Author Topic: It's back! (Read 2953 times)

StephenR · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2016, 09:52:34 AM »

Cool... not sure I have ever seen/noticed the headstock inlays before. Does Jack have it back in his possession?

edwin · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2016, 10:59:32 AM »

Apparently he does. I'm sure more details will come out soon.

Too bad about the refinish and loss of the outer ebony control plate.

Here's a shot that shows it in its original glory from Rosie.

ed_zeppelin · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2016, 12:58:52 PM »

Hey, double post. It's been a while since that gremlin got me. It's like playing hide and seek on a Commodore 64.

My post must have made it. I got the error message.

(Message edited by Ed_zeppelin on March 17, 2016)

ed_zeppelin · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:14:31 PM »

As many times as I tried to cop his licks (especially off Bless Its Pointed Little Head) I know absolutely nothing about that bass. Is it a Guild Starfire or the Gibson thingie (like Crosby's Alembicised guitar)?

Is that the bass we hear in the iconic intro to White Rabbit? I saw Blue Man Group do that perfectly by whapping on the ends of PVC pipes with paddles. That was nuts. Here's what it sounds like: http://youtu.be/STuC0Wl2Gfk

I love the control module thing. It looks like something Dali would have come up with. More, more. We must know.

StephenR · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:22:19 PM »

Guild Starfire. The wooden control plates were carved by Bear.

Great that Jack has this bass back. Very important historically.

I had sent a friend, who is tight with Jack, a picture of Jack and Jerry jamming at Olompali, Jack was playing this bass. My friend forwarded it to Jack who replied with some interesting tidbits and background about the instrument. I thought I had kept his response and am bummed I either can't find it or no longer have it.

Courtesy: Rick Turner

Jack Casady & Phil Lesh did not play Starfires because there was a lot of room for Alembic electronics; they played them because of the combination of the original Hagstrom made single coil pickups (not the ones in the reissue Starfires) and the flexibility and sound of the flatwound Pyramid Gold strings which made the short scale Starfires sound huge.

Ron Wickersham devised a method for testing frequency response of magnetic pickup coils in around 1969, and found that the Hagstrom/Starfire pickups had the widest frequency response of anything he had tested. So Ron was documenting what Jack & Phil's ears had already told them.

Owsley Bear Stanley had already discovered that the pickups could be hot rodded by adding a second magnet, and so the sound was born. Ron further improved things by building transistorized emitter followers onto the pickups, thus creating what were probably the first active pickups (yes, 1969).

I was concurrently developing the concept of neck through instrument design and also starting to wind my own pickups. Ron tested them and found that they beat the Guilds & we were on our way to designing the Alembic sound.

Meanwhile, the Hagstrom/Guild pickups were discontinued by Guild & the rather pedestrian humbucker was substituted. That was the end of the cool Guild bass sound.

lbpesq · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:34:30 PM »

Ed:

I believe Crosby's Alembicized 12 is a Starfire, not a Gibson. I got to play it many years ago when it was back at the mothership for a tune-up prior to going out on tour.

Bill, tgo

ed_zeppelin · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:57:45 PM »

I thought that as well, but according to Rick Turner;

quote:We were mostly modifying and repairing existing instruments?doing a lot of what would be now termed irreparable harm to vintage Gibsons, Fenders, and Guild basses, but we were ?Alembicizing? them?making them better than new. We had an incredible clientele?the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Malo, and David Crosby among others. I was working on Phil Lesh?s ?Godfather? bass making pickups for it, and I?d started on what became Alembic bass #001 for Jack Casady.

Crosby got wind of the alchemy we were brewing at the place, and he brought in an unfinished thin, hollow body 12 string. He?d somehow talked Gibson out of a ?Crest? body?hollow, 335 shaped, outer ply of the arched top and back plus sides done in gorgeous Brazilian rosewood with a great solid Brazilian neck made by Bay Area lutherie legend Mario Martello. Ron and I were basically to put our overactive brains to work and turn this into the world?s best electric 12 string. David had the faith that we could do it ...

ed_zeppelin · « **Reply #8 on:** March 17, 2016, 02:10:23 PM »

quote:Owsley Bear Stanley had already discovered that the pickups could be hot rodded by adding a second magnet, and so the sound was born.

I realize you're talking about Hagstrom single-coils (I'm a big fan), but I'm just curious if that has anything to do with Alembic's hot rod kits as noted in Jazzyvee's post? They pop up on eBay now and then and I never knew what the heck they were about.

elwoodblue · « **Reply #9 on:** March 17, 2016, 02:43:58 PM »

Amazing news,
I can't imagine the eureka moment when someone recognized Yggdrasil (and I'm tryin').

I have a hot rod kit.There are magnets,copper tape,instructions,and a wood dowel IIRC.

pace · « **Reply #10 on:** March 17, 2016, 03:08:30 PM »

Wow!
Simply amazing twist of fate!...

5a_quilt_top · « **Reply #11 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:11:51 AM »

Proper - back as it should be, and should've been all along. One less loose end in the universe.

Re: White Rabbit intro - I think that's the Jazz Bass that he was using prior to getting into the Starfires - at least it sounds like that to me - more percussive and less woody.

mtjam · « **Reply #12 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:44:55 AM »

Glad to hear he got it back! Can't wait to hear more of the story with this amazing piece of history.

ed_zeppelin · « **Reply #13 on:** March 18, 2016, 10:18:36 AM »

quote:Jack Casady & Phil Lesh did not play Starfires because there was a lot of room for Alembic electronics; they played them because of the combination of the original Hagstrom made single coil pickups

I put together a little pictorial that I hope demonstrates why that is.

Anybody seeking to follow Jack Casady and Phil Lesh's path should definitely be on the lookout for this bad boy:

My favorite bit of irony there is that basically you get two of the most badass pickups ever made and the rest is free kindling. Even then, they're only half-done without the magicians at Alembic sprinkling fairy dust on 'em.

Fender made a stink about the headstock (Fenders were rare in Europe at the time), even though a motorcycle racer and mechanic named Paul Bigsby had made this guitar in 1948, years before Fender designed the Stratocaster:

Here's the electronics, for history buffs.

That was just about the only chambered semi-hollow bodied guitar on earth for around half a century or so, and nobody but Bigsby and Merle Travis knew it! Now everybody's making them! (Ive played bass for Merle's son, Thom Bresh, many times. I've played that guitar, as well as the acoustic version.)

Hey, I wound up within spitting distance of the topic! That doesn't happen often. This stuff fascinates me.

I mean well.

edwin · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2016, 10:57:37 AM »

Free association! I love it.

As the OP, this was the kind of discussion I like to see!