How many basses do you have

[beatlejuice]

Here's a pic of the '62 Jazz, Curlee, and Spoiler.
 >

[beatlejuice]

Here's a pic of the '62 Jazz, Curlee, and Spoiler.
 >

[palembic]

Hm ...Oh ...huh ...were are my glasses??? Seeing it now it has more of a tree in a sunny landscape.

[beatlejuice]

Oops, evidently I can't post pics using webtv. Sorry for now
 Bill

[David Houck]

Bill; can you email them?  If so, and if you like, you can email them to me and I will post them for you.

[susan]

Nigel,
 
His full name is Augustus Owsley Stanley III, family name y'know. I believe his grandfather was the governor of Virginia. Lots of latin names like Augustus, Marcus etc. in those southern states. In the late 60's very early 70's he was refered to as simply Owsley  aka Bear later formally changed to Z. Bear . He is alive and well and living in Australia where he makes expensive Grateful Dead type jewelry in 24K gold and enamel as well as bronze sculptures. I just spoke with him around the holidays.
 
As to the association with Alembic...there wouldn't have been an Alembic without him. He is a catalyst for putting people & events into motion, he's quite a pushy bear. We met while the Dead were recording Aoxomoxoa at Pacific Recording Studio in San Mateo, CA. He saw Ron and my talents and the need the Dead had of them. He wooed us away from Ampex and Pacific Recording  to move to Novato, CA and share a building with the Dead and work together to create better live music. He suggested we name our company Alembic (see the meaning of the logo on our website) and had his good friend and my art mentor *Bob Thomas design the Alembic logo. Although Bear was never a partner in Alembic, he was pivotal in its inception and direction.
 
-Susan
 
*Bob Thomas- also designer of the Steal Your Face Dead Logo and the Marching Bears. He painted the cover for the front and back of the Live Dead album my favorite, maybe because all the instruments had Alembic electronics in them, it was the Alembic PA System, Alembic did the live recording and it was mixed at our Alembic Recording  Studio as was Europe '72.  Anyway I digress, I was only a mere girl of 18 when we started Alembic and Bob was very encouraging to my art endeavors. He taught me a great deal and I feel his influence in all my instrument designs, especially the inlays. He was a musician as well and used to hand carve and make bagpipes. Bear BTW was his art patron and I wound up with the largest part of Bear's collection of Bob Thomas paintings when he moved to Australia.  Bear felt they belonged with me & Alembic. Those adding to my own collection come to a grand total of  12 full canvas paintings plus two wooden icons. He passed away over 10 years ago and since all but the icons and 2 paintings reside at Alembic, I continue to feel his presence on a daily basis and it's a good thing.

[bracheen]

Bear has some examples of Bob Thomas' work along with a brief bio at www.thebear.org
 
Sam

[David Houck]

Thanks for that bit of history Susan.  I just recently finished reading Blair Jackson's Garcia, An American Life, which greatly enhanced my knowledge of that time and place.  The music, art and culture all had a great and valuable influence on my life as well as the lives of countless others; indeed to no insignificant degree, on our society and our global community.

[David Houck]

Here are Bill's (beatlejuice) basses; sorry for the delay, the cable system was down for a few hours:
 

[gbarchus]

I just spent time reading some of Bear's essays: http://www.thebear.org/index.html  Well worth the reading. A good way to finally become a member!
 
Gale

[palembic]

ah CURLEE ...
droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
 
OTOH ...I Liked the 1 big PU model more

[David Houck]

Thanks Gale; I found the essays quite interesting.

[beatlejuice]

Thanx, Dave. Maybe some day I will find a way to post my own pics. Or maybe catch up with the rest of the world (buy a computer).  
When I worked in a music store we never had a Curlee with the One big humbucker. All we had were the 1 & 2 PBass pu's. I had never even seen pics of the ones with the big pu till just a couple years ago (on eBay) so I have no idea how they compare soundwise.
The Juice

[poor_nigel]

Hey Susan:
Thanks for the info on Alembic history.  What you typed pretty much jives with what my book has in it.  I would have to say that era was the most wonderous and happiest of my life.  
 
In 69 I was still in high school, but ditched to jump on a bus and head to San Francisco quite often.  I used to go to the Filmore, Winterland, and Goldengate Park often.  I spent a lot of time hanging around Berkeley, too.  My head just floods with all the adventures I had back then, but you pretty much had to be there - well, I will not go into reams of pages.
 
Phish holds it annual concert about 10 miles from my house, but I never go.  All the kids come through town dressed in sixties attire, but it is not even close to the same as things were back 'in the day.'  You can never go home, really, and that is a good thing.  There were a hell of a lot of negative things that went down in the sixites, also . . .
 
Again, thanks for the history and bringing up some old and cherished memories for me.  In the end, they are all that is really ours and all we take with us when we go.
 
Oh, and I will type out that published history and post it.  It is interesting reading.

[palembic]

Well Brother Thomas ...the names you mentioned -and those of Susan's story- are ringing some bell's here too. Alas ...only from reading, hearing, pictures, documentaries and TV. Strange w never want to go back to memories, the beauty of a memory is just that it's not there anymore.  
 
Paul the bad one