Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: jazzyvee on May 02, 2013, 06:16:14 AM

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: jazzyvee on May 02, 2013, 06:16:14 AM

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1981-Custom-Ken-Smith-STANLEY-CLARKE-Flying-V-Bass-Guitar-MUST-SEE-/190819926555?pt=Guitar&hash=item2c6dc1021b
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/395/160710.jpg)
Don't all rush at once.... :-)
Jazzyvee

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: that_sustain on May 02, 2013, 06:27:37 AM

I've never seen the pics included in that sale.  Is that the New Barbarians?

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: slawie on May 02, 2013, 06:48:20 AM

That shape is, not quite my cup of tea. Nice wood though.  
slawie

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: pasewark on May 02, 2013, 07:45:23 AM

Everything looks so....random.

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: tmoney61092 on May 02, 2013, 07:49:17 AM

This wins most random bass ever in my opinion, I'd love to hear it though
 
~Taylor

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: lbpesq on May 02, 2013, 08:18:23 AM

Notice that the Alembics get the couch ... everything else is on the floor!
 
hehehehe
 
Bill tgo

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: cozmik_cowboy on May 02, 2013, 04:16:04 PM

I like this!  The V body in general is not my favorite, but this take on it has a strange elegance; move the decimal in the price one place left, though.........
 
Peter

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: klinkepeter on May 20, 2013, 08:24:46 AM

kinda ugly but seems to have some history,  anyway:17500$ is a lot of money for a bass probably will not be played seriously on stage

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: sonicus on May 20, 2013, 08:45:34 AM

I would call that the Caudal Fin  (tail fin)

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: 811952 on May 26, 2013, 02:14:10 PM

It's a Ken Smith. What more needs to be said?
 
John

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: pauldo on May 27, 2013, 06:38:45 AM

Daniel, that does look like the New Barbarians.
Sorry about the hijack . . .
I had a bootleg cassette w/ Stan doing a killer solo on Am I Groovin' You?. Some wanker stole my car stereo and took that cassette, they also took a cassette that had the last on-air hour of WZMF recorded on it.  
 
I wish they would have stolen the whole car (Mercury Monarch) and left the cassettes . . . :-(

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: jacko on May 28, 2013, 07:26:27 AM

John..
It's a Ken Smith. What more needs to be said?
 
is that good or bad?  I listened to hadrien Feraud playing a Ken Smith at a UK bassday a few years ago and it was the worst sounding performance of the day. He was using a markbass rig but other players used the same rig and sounded great (even with a P bass) so I'm tempted to say it was the bass - especially since I bought his solo album on the day and the bass is very dull and muffled all the way through.
 
Graeme
 
p.s. this is the only ken smith bass I've heard up close. I have John Patitucci's first couple of solo albums and the smith on those sounds fine..... but they're on vinyl :-)

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: that_sustain on May 28, 2013, 08:20:15 AM

Thanks Paul.  I've read about that tour being a vacation for Stanley.  
 
There are some switches on the early Smiths that look like Alembic parts.

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: lidon2001 on May 28, 2013, 11:25:09 PM

Milwaukee was definitely not a vacation stop on that tour; I was there.
 
Here's some pics:
 
http://rollingstonesyesterdayspapers.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-barbarians-concert-photos-milwaukee.html (http://rollingstonesyesterdayspapers.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-barbarians-concert-photos-milwaukee.html)

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: bigbadbill on June 21, 2013, 05:09:28 PM

Graeme, I saw Feraud at Bass Day and loved his sound. Thought the performance was a bit too out for me but after Stanley he has my favourite solo sound.

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: jazzyvee on July 29, 2013, 10:42:12 AM

Seems like two offers have been made on the bass.  
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1981-Custom-Ken-Smith-STANLEY-CLARKE-Flying-V-Bass-Guitar-MUST-SEE-/190819926555?pt=Guitar&hash=item2c6dc1021b (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1981-Custom-Ken-Smith-STANLEY-CLARKE-Flying-V-Bass-Guitar-MUST-SEE-/190819926555?pt=Guitar&hash=item2c6dc1021b)
 
Jazzyvee

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: 811952 on July 29, 2013, 10:52:26 AM

Graeme, I'm not a Ken Smith bass fan.  ;-)  He's the only guy I've ever met who told me I was playing the instrument wrong.
 
John

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: hifiguy on July 29, 2013, 05:34:33 PM

That is NOT an attractive bass, at least IMO, regardless of provenance.

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: jim777 on September 12, 2013, 01:46:12 PM

It's a Ken Smith. What more needs to be said?
 
John
 
At the time this bass was made, Vinnie Fodera was doing 95%+ of Ken's woodworking in NY. I think you can definitely credit Ken with the electronics package (filters galore) on this one but this bass was almost certainly built by Vinnie Fodera for Ken Smith, not by Ken himself.

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: pasewark on September 12, 2013, 02:17:44 PM

Ghastly

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: charles_holmes on September 12, 2013, 04:54:18 PM

Referring to the July 29, 2013 post,I'm unclear as to how you were playing the bass wrong. Were you playing it with your toes?

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: cozmik_cowboy on September 12, 2013, 09:42:50 PM

And what if he was? I saw John McEuan play banjo with his toes once; sounded pretty darn good!
 
Peter

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: jim777 on September 13, 2013, 09:52:04 PM

I know Ken can be a VERY opinionated guy, but honestly I love his basses. I think he was very influenced by Alembic on the visual side, and I think it has served him well. I would never turn up a chance to play one of his basses just because he can be so...persnickety? Yes, persnickety. You don't hear that word as much as you might, like 'zany'. He's also sort of a PITA lol

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: mtjam on September 14, 2013, 03:49:07 AM

I had a Ken Smith 5-string BSRM5 for a while, but I never got the sound I wanted from it. It was a very solidly built bass, relatively lightweight, and felt great. However, the sound just never did it for me. I have watched other people play different Smith models and make them sound excellent, though.
 
I always loved the look of Smith basses since I first saw them on their string packages I used to get when I first started playing bass in the 80s. Then my hero, Phil Lesh, played one for a while so that made them even cooler in my mind.
 
I have read before about Ken Smith's sometimes abrasive personality, but I never had to deal with him myself. Bringing my rambling back to Alembic, I am so glad I have finally found my sound with my Distillate, Orion, and Series 2 basses.
 
Also, I have found my dealings with Alembic to be the best! Those Wickershams make the ultimate basses, and are always a pleasure to talk to.
 
I suppose that's why we are all here...for life!

Title: Stanley Clarke Selling a personal bass on Ebay
Post by: bassmanblue on September 19, 2013, 11:14:31 AM

after a good look at this bass it's not so much a flying v as a tulip a flower/ it is a one on a kind but there is something odd about it