I finally remembered what the original inspiration for my Isis bass was. When I was but a teenaged sprout, I read an article, almost certainly by Charles M. Young (good Dog, why do I remember that??), in the late and lamented Crawdaddy about the Jefferson Airplane. I suspect it was in 1972 or '73. I had just begun to play bass guitar. A couple of pictures of Jack Casady playing Alembic #1 were prominently featured.
The pictures inspired an immediate and undying obsession with all things Alembic that continues to this day and I swore that I would own one someday. I was floored that something like that bass could even exist and then I heard it a couple of years later on 30 Seconds Over Winterland and the obsession redoubled itself.
But the thing that inspired my dreams for Isis all those years ago was Young's description of Jack and his playing: He is the musician one would choose to play at the coronation of an Inca emperor or the funeral of a Pharoah.
37 years later, I can still quote that phrase, and it inspired me to design Isis. I hope I live long enough to see her built and play her.
