How many Deadheads are here?

[flaxattack]

whats the first thing a deadhead says when they run out of drugs...........
 
 
 
 
 
this band sucks.......
 
awh just kidding

[57basstra]

What a long, strange trip it's been.  
 
 
Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.

[alembic_doctor]

good one flax.
 
I think Dead Heads are interesting creatures.  Especially the ones that grew up and made good in the world but didn't get out of completely.
 
I've got a friend who is just such a person.  Well to do.  Invested some serious bucks in a nice amplifier and some really nice speakers.  Well over 10k on those two items I'm sure.  And he listens to nothing but dead bootlegs.  Go figure.  I'm not even sure he know's what his speakers are even capable of.
 
I'm not sayin' it's wrong.  Just very interesting.

[2400wattman]

I have seen a shirt that says  
Jerry's dead, Phish sucks, Get a job

[alembic_doctor]

Can I buy one without the Phish Sucks part.  Those guys were really good.  I think we're totally hijacking this thread.    Sorry Bill.

[lbpesq]

Doc:
 
Forget about those directions I sent you for the gathering this Saturday.  They are ... er ... not the right directions ...  yea ... not the right directions ... I'll ... uh ... send you some other directions ... yea, that's the ticket.  ... I'll send you some new good directions.  hehehehe
 
Bill, tgo

[alembic_doctor]

Right.  No worries mate.

[pace]

I guess that's the crux of the matter Doc (re: your friend)....  
 
I spent my whole college career as a sound recording major seeking out and listening intently to whatever GD shows I could get my hands on (mind you, this was before LMA, SHN vines and whatnot).... I mean sure, I did a ton of critical listening and refined my ear thanks to plenty of other artists. But, to follow/disect/analyze the performance of a group of musicians across a span of 30+ years was a task I felt up to at that time.
 
In doing so, not only did I learn about different recording techniques & technology through the ages. I also heard the evolution of all the backline equipment~ of which Alembic had a great deal to do with at certain place & time.....  
 
I was able to deduce from my observations that Alembic might be a company which I could place my trust in to deliver a certain aspect of that sound which I wasted so much of my formative years listening to.....  
 
Im glad they were able to deliver.

[elwoodblue]

...love that Thick air,    .
 
: )

[lbpesq]

Doc:
 
A point about your friend with the expensive equipment listening to Dead bootlegs.  The multitude of audience tapes floating around are not really bootlegs.  The Dead not only didn't discourage audience tapes, they encouraged it!  They set up a band authorized special taping section right behind the soundboard.  There you could find dozens of tapers with state of the art equipment taping right out in the open.  Additionally, unlike the overwhelming majority of rock bands, the Dead played CLEAN.  Even on recordings of lesser quality, one can easily make out each individual instrument.  In this regard, I have found the Dead similar to classical music and/or Dixieland Jazz where a lot is going on - each instrument playing something different - but you can make out each part, they all fit together, and the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts.  
 
Bill, tgo
 
(Message edited by lbpesq on March 28, 2007)

[crgaston]

I'm a Deadhead.  I used to play in a Dead cover band, and I've usually been able to convince whatever band I'm in to do at least a Dead tune or two.  I think my introduction to Alembic came from a friend who had one.  He was more of a Rush freak, strangely.  His name is Dave Letendre and he could play the heck out of that bass.  I remember thinking that it was the coolest bass I had ever seen; a mid- '80's Spoiler with a bubinga top and Persuader electronics.

[tom_z]

Not to mention, Bill, the multitude of soundboard recordings that have - for better of worse - slipped into the trading circles. It is probably not a stretch to say that the Grateful Dead easily have the most well documented and publicly available audio archive of their 30ish years of live performances.  
 
Doc - your comments are amusing - I've heard almost the exact same reference to Alembic owners as interesting creatures. The Dead/Alembic connection deepens.  
 
Peace
Tom

[dela217]

No Deadhead here either.  But without them would we have Alembic?

[olieoliver]

Very valid point Michael.  
 
Bass being my first and main instrument I often tend to think of Stanley when I think Alembic when in reality one wonders if there wasn't a Grateful Dead would there be an Alembic guitar company. (Things that make you go, HMMMMM)

[jimbobv]

Deadhead, (heard Truckin on AM630 in '72 in DC) +plus 2 older brothers influenced my taste, ++  around 76 / 77 or so, Veneman's in Rockville MD had a used Alembic, $2k or so I recall, that I was fascinated with.  Series I  IIRC, plus the body had a carved pattern resembling tooled leather all the way around the edge of the body.  It was huge, beautiful, and way out of my price range.