it from the shop..

It has since appeared in a couple of noteable promo videos - Slade's 'Little Sheila' (for which Dave borrowed it back) and it was hired by the shop to Madness for their 'Shut Up' video. It also appeared in the original Slade 'My friend Stan' promo video, in 1974.

It was displayed (on loan) to the Millennium Dome exhibition for some time and after that had closed, it was put into storage. There was a period of time where we weren’t sure of its whereabouts but eventually, Marco was reunited with it and it now resides in Derbyshire, where we now both live.

He says it’s really a terrible design as a guitar. In a functional way, it’s too heavy and would swing down and hit the floor, if he hadn’t got a tight grip on it. It also sounds awful. It was used in Adam and The Ants Apollo 9 video, as a fancy prop, rather than a tuneful instrument, but in his words "a wonderful thing to have."

Over the years, he’s had offers to sell it, but he won’t part with it - and who can blame him.
Marco loves the band, by the way...

IMAGES OF THE SUPERYOB GUITAR IN OCTOBER 2018
COPYRIGHT MARCO PIRRONI - NOT FOR RE-USE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

SUPERYOB GUITAR IMAGES - COPYRIGHT MARCO PIRRONI - NOT FOR RE-USE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

(from the March 2006 issue of Guitarist - well worth ordering or subscribing!!)

FRAMUS SUPERYOB GUITARS:
Framus made a pair of copies, the red one below now belongs to Paul Day, whose guitar collection is immense. The other copy is displayed in a shop in the UK. Neither appear to have been used regularly on stage with Slade, apart from on TV shows.

John Birch guitars, less the late John Birch, started work on a number of 'replica' SuperYob guitars. These were based quite closely on the original Yob, which Marco lent back to Dave Hill and John Birch guitars, while it was needed. I don't think the small limited edition ever got to the intended number of 50 copies, which can only serve to make the small number that were actually built and sold even more valuable. Mind you, you could still get one made...........

Ex-Slade bassist Dave Glover did talk to the company about a bass version of the SuperYob, but the body to neck proportions would have been all wrong. The idea was abandoned. No basses were made.

A rare picture of the first John Birch re-issue SuperYob 001 while under construction.
This is the one that Dave Hill uses now.
No bridge, no strings, no scratchplate, no electrics at this point.

The finished reissued result, with illuminated neck fret dot markers - as on the deluxe version.

A further tribute to the Superyob (below) comes from the Slade tribute band Flamin' Slade, who sent me this photo. Ed describes himself as being 'no John Birch, just a man with a hacksaw'. It looks bloody good to me!

I also remember the tribute band 'Cum on feel the noize' having a home-made Yob guitar.
Are there any pictures out there?

Dave was reunited with his original SuperYob guitar briefly for the 'Little Sheila' promo video.

Jaydee Explorer guitar

This attractive black double-bound Jaydee Explorer guitar made it to a couple of video clips - the Ruby Red promo and a Top Of The Pops for Lock up your daughters. It was stolen and never made it to a Slade live show.

Thanks to Marcin Bielowicz for reminding me to add this guitar.

Also made by John Birch, specifically for Dave Hill, after he had seen the original made for someone else (see picture below). Not known for certain how many others were made, possibly only two. Dave's plain white model did appear in the JB catalogue. Dave's Bat was stolen before it was ever gigged and has not resurfaced. It has probably been used for spare parts for another guitar.

Dave and Jim were both given Burns Flyte instruments, around the same time that Marc Bolan was seen with one.. It is believed that Dave later sold his on (as he tends to do with any endorsement guitars he is given). What happened to Jim's Burns Flyte bass is not known.

Dave endorsed this guitar and had a couple of them. This one was fitted with LED's on the neck
and was featured heavily in the stage show, until he took delivery of his replica superyob guitar.

This particular endorsement guitar was then sold on EBay to JC - to whom I am very grateful for this photo.

Dave's Ibanez Flying V guitar.

Ibanez made quite a fuss of having managed to pass a couple of guitars onto Slade. Here's the music press advert: Dave usually sold endorsement guitars on, quite quickly, for cash. It may have been used for TV shows once or twice.

Dave required a new and period guitar for the film Flame, which was set at the end of the 60's. He actually plumped for an authentic manufacturer, but took an up-to-date model guitar - The Nashville. This is the deluxe model, as it has edge binding stripes on the body. Nashvilles are quite scarce. No-one is sure where this is now.

Hi there, I've just been browsing your excellent site, and being a guitarist as well as a Slade fan I was particularly interested in the pages about Dave, Nod's and Jim's guitars. I was surprised by the inclusion of the Flame guitars as they were only dummies.

Although I cannot answer the questions 'Where are they now?' what I can say is that when they were being 'played' I was about 4 or 5 feet from them! The place was the Hammersmith Palais during the filming of Flame. My friends and myself had answered a call for people to be in the audience at The Rainbow and the Hammersmith Palais. An offer like that is not to be taken lightly, so we quite naturally bunked off school and went.

At the Palais we managed to get in the front row right in front of Dave Hill. When they came onto the small stage I noticed that there was something strange about the Flame guitars. The strings on Dave's one (being the closest) were all the same width. Despite the screaming that was going one I managed to get his attention to ask about this curious feature. Because of the noise it took him a while to work out what I was asking, but the light dawned and he held it up and grasped all six strings between his fingers and waggled them around to demonstrate how baggy they were. At the same time he mouthed "It doesn't matter, it's not a real one". A few minutes later the fact that they were fake was confirmed when he tried to plug a guitar lead into it and discovered that the jack socket was in fact just a hole and the lead wouldn't stay in!

A week or so before that at the Rainbow 'concert', Nod, was talking to us (the crowd that is, not us personally), explaining that they were supposed to be using these Flame guitars back that they hadn't turned up from the manufacture's - Framus.

Of course you've only got my word for all this, I can't actually point at the screen and say "look, that's me!" I missed out on getting my face on screen by about three inches as at the Hammersmith Palias the camera tracked along and stopped right in front of the girl who was on my left (I think you can just see my elbow!). However I can state that if you watch the crowd shots in the Rainbow (where Flame come up through the stage), on Dave's side you should be able to make out something shiny on a pole being waved. It was in fact a 'Flame guitar' that I made, heavily based on the Superyob, and I'm on the end of it. It can also be seen in the album cover - just.

I think that I've blathered on long enough - keep up the good work.
Keep On Rocking

Other John Birch guitars:

Dave Hill's John Birch J2 guitar (natural finish)

This guitar later had white 'batwing' panels and truss rod plate added to it, to make
it look a bit more interesting and possibly to cover some blemishes in the finish.

Then later on, it had the upper rear white plate changed to a black one. Keeping up here?

Then it went white again........ This is possibly an attempt to make it
resemble the Gibson / Sam Li hybrid shown at the top of the page.

Dave used this onstage and on TV with Slade several times at home
and abroad, which leads me to believe that he actually owned it.

Photo courtesy of Slade in England. This guitar was probably a 'loaner' from John Birch.
Dave was unlikely to have owned it. The weight would have been prohibitive for normal stage use.
Also Dave's tendency to play it while totally naked didn't make it a viable stage guitar.

No-one is sure what happened to all of the John Birch guitars that Dave used. The 2015 Guitar and Bass magazine article shows that he still has at least one of them. The Hi-Watts have been sold on as they were conking out on him after being stored in a Birmingham warehouse for ages and he doesn't ever use Hi-Watt amps now. Dave now mainly uses the old classic 'Dad's Gibson' guitar that he had previously retired from use due to fear of inflicting further wear and tear on his favourite aged guitar.

He has also been known to use a couple of stock Gibson Les Paul's, but these did not have too distinctive a sound, especially as Dave stopped using his Hi-Watt rig, depending instead on hired Marshall set-ups which never really gave him anything approaching his old sound at all. Dave would have been better off getting the Hi-Watts serviced. You learn from your mistakes.

Dave has also had a replica made of 'Dad's Gibson' - see below - but it has never really seen that much use.

As we all know, Nod's amps went at an auction at the Robin 2 in 2002.
One of them went to Slade fan Stu Rutter.

Dave also used a Burns Vibrasonic for a lengthy period before getting "Dad's Gibson", which was seemingly later re-shaped in an attempt to make it resemble a Gibson Les Paul with a different neck grafted on. Photos exist and will be on here soon.

This picture of Nod shows him twanging away furiously with what appears to be a Hofner V2 guitar. A not too expensive starter guitar. He appears to be surrounded by the Salvation Army. What's going on here?

A Gibson 335 would have been beyond the reach of most teenagers back in the 60's, but Nod ended up with one somehow. He quite rightly looks very pleased with it and is doing a silly little dance to prove it. His chum in the above picture used what looks to be a Hofner Futurama bass.

Nod's guitar has had a Bigsby tremolo arm added at this point. His bandmates used a Harmony 12 string (ho-hum) and (gasp of envy) a Rickenbacker. (Thanks to Chris S for the Hofner and Gibson pictures above and also for identifying the model of the Hofner)

For many years this was Nod's main guitar for stage work. The Telecaster sound just dominated Slade's early records.

Stu Rutter is fairly well up on what pickups John Birch put into Nod's Tele : "In mid / late 74, in time for its use in Flame, Nod's Tele had it's neck (Superflux) p/u removed at John Birch, and a whole new bridge & scratchplate made to put a Magnum humbucker at the bridge. The neck pickup was then placed into the new scratchplate at the neck. Notice that the neck pickup is at the opposite angle to what it was in the original bridge."

Nod has stated that he used a Gibson Les Paul in the studio quite often with Slade and that may be the guitar which appeared in The Grimleys TV show. Picture of that guitar to come shortly.

Nod used this in the 'Far far away' video and in the stage scene in 'Flame'. It is a replica of a far more expensive Gibson guitar. Nod probably went for the Antoria for its availability and more sensible price. They were also very comfortable to play with a creditably big warm sound.

Here is a picture of Slade in the studio (circa 'Old New Borrowed and Blue') where Nod holds a darker sunburst Gibson jumbo acoustic with block inlays on the neck. This may have been the property of the studio or could have been hired in for the studio sessions. Nod has not been seen elsewhere with it. At the front of the picture is the late Tommy Burton (pianist on 'Find yourself a rainbow')

Nod also used an Ovation 'balladeer' acoustic guitar in the video and TV promo appearances for 'Universe'. This guitar may be the same one used in the video for 'Do you believe in miracles?' and the Grimleys TV show - which strongly suggests that Nod still owns it.

Another Ovation- this time it's a Deacon - as used by Nod around the 'You Boyz' period.

One was stolen by someone 'helping' the roadies carry the band's gear after a great gig at Barbarella's in Birmingham in 1979. The guitar didn't reach the truck. Nod was utterly incensed. This guitar was fitted with John Birch pickups and bridge. The thief contacted Nod in later years, to apologise for taking the guitar and to ask for forgiveness, as an essential part of his drug rehabilitation. Holder has never said who the 'well-known local musician' who took the guitar was, but he has not forgiven him. The guitar ended up going to a collector in France. Nod was offered the guitar back, but didn't accept it.

Nod is pictured with a CMI SG styled guitar here on a US TV show. This looks fairly like a Gibson SG except that it does not feature an upper cutaway. It was far cheaper than any Gibson would have been at the time. If I remember correctly, Nod used this in Flame for the earliest 'Iron Rod' scenes.

The Gibson Thunderbird bass, Gibson Flying V and Gibson SG custom guitars used in the 'Radio Wall of Sound' video and the following TV slots were all hired for the occasion.

This bass was Jim's main instrument onstage with Slade from the late 70's through to Slade's demise. And where did this most desirable bass in the world rest after its nightly ordeal at the cruel hands of the once-mighty Jim Lea?

Slade guitars

These photos are courtesy of the case's new owner, somewhere in America.

Jim Lea's Gibson EB-0

Jim traded this bass with the bassist from Robert Plant's band LISTEN in order to obtain the cherry finish Gibson EB-3 that he would later use with Slade.

Courtesy of www.jiomleamusic.com

Courtesy of www.jimleamusic.com

These photos courtesy of www.jimleamusic.com

Jim Lea's Gibson EB3 - refinished in white

Hmm. A nice bass indeed. A double scratchplate of a style that isn't that common for a Gibson, may have been added by John Birch when it had his pickups fitted. Here you see it in white, instead of its original cherry finish. This was not what was actually intended. It went away to have a few small things done and came back a different colour. Jim had previously mentioned a refinish in passing to John Birch and the great man did it while Jim had it in to have something else done. Jim was apparently mortified. Ooops!

Where is it now?

Slade guitars

Jim with cherry finish EB-3

Slade guitars

Standard Gibson bridge and controls.
Not far off being 'as bought'.

Jim and a John Birch J1 and J2 bass

The J1 was a basic instrument. Pictures of Dave playing this also exist.
It is not the bass that was smashed in the Flame film.

Another sunburst JB J2 bass, possibly on loan to Jim as a spare.
Jim has also carried a natural finish bass similar to this as a spare in 1980.

Jim Lea's Jaydee bass with tremolo arm

Jim used this for a couple of TV appearances (Miracles on 'The Krankies' and 'Superstore'). It also was carried on several dates on the final UK tour, but never plugged in, that I ever saw anyway, during a show. Jim took it back to John Diggins in 2003 to have it serviced.

Slade guitars

The Framus Flame bass - smashed during a backstage row in the 'Flame' film

Slade guitars

Some more very useful info - from Ken Tait :

I think that I've blathered on long enough - keep up the good work.
Keep On Rocking

Ken Tait..

The Framus Star bass used in Flame

I used to play with a guy who worked in a music shop who offered me a bass just like this, saying with all sincerity that it was the actual one that was used by Jim Lea in the Slade film, 'Flame' .

I had no reason to disbelieve him and the bass came from a reputable source in the Midlands - who also parted with a couple of lovely custom made John Birch guitars.

However, once tried out through an amp, it was declared to be a bit of a plank, so I didn't buy it.

It wasn't that expensive really, I would have got it for a song, but a poor bass remains a poor bass - and any poor bass is too expensive.

The bass pictured is NOT Jim's.

Jim Lea's Flying V bass

Allegedly a studio favourite for its deep, plummy sound.

This only ever surfaced on TV during the making of the 'Thanks for the memory' video (as in photo) and a TOTP, as far as I can tell.

Very little stage use - I've been told it was used for the encore of 'Get down and get with it' at Liverpool in 1975.

The promo video for 'Thanks for the memory'

Ibanez made quite a fuss of having managed to pass a couple of guitars onto Slade.
Here's the music press advert:

Jim has also been pictured with a Fender Precision bass and also a Fender Jazz bass (below)
and a Shaftesbury copy of a Rickenbacker 4001 (in the promo video for Nobody's Fool) around the 'Nobody's fools' period.

Slade gear

It is possible that the Fender Jazz below was a studio instrument. Jim has never used one of these basses of his own on stage to my knowledge. It has been common for Slade to use TV studio-owned instruments for mimed appearances, rather than take their own with them.

Slade guitars

John Birch 'Rickenbacker 4001' type bass

The Rickenbacker 4001 style bass used on the 'Top of the pops' show for Slade's 'Cum on feel the noize' appearance was apparently a John Birch bass loaned to Jim by the maker, while his Gibson EB3 was being worked on. Jim did not own this bass either.

Stu :
"The p/u's on the JB Rick are either Magnum's (more likely) or Hyperflux, which is what the Superyob had. Impossible to tell unless you get to see the name engraved between the poles."

The Gibson Thunderbird bass Jim used - as well as Dave's Flying V and Nod's SG guitar used
in the 'Radio Wall of Sound' video and the following TV slots were all hired for the occasion.

From the days of Nick and The Axemen !

Slade guitars

To be identified!!
Jim had a Red single pickup Hofner Colorama in the Axemen before he picked up the bass.

Jim's all-black Fender Stratocaster ....

Slade guitars

Synthesisers
Lea used a ARP 2600 synthesiser (on 'Seven year bitch' and other tracks from that era) which was sold on eBay in 2003.

Jim Lea ARP2600 synthesiser

Thanks to Sonic, Stu Rutter and Chris Selby for their help with a couple of things on this page!