Fur Peace Ranch?

[emjay]

Has anyone in Alembicland been to the Fur Peace Ranch for a workshop with Jack Casady or Jorma Kaukonen?  I applied for the Nov. 2006 advanced bass session - hope I'm accepted.  It would be pretty exciting to meet Jack and Jorma, and particularly to play with a man who defined his own unique, melodic bass-driven sound with one of the most innovative rock bands of the time.  I'm sure I could pick up a few pernters.  Maybe I can find out how he created that tone, like on the Starship's A Child is Coming (if he still remembers).  Hell, maybe I'd even let him play my Alembic if he shows me.
 
When I was reading the Cream MSG thread with tickets selling for thousands, I thought of what a bargain this weekend is.  For $1000 you stay at the ranch for three nights meals included, have four workshops with my hero from yesteryear, party and jam with other players, and get a private Hot Tuna concert!  I can't think of any other rock superstars providing anything remotely similar to this.
 
Jeff

[emjay]

Oh, here's the link to the ranch, if you're curious:
 
http://www.furpeaceranch.com/

[kmh364]

While I haven't gone yet, it's on my to do list. Here's a few threads about that very subject and Jack's sound:
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/20311.html
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/12558.html
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/21191.html?1127865605
 
Let us know how you make out!
 
Enjoy,
 
Kevin
 
BTW, for those interested, the incredible BUDDY CAGE will be doing a pedal steel clinic at Furpeace and DAVID LINDLEY will be doing one as well! The Sultans Of Slide are back!

[emjay]

Whoa, Kevin,  I should have known there would have been Fur Peace and Jorma/Jack fans here.  Glad to see those threads - it confirms what I anticipate the experience to be.
 
I read at least a few references to anxiety of playing with a hero.  IMHO, it's really an ego thing in disguise.  I felt that during the early 70's in NYC when I first played informally with Sam Andrew; as Big Brother was up there with the Airplane.  Over time I just focused on creating good music with Sam instead of trying to sound good, and before long we were having fun playing together a few times a week.  We are always our own worst critic - things we know too well about our limitations and ability.  The key for me always has been to stop trying to sound good and have a blast - sounding good is a byproduct of being in the moment.  Of course, lots of practice and a certain amount of natural ability doesn't hurt.
 
Meanwhile, speaking of anxiety, I'm concerned about getting accepted in the advanced workshop next year (intermediate is full). As my own worst critic I know too well I've been really half-assed about keeping up the formal music theory, sight reading bass lines, learning slap-bass, etc.    
 
Jeff

[emjay]

Also, Kevin, I really enjoyed those live late-Airplane tracks in one thread.  Thanks for steering me there!!!!

[kmh364]

Michael:
 
No problem, you're very welcome.  
 
My guitar instructor knows full well about my reluctance to embarass myself in front of others, and has tried to bolster my ego by encouraging me to attend a Furpiece weekend. Kudos to Frank (Yggdrasil) from the Great White North for trying to give me a shot in the arm to do the same as well. The other dilemma involves which course to take first...Jorma?, Jack?, Buddy?, David?, G.E.?, etc. Of course, I wanna meet both Jorma and Jack, and I'd like to at least jam with both. The other classes are mighting tempting as well...hell, I'll buy a pedal steel just to be able to hang with Buddy Cage! Same goes for a dobro or other lap steel just to hang with David Lindley! Decisions, decisions, LOL!
 
Oh yeah, the live Airplane gig (post-Spencer Dryden). That was the famous 30 Secs. Over Winterland gig(s) that spawned that album. I LOVED that album, so those gig(s) really spoke to me.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin
 
FWIW, I play both guitar and bass...and would like to play steel and mandolin as well. You know, sort of a ShopSmith of musicians...one who does lots of things, but none of them well, LOL! You notice I didn't mention multi-instrumentalists like Steve Howe (a personal fave), Dave Lindley, or Ricky Skaggs, mainly because those guys CAN actually play ALL their instruments well, LOL!

[emjay]

Hi Kevin, (and please call me Jeff - my middle name.  Michael is for strangers, banks and creditors.)
 
Don't stick yourself in a quandry so that you wind up doing nothing about going to Fur Peace - if you think it'll bring you joy (a favorite phrase of my friend Penny).  Sometimes you have to just jump in. The years have a way of piling up too fast.
 
If I were you, I'd just pick the instrument that I think in for starters.  Do you sing bass lines to yourself in the shower or guitar riffs?  When you write a tune, do you think melody and bass, or guitar chords? That sort of thing.  For me, it was always bass, but one instrument may have a slight  edge over another for you.  Why not try that one first?  
 
Also, I have a feeling you may be able to split some time with both guys, if they're both there.  It wouldn't hurt to ask!
 
Do it, Do it, Do it!  I did it. (Small Package - Baxter's).  Best, Jeff

[yggdrasil]

Hey guys, I see they have a virtual tour of the Ranch up that I did when I was there in May.
 
I did one for them a couple of years ago, but this time they have it as an easily downloadable file rather than a web page.
 
http://www.furpeaceranch.com/virtual-tour.html
 
On a personal note, check out my dog - the orange shaggy poodle in several of the shots and my small RV (a VW/Winnnie Rialta) in the distance in the parking lot shots - that's the Jefferson Campervan. My wife & I are there too, but we're less noticeable than Thor the WonderPoodle :-)
 
Frank

[yggdrasil]

Maybe I can find out how he created that tone, like on the Starship's A Child is Coming (if he still remembers). Hell, maybe I'd even let him play my Alembic if he shows me.
 
Yikes - I'd pay extra to be there when you bring up either one (Starship/Kantner & Alembic)!He has very interesting, balanced perspectives on both - my take is that they are part of his history, more than an element in his current thrust.
 
Child Is Coming - figure Guild Starfire, Hagstrom pickups, Versatone cranked right up -and a healthy dose of fingers and eyebrows...
 
 
I have a pic of Jack playing my Stanley Clarke Sig in May - unfortunately not for distribution on the net.
 
It's a great time at Fur Peace Ranch- there's no way you can know how magical the experience is until you go - and strangely, that magic does not depend on Jack or Jorma being there. The space has a vibrancy and life of its own - 3 days there is equivalent to 3 weeks of vacation elsewhere/anywhere.  
 
Frank
 
(Message edited by Yggdrasil on October 19, 2005)
 
(Message edited by Yggdrasil on October 19, 2005)

[emjay]

Maybe I'd better tone down the questions about yesteryear.  After all, you guys have given me a lot of his setup info in the other threads Kevin pointed out.  I never knew about the Versatone - but that uniquely supersensitive overdrive is explained by the dual tube amp setup and eyebrows.
 
By the way, Susan told me that Jack played a Guild Starfire that was Alembicised before number 1.  Did he play another Starfire with Hagstrom pickups? Just curious.
 
Also, does anyone have any threads on the differences in 12AX7 tubes' effects with the Alembics?  I jus became a vintage tube addict on Ebay.  Switched out the GT's in my SWR's for 60's Mullard NOS's - WOW!!! Now I bought Bugle boys, square getters, D getters, long plates, red tip Telefunkens, etc, etc.
 
By the way, Ginger at FPR just informed me that I'm in for next November's advanced bass workshop.  YABBDABBADOOO!  Maybe I'll see some of the club members there??
 
Jeff

[emjay]

Oh, I forgot - saw that tour, Frank - and Thor's pics.  He's infamous!  Great additional album posts by others, too.
 
Now please light a fire under your student Kevin's butt.  He's been babying his anxiety for at least a year!  I want to meet him there in November  
 
Jeff

[yggdrasil]

I could be wrong, but, AFAIK, Jack's Starfires both had the Guild/Hagstrom pickups with  a couple of iterations of electronics.I don't believe any of his Starfires had Alembic-designed pickups in them.  
 
Here's an excerpt from an article by Dan Schwartz, who knows a heck of a lot more about it than I do:
 
The tale of Jack's Guild Starfires roughly begins with Augustus Stanley Owsley (otherwise known as Bear) taking the instrument in late 67 or early 68 to do some circuit mods with Ron Wickersham, one of the founders of Alembic. Their circuit was a variable Q resonant filter, with Darlington emitter-followers at the pickup to lower output impedance before the filter. Originally a natural finish spruce/maple instrument, an L.A. luthier named Roy Noble refinished it dark brown, coloring over the binding somewhat. Jorma's wife Margareta created an abstract design that was inlaid into the peghead by Chuck Erikson. As a surprise for Jack, Chuck stuck some model-train lights under the inlay, to be battery-powered through the second and third strings. They didn't get it working, but apparently Owsley did, after being told they were in there a year later. Jack used this bass for the next three Airplane albums. It was stolen shortly after the Woodstock festival, and Jack bought another, a Sunburst '68 or '69, on the road. He shipped it back to Wickersham immediately with orders to rush. There wasn't time for woodworking, so Ron sawed out part of the top around the lower f-hole, installing three magnesium channels for the controls. The circuit was an update of the previous filter, installed in time for the Berkeley performance recorded on the first Hot Tuna album. Jack used this bass until early '72, when he got the Alembic.  
 
Anyone else  - feel free to expand or correct.
 
Frank
 
(Message edited by Yggdrasil on October 19, 2005)

[kmh364]

No Problem, Jeff.
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm my own worst critic...I've been playing for 28yrs., but it seems to me, the more I play, the crappier I get. When I was young(er) and dumb(er), I was more willing to get out there in front of people and make a complete fool out of myself. Not so any more.
 
As far as my musical inner monologue, it depends on the day. Lately, I'm thinking in guitar terms as I have been studying jazz guitar, but that can change depending on what tune I hear that sticks in my mind.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

[kmh364]

Frank:
 
What's up? I had a feeling if Jack's name was mentioned, you'd pop up, LOL! I missed the credits to the vitual tour on Jorma's site...nice job.  
 
Not having yet met Jack, as you have, I get the distinct feeling that Jack steadfastly refuses to live in the past and is quite the politician when it comes to evading same. That doesn't make him a bad person, quite the contrary, but it makes curious onlookers like myself SOL if you're interested in reliving past glories. Oh well, some of us, particularly myself, should take that as a lesson and look to the future instead of revisiting the past.
 
As an aside, I tried dooing a GOOGLE search on Versatone, but I couldn't find anything of any substance. It must be a a well-kept Jack secret.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

[yggdrasil]

Hey Kevin-
 
Here's another excerpt from the Dan Schwartz article, referring to the Versatone:
 
During the sessions for their third record, After Bathing at Baxter's, a man named Bob Hall [1] came down to RCA with an amp he'd designed for acoustic bassists, a 40-watt per channel stereo amp (a pair of 7591's per channel) called a Versatone that combined both channels into one custom-made 12 Utah (though Carol Kaye used a version that added a 6 speaker, still wired in mono). You should've smelled the atmosphere in that room! Hall laughed, adding, He turned the thing all the way up! I didn't know why you'd want to do that, but as long as he bought the amp, it was his business. The Versatone turned all the way up is the only effect Jack has ever used. It makes its first appearance all over Baxter's and represents a turning point in Jack's sound. But over the years, continuing to today, the Versatone turned half-way up, so that it distorts when he plays harder, has been a more crucial part of Jack's approach, and you can hear this sound on most recordings he's done since.  
 
It is modelled in the Bass Pod, and it IIRC, the SWR Interstellar Overdrive preamp is an attempt to capture the tone of the Versatone.
 
Frank