Stanley Clarke Playing his Signature Model Bass

[lbpesq]

Well, let's see, Mick Jones played a Bond for a while.  Mick Jagger's brother was involved in Staccato guitars which started in England.  Bonds were built in Scotland.  Mick Jones and Jaggar both are Mick's and Scotland is sort of England.  I guess that was close enough for Mr. Roman.
 
hehehehe
 
Bill, tgo

[ed_zeppelin]

I'd like to apologize for my rather stupid comment, especially because this thread is about Stanley Clarke, and I really feel bad about derailing it.  
 
I hadn't read Ed Roman's rants in about twenty years, and then only because a fellow repairman who also despised a certain model of a certain brand of guitar thought it was funny that a dealer refused to carry them, and even wrote rants about them. (Obviously, I don't want to risk another derail by going into any more detail than that.  )
 
Since Stanley Clarke virtually invented the piccolo electric bass (Ron Carter developed the piccolo upright), which requires modifying a standard bass, my question should have been:
 
Does anyone else think that Stanley was using an Alembic SC as a piccolo, or could it have been an octave pedal?  
 
There was no need for me to drag Carl Thompson, Ed Roman or anybody else into it, and I sincerely apologize if I caused offense.

[moongerm]

No offense taken ever, you are the man Forrest! Keep doing what you do, I enjoy reading your posts. Digressions usually lead to interesting or useful info as Jazzy pointed out. By the way that Alembic SC sans Series electronics in that video sounds great!

[mario_farufyno]

Stanley used to have his bass tuned to Tenor (A, D, G, C)...

[mario_farufyno]

Yes, I've checked and he is indeed playing a fourth above.
 
(Message edited by mario farufyno on April 13, 2016)

[malthumb]

Seeing the clip of Stanley and George brought back memories of my first introduction to 87 4431.  I was in the 2nd row at a Clarke Duke Project concert and Stanley was roaming through the audience, in a way similar to the way he was roaming in the "Wild Dogs" clip.  He was playing 87 4431.  Stood on the seat in front of me and my date (now wife) and just tore into a ridiculous solo.  Since this wasn't his usual short scale Alembic, but a long scale Omega Series I, I took note of it.  Many years later when he was selling off a lot of his equipment, I bought 87-4431.

[jazzyvee]

Wow that's a great story and it must be so rewarding thing to be able to seal that connection of the experience of the gig, your wife and the bass.

[japhy4529]

This may seem a weird observation, but what the heck... just a random thought from someone who'll never be able to play anything like Stanley. What I admire most is how utterly relaxed, and comfortable he is on stage with that bass. I really do need to remind myself to work on that part too...

I've noticed the same when viewing old footage of John Entwistle playing with The Who. Much of the time looks beyond relaxed and sometimes downright bored onstage, even while playing intricate bass lines!

[David Houck]

Great story, James.