In anticipation to my visit to the factory this week, I've been revisiting the Alembic tones that influenced me as a young player and turned me into an Alembic enthusiast. Ironically, one player I am now playing catch up on is Phil Lesh. I wasn't a fan of The Grateful Dead then, but I've grown to have an appreciation for now. Anyway, In no particular order, here are the tracks that turned my head (and still do): Dreaming From The Waist - The Who, School Days - Stanley Clarke, The Chain - Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gunn Theme - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Achilles Last Stand - Led Zeppelin, Rockin' The Paradise - Styx, anything by John Entwistle from 1975 - 1982, but the moment the bass tone world went from black and white to color was Entwistle on Free Me from the Roger Daltrey album McVicar. That was when "that tone" was dialed in! I've been chasing it ever since! OOPS, almost forgot Won't Get Fooled Again from The Kids Are Alright movie!

The tones that got me interested in Alembic was when I heard the Romantic Warrior. A friend gave it to me as a cassette copy and I played that for a couple of years till I got the LP and found he was playing an Alembic bass, with Instant flanger. (I still have no idea what that is). That was when I decided that when I decide to become a bass player, I will get one of those.  Since joining this club i've been introduced to a few big name bass players who play alembics. I knew about Alphonso Johnson, John Entwhistle and John Paul Jones, Lewis Johnson but Jimmy Johnson, Phil Lesh were new to me.

I love the tone John Entwhistle users on this Won't get fooled again much more than the album version.

It's always exciting to find new (to us) Alembic players. I was a total rocker back in the day, with Stanley Clarke being one of the few Jazz Fusion players crossing over to me because of how his playing and the Alembic's took each side to a different level. I need to revisit Return To Forever, especially Romantic Warrior. It's been a while.

That album was my introduction to Jazz rock fusion and most likely my most listened to album.

I recommend Grateful Dead, Blues for Allah, Phil's bass sounds great on that album. 😊

Quote from: rv_bass on November 08, 2026, 06:12:58 PMI recommend Grateful Dead, Blues for Allah, Phil's bass sounds great on that album. 😊

I had the good fortune of being at the record release party at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, for that album.