Author Topic: Phil Lesh's Custom Omega Cut Alembic (Read 7841 times)

kmh364 · « **Reply #30 on:** October 02, 2004, 05:51:57 AM »

That movie was/is sacred in the Deadhead circles I used to frequent in my misspent youth. Most Deadheads I knew saw the Movie before they could actually see the Dead! You know the drill: it was hard to save up the $15-$25-$35 to get a Dead show ticket, LOL back in the day!

lbpesq · « **Reply #31 on:** October 02, 2004, 02:53:43 PM »

I just ordered the movie. I had to. After all, I'm in it. Somewhere. Very small. (But that night my mind was VERY big). My DVD source, deepdiscountdvd.com, also listed something I never heard of before. DVD Audio remixes of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. The descriptions say that Mickey Hart mixed Workingman's and that Sugar Mag on American Beauty is mixed so that Jerry's Pedal Steel is the lead instrument! I never knew Jerry played steel on that particular cut! Anyone else heard these? I though it was worth taking the flyer for less than 12 bucks each. This site is a great source for DVDs. Good prices, no tax, free shippping. Here's the links to the Dead DVD Audios:

American Beauty:
www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=WEA074385

Workingman's Dead:
www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=WEA078356

Bill, the guitar one

David Houck · « **Reply #32 on:** October 02, 2004, 04:24:15 PM »

Bill, let us know what you think when you get them.

kmh364 · « **Reply #33 on:** October 08, 2004, 04:48:44 PM »

Bill: Yes, please do! Also, doesn't FOUR Kreutzmann's really in all actuality constitute several KreutzMENN? LOL! Sorry, very corny but I couldn't resist.

Cheers,

Kevin

zezozeceglutz · « **Reply #34 on:** July 24, 2009, 12:06:35 PM »

A couple that should be added to the thread for the sake of completeness:

pauldo · « **Reply #35 on:** July 24, 2009, 03:49:23 PM »

woweee!

pasewark · « **Reply #36 on:** July 24, 2009, 03:51:56 PM »

Great photos!

moonliner · « **Reply #37 on:** July 24, 2009, 08:03:54 PM »

Lovely to see these photos.

What's a BadAss bridge doing on the bass in the last photo?
There is a story coming I know....

zezozeceglutz · « **Reply #38 on:** July 24, 2009, 08:51:25 PM »

Phil was experimenting with the effect of different string anchoring systems around that time. It's also visible in the first post in this thread with individual tailpieces for each string and below with the same. The shot with plate behind the Badass looks to be an intermediate step between the original setup and that shown below from '79 (right before Mission Control was retired). The plate covers the tailpiece mounting holes and there are no signs yet of holes for the individual tailpieces.

tmoney61092 · « **Reply #39 on:** July 24, 2009, 08:52:38 PM »

is that 3 pickups or just a large dummy?

~Taylor Watterson

sonicus · « **Reply #40 on:** July 24, 2009, 09:22:40 PM »

I believe one of them (center) is a quad just like the modified Guild Starfire was , right guys ?

tmoney61092 · « **Reply #41 on:** July 24, 2009, 09:27:29 PM »

i'm an idiot when it comes to his basses, what's a quad?

~Taylor Watterson

zezozeceglutz · « **Reply #42 on:** July 24, 2009, 09:35:47 PM »

One small pickup per string. It interacted with the Wall of Sound the Dead used in '74 to send each string to a different set of speakers when used (very rarely). The white dots on the upper half of the body were designed to select where the signal from each section would go. The switching system was notoriously unreliable so Phil ended up using his earlier modified Starfire a lot.

The quad pickup in the Starfire is potted in clear epoxy so you can see better what's going on inside.

tmoney61092 · « **Reply #43 on:** July 24, 2009, 09:41:54 PM »

wow, that sounds intense, would there be any way of deactivating the quad so that he could have still used this as a normal alembic?

~Taylor Watterson

zezozeceglutz · « **Reply #44 on:** July 24, 2009, 10:11:48 PM »

He used it normally 90+ percent of the time. The quad seems to have only made appearances during the spacier jams.

There's a Truckin>Nobody's Fault jam somewhere on archive.org that has a really distinct stereo mix where Phil solos with the quad and it's quite the experience. It was a partial show and available streaming only but I haven't been able to find it again while looking