Author Topic: So Alembic didn't create the "Tears for John" Dragon Wing bass.... (Read 896 times)

blazer · « **Reply #45 on:** January 26, 2007, 04:47:14 AM »

811952

About getting a lefty Hofner and learning how to play it lefty: Look at Artie Sharraf, who plays Paul in the Beatles Tribute Band The Fab four He has done just that and became REALLY good at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwuYv_rfxIg

senmen · « **Reply #46 on:** January 26, 2007, 09:33:53 AM »

Guys,
as for the fake Gibsons, John talked about the fake Flying V basses and the Discoverer bass, but never about fake Explorer basses.

Oliver

jsaylor · « **Reply #47 on:** January 28, 2007, 02:33:06 AM »

Oliver,
What did he say about the fake flying v's and the discoverer? And what is the discoverer? And whats the HRC? Sorry for my lack of knowledge. Also, why do you call them Explorerbirds? Didn't John have a few fenderbirds (thunderbird with fender neck) aswell?

senmen · « **Reply #48 on:** January 28, 2007, 04:29:16 AM »

Jordan, as for the Flying V basses and Discoverer he clearly had stated, that he had once bought them as original at a not that cheap price and later found out, that they were fake. He had two Flying V basses, both with Gibson name. One of the two was sold over the years, don?t know where it is actually. The second one was autioned of at the Sothebys auction. He had used one of them in the Pinball Wizard sequence of the Tommy film. The Discoverer was also a fake. In a mid seventies book on Gibson guitars and basses the author spoke about the Discoverer as Gibson prototype, later it was found out that it is a fake. HRC means Hard Rock Cafe. Unfortunately the HRC bought many of Johns basses which are now simply hanging around in the cafes. John had different Fenderbirds and Explorerbirds. Fenderbirds have generally been the Thunderbird bodies with Fender P-necks, Explorerbird the Explorer bodies with the P-necks. Here are two photos of the second V-bass and the Discoverer:

Oliver

lidon2001 · « **Reply #49 on:** January 28, 2007, 08:04:26 AM »

Just hanging around....

senmen · « **Reply #50 on:** January 28, 2007, 08:53:08 AM »

Yeah it?s a shame.
This this is now worth 25K and the HRC has 5 of them.....

Oliver (Spyderman)

jsaylor · « **Reply #51 on:** January 28, 2007, 11:40:38 AM »

Oliver,
Do you know who made the fenderbirds? That has really , and now I might just go make one out of warmoth parts. I guess this will be my poor mans custom.

(Message edited by jsaylor on January 28, 2007)

bsee · « **Reply #52 on:** January 28, 2007, 11:59:25 AM »

If HRC ever went south and needed to liquidate, there would be quite a few super instruments returned to the market. I wonder how they connect them to the wall, hopefully in a non-destructive fashion!

senmen · « **Reply #53 on:** January 28, 2007, 01:29:25 PM »

Jordan, Bob,
the Fenderbirds, the Explorerbirds, the Lightning Bolt, the Flame etc. were all made by british luthier Peter Cook.
As for the HRC, I saw several guitars which were mounted rather rudely to the walls....
Oliver

blazer · « **Reply #54 on:** January 28, 2007, 05:10:00 PM »

Jordan, Bob. Hotwire bass have the Funderbird which is a modern re-think of John Entwistle's Fenderbird basses and it comes in all shapes and sizes the customer asks for.

http://www.hotwire-bass.de/basses/funderbird/seiten/funderbird_en.htm

jsaylor · « **Reply #55 on:** February 01, 2007, 06:53:39 PM »

Hi Blazer,
Those Funderbirds look nothing like the fenderbird. It's a shame though.

joelp · « **Reply #56 on:** March 07, 2007, 04:45:04 PM »

I am in the interesting position of now playing John Entwistle in a Los Angeles-based Who tribute band, The Who Show (http://www.thewhoshow.com). Besides getting to play all of this wonderful music, I get to indulge my bass lust by buying lots basses and parts, and assembling a collection of Entwistle-like basses. So far I have a couple of Epi Tbirds (turning on into a Fenderbird, and getting a Moses neck for the other), have completed a cream colored Precision (now with the correct pickguard, a great after-market neck and EMG active electronics), and a pretty good EASTWOOD large hollow-body style (with flatwounds for the 60's stuff). The big Kahuna will be the Alembic-style Explorer (or Exploiter), which I am recreating using an Epi explorer bass body/neck. When completed it will have all active bass and guitar pickups and electronics, a birdseye maple top, a Moses graphite fingerboard with letter inlays, and the spider web gold-plated inlays (I'm skipping the LEDs, thank you very much). My only criteria is that these all play and sound great - I have been a Steinberger player for over 20 years, and am only now returning to wood basses (and miss some of the finer composite advantages). John did not continue playing basses that would not suit his hands or ears, and niether will I, although I am trying to stay authentic when it comes to the right era basses for the right sings. And I'm skipping the Buzzards, not attractive to me... I'll be posting phots on the who show website, as well as my own (http://www.joelp.com), and welcome all comments (thanks, Joel Pelletier)

jsaylor · « **Reply #57 on:** March 07, 2007, 06:34:41 PM »

Question: Why guitar pick-ups? I'm pretty sure John never used guitar pups. If you are a Steinberger fan why don't you just continue to use them? Music is about being what you want to be, not copying someone else. Does this also mean your going to be buying some Alembics? They sure will hit your wallet harder than the epi-birds.