Phil Lesh's Alembic Modified Guild Starfire "The Godfather"

[5a_quilt_top]

Fascinating info - thanks for pulling back the curtain on a mystery that has confounded me for 40 + years.
 
I first saw this bass in the photo booklet that was inside the 3-record Europe '72 package. Hearing it on record and seeing it in those photos was a mind blowing experience for a 12-year old budding musician.
 
Up to that point, the most knobs I'd seen on a bass was four and many of the recorded bass tones that I'd heard sounded like mud.
 
I've always wondered what functions all those knobs control - and now I know!

[dead_head]

It looks fantastic! Enjoyed hearing it in the TXR video. Hope we get to see and hear more about this beauty in the near future...

[pasewark]

My favorite bass of all time. ! Mica, Thanks for the diagram. It's all crystal clear to me now! Not really I have a ton of questions.

[5a_quilt_top]

From back in the day:
 
I'm guessing that this pic was probably taken shortly after Big Brown was originally first delivered to Phil.

[edwin]

It looks like it's prior to the addition of a couple of knobs. CVQ?

[pasewark]

Still has the full tail piece too.

[Tennesseemick]

Thanks. I've often wondered what all the knobs controlled.

What I didn't put in the callouts were the trimpot gain controls for the bass and treble pickups. I made this in about 10 minutes, and so it's as good as I could make in that short time. 
 
We were worried from some stuff we heard that someone had been inside this bass, but when we opened it up, nearly all the solder joints were clearly done by my dad, Ron Wickersham. 
 
We're going to have the bass back again in the near future to finish the documentation of it. The low pass filters go really really low, like you can make the E string almost disappear if you set it right (or is it wrong?) Anyway, there is a lot under the hood!

[rv_bass]

Wasn’t sure where to post this, but this thread looks like a good place. 


Pretty cool photo, 9/2/78 Giants Stadium.  Phil playing Big Brown with Orange Osage at the ready in a stand near the McIntosh amps.  Notice the Four F-2B preamps that match up with the four power amps.  Pure Alembic sound right there!  I was at this show, but don’t remember much

[lbpesq]

Cool pic!  It looks like he’s using two of the F-2Bs, one mono and one in stereo.

Bill, tgo

[edwardofhuncote]

Look at all those red knobs.

What's the little green figure sitting on top of that rack? 

[elwoodblue]

From Here,

[edwin]

Wasn’t sure where to post this, but this thread looks like a good place. 


Pretty cool photo, 9/2/78 Giants Stadium.  Phil playing Big Brown with Orange Osage at the ready in a stand near the McIntosh amps.  Notice the Four F-2B preamps that match up with the four power amps.  Pure Alembic sound right there!  I was at this show, but don’t remember much

I remember that rig! Saw it at the Boston Music Hall, 9/14/78

[StephenR]

I was at the 78 Boston Music Hall shows, too. Was really psyched to get to see the band again in a small venue but the shows themselves were pretty lackluster. Security was really obnoxious and it took forever to get in each night, I saw them checking peoples wallets for, I guess, drugs. Each night the show started before everyone could get in. I skipped Giants Stadium since I didn't like going to shows in stadiums, made an exception for Dylan and the Dead, though.

Somehow I never paid that much attention to the equipment at 70s shows except watching the evolution of the "Wall of Sound", the individual components weren't a point of focus for me just the visual aspect and the sound of the music. I did pay attention to the instruments themselves, though, especially Big Brown, Mission Control and the Wolf guitar and the oscilloscope Phil used to have on stage was hard to miss.

[edwin]

I was at the 78 Boston Music Hall shows, too. Was really psyched to get to see the band again in a small venue but the shows themselves were pretty lackluster. Security was really obnoxious and it took forever to get in each night, I saw them checking peoples wallets for, I guess, drugs. Each night the show started before everyone could get in. I skipped Giants Stadium since I didn't like going to shows in stadiums, made an exception for Dylan and the Dead, though.

Somehow I never paid that much attention to the equipment at 70s shows except watching the evolution of the "Wall of Sound", the individual components weren't a point of focus for me just the visual aspect and the sound of the music. I did pay attention to the instruments themselves, though, especially Big Brown, Mission Control and the Wolf guitar and the oscilloscope Phil used to have on stage was hard to miss.

That's odd. I loved the night I saw! I thought it was cool that they played the final side of the Skull and Roses album. No problem getting in and wasn't checked for anything. I had a seat in the 15th row and gave it up for most of the show to be in the balcony, where it sounded better to me.

[StephenR]

May be time for me to revisit the show(s).  At the time I was a bit disappointed but it may have been having a higher expectation based on a return to a small venue. As is common with Dead shows the perceptions of the show can be all over the map depending on who you talk to. But, I am surprised that you didn't notice the obnoxious security, if you went in really early that may be why. We didn't get the overly-obtrusive pat-down and weren't asked to empty pockets or turn over wallets but saw people that was happening to and the line to get in was painfully slow all three nights.