Career
He released a solo album, Cape Catastrophe in 1990. Jones is best known for his unique bass sound and highly personal, virtuosic playing style, incorporating an unconventional three-finger right hand technique, as well as his pioneering use of sliding harmonics. His first recordings with Brand X employed a fretless Fender Precision bass, though he later switched to what became his trademark Wal basses, produced by Electric Wood Limited in the United Kingdom. More recently, he switched to custom-built Ibanez basses, citing a desire to simply try something different after many successful years using the Wal.
The uniqueness of his approach, particularly with Brand X and on his contributions to Brian Eno"s "Another Green World" and "Before and After Science" LPs of the 70s, cast a long shadow.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this can be clearly seen in the work of Japan bassist Mick Karn, who acknowledged Jones as an influence at various times during his career. Jones studied Electronic Engineering at the University of Liverpool, and has used his electronics skills to potent effect over the years.
In the late 70s, he designed and built various analog signal processors for use with the bass, perhaps the most unusual of which was an amplitudeand frequency-sensitive flanger that would vary the character of its flanging effect based on what notes were being played into it, and how loudly they were being played. His other designs included an envelope-controlled Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF), which can be heard on the track "Noddy Goes to Sweden" on Brand X"s 1980 album "Do They Hurt?", as well as an analog drum machine, which featured preset rhythms in various odd time signatures such as 15/16.
He is also an avid amateur radio operator, and has developed several innovative, compact antenna designs for the amateur radio High Frequency bands.
