Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: the_mule on June 09, 2004, 01:04:14 PM
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Thanks to the Alembic Club, even during my relatively short membership period, I've found some great CD's and DVD's on which artists use Alembics (almost) exclusively. I'd love us all to join hands and create some kind of constantly growing 'reference guide'...
Jerry Garcia Band - How Sweet It Is...
Stanley Clarke - same
Stanley Clarke - Live 1976-1977
Stanley Clarke - If This Bass Could Only Talk
Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - One Size Fits All
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Overnite Sensation
Grateful Dead - The Closing Of Winterland (DVD)
Led Zeppelin - DVD
Who's next?
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CD: Flim and the BB's - Neon
DVD: James Taylor - Live at the Beacon Theater
The player in both cases is Jimmy Johnson.
Next!?!
C-Ya............wayne
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DVD: James Taylor - Pull Over (supporting the October Road CD still more Jimmy Johnson
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Wilfred,
It's funny you ended with Who's Next....
DVD - The Who: The Kids Are Alright - Special Edition
Ken (TEO)
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And my picks...
Too Late The Hero - John Entwistle
Works Volume I - ELP
Animal Logic and Animal Logic II - (Stanley on bass, Stewart Copeland hitting things and Debra Holland on piano and vocals)
John
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Don't forget,
Harry Chapin Live at Rockplast
John Wallace is playing his Series 1 bass
Doug Walker is playing his Series 1 guitar.
and its a great show and worth the money
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Did Greg Lake play his Alembic with King Crimson? I'm thinking specifically of 21st Century Schizoid Man.
Sam
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According to an interview with Guitar Player magazine in September, 1974, Greg Lake's main bass while with Crimson was a Fender Jazz. He also says that during that time he tried a Gibson and a Rickenbacker.
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I forgot about Chapin's Greatest Stories Live John Wallace with the Series I, which was the first bass I had ever seen with LEDs on the neck, back in high school, and the tickets for the concert were $7.00.
Greg Lake played the Jazz Bass up through early ELP. I've got a video somewhere with them playing Knife Edge and parts of Pictures at an Exhibition on some English television program, and he's using the Jazz Bass..
John
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Well, duh, now that I think about it Alembic wasn't making instruments then.
Sam
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I got to play John Wallace's bass after a concert in Dubuque, Iowa. Anyone know what he's been up to recently?
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I think John is a graphic artist in Philly and sometimes he shows up on stage with a Harry Chapin tribute band, he has a web site or two, do a search on google for John Wallace
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CDs:
Level 42 Live at Wembley 1989 (Mark King, Series 2)
Michael Dowdle Soulmate (jimmy Johnson, Series 2)
Jan Olof Strandberg The Electric City (Series 1 and 2)
Stanley Clarke East River Drive (Stanley and Armand Sabal-Lecco, Series 1 and 2)
Gil Scott-Heron Moving Target (Robert Gordon, Series 1)
DVD:
Grupo Mark King Live 2000 (Mark King, Series 2) -Region 2 DVD-
(Message edited by muller1007 on June 11, 2004)
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Now some heavier distorted (while still great) sounds:
Type O Negative Bloody Kisses and October Rust (Peter Steele, Spoiler and Epic)
...and something that came as a surprise when I leanred it:
Red Hot Chili Peppers One Hot Minute (Flea, Epic on most songs except Aeroplane where he used a Music Man).
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Don't forget the Wizard from Mother's Finest.
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I hope anyone can clear this up for me: I've always understood that The Grateful Dead's first studio recording featuring the Alembicized Starfire bass was 'AoxomoxoA', but what was the last one with the beloved Alembic sound, 'Shakedown Street'? Why did Phil Lesh switch from Alembic to Modulus anyway? Are there reliable sources (interviews perhaps) available about this subject?
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Well here's what I've been able to find in answer to Mule's question.
According to an interview Phil did with Bass Player magazine, June and July of 2000, at some point he went back to basics and played a Music Man bass for a while. Then around '81 he heard that Modulus was making a fiber-graphite, neck-through-body 6-string bass, and he's played Modulus ever since.
In a 1982 article for Musician magazine, David Gans says after years of using sophisticated, custom-made basses, Lesh recently turned to simpler instruments -- but only temporarily. A chance encounter with a '57 Jazz bass caused him to shelve his Doug Irwin (a twin to Garcia's six-string), and he subsequently switched to a new G&L bass. But then he writes that the G&L will soon be replaced by Lesh's dream bass. Here he's talking about a six string that will incorporate a filter developed by Lesh and Alembic for the modified Guild Starfire II that Lesh played from 1971 to 1974.
Edwin Hurwitz, a member of our forum, in a bio piece for the Philzone.com, writes the short story is this: Phil started out on a Gibson EB0, then moved to a Fender Jazz Bass which he used until '68. After that he played a not very modified Guild Starfire (preamps and some magnet changes in the pickups) through late '69 or so (Live Dead is a great example of this sound). The next bass was a heavily modified Gibson EB3 (I think it was a long instrument) which had new hardware, preamps and Guild single coil pickups installed by Alembic. This bass can be heard on Skullf*** and other recordings of the time (DP from the Fillmore '70 show is an excellent example of this instrument). This instrument was stolen (anybody out there seen it?) and was followed by the Starfire, but this time it had it's front removed and replaced with all new pickups and electronics, including an Alembic superfilter and quadraphonic pickup. The headstock was also replaced. It was called the Godfather. This is the bass heard on Europe '72 and in a lot of ways my favorite of Phil's various sounds. It can be seen at Alembic's website. In '73 he received his first Alembic 4 string bass that was also quite an instrument, it was also quad and is seen in the Grateful Dead movie. It interfaced quite well with the Wall of Sound. This bass was followed by a Doug Irwin and then a G&L as well as Flirtations with an old Fender Jazz. Finally, in the early 80s he got his first Modulus 6 string.
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Well Dave, thanks for the info. I think it's safe to say that around 1977/1978 the relationship between Phil and Alembic faded, which brings me to the next additions to the list of Alembic(ized) recordings:
Grateful Dead
- Aoxomoxoa
- Live/Dead
- Workingman's Dead
- American Beauty
- Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)
- Europe '72
- Wake Of The Flood
- Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel
- Blues For Allah
- Steal Your Face
- Terrapin Station
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I suppose you could just put most of the SC discography on the list (at least after Chick told him to can the upright, or was it when the upright fell off the stage and 'blew up'). But one of my first SC albums was Journey to Love, which has some nice Alembic sounds.
SoM
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CD recommendation: Andy West with Dixie Dregs
(I got a compilation CD called 20th Century Masters - kind of a greatest hits)
Mike
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...and Jason Newstedt/Metallica.
On-Stage he uses: Alembic - Elan - Black (5 strings) Alembic - Europa - Black (6 strings) Alembic - Europa - Black (5 strings) Alembic - Europa - Black (4 strings) Alembic - Spoiler - Black (4 strings) (x2) Alembic - Spoiler - Natural colored ESP Bass - Red ESP B-1 - Black Guild among others.
For Recording/Non-Stage he uses Alembic - Europa - Black (4 strings) Alembic - Europa - Black (10 strings) and other Non-Alembic Basses.
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Duncan,
The Grupo Mark King Live 2000 DVD is not region code 2 but indeed region code free.
It is in PAL video though, not NTSC (maybe that's what you meant).
A great Alembic reference DVD that is, no doubt!
Hartmut
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In addition to the other wonderful selections
Jimmy Johnson with Allan Holdsworth.
Metal Fatigue
Wardencliff Tower
Andy West w/ The Dregs
Styx
Nazareth
(Jason now uses Sadowsky 4's and 5's. I know, I don't get it either)
Me with Doomtree to be released late July on @ntidote Records. Excel 5 - F1x, Spoiler 4 BEAD
There will also be a limited edition European release that I used a Distilate 5 on.
Danno
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I watched a Weird Al Jancovic DVD again today and to my surprise realized an Alembic (Series I?) in a few of the videos. It was at least in Ricky and Living with a Hernia...
Does anybody know anything about Al's bassist and the Alembic he plays?
Hartmut
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Steve Jay is weird Al's bass player,the video I have Stvev plays a SC and he has 2 on stage with him.his web site is , Stephenjay.com
and there's some stuff on steve Weird Als web site
David T (a big Weird Al fan)