Andy West

[hieronymous]

Tour dates for the Dixie Dregs - with Andy West - with his Alembic!

[rv_bass]

A photo from a recent show, the current Dregs shows are fantastic...

[David Houck]

Nice bass!!

[rv_bass]

A happy man with his bass   

[elwoodblue]

Nice pic! 

[pauldo]

Well that is great to see Andy slinging an Alembic again.  On the liner notes of What If he is credited as "bass innovator".

And as fate would have it my brother has tickets for the April 11th show at the historic Pabst Theater - wonder who he is going to take.... ?  ;-)

[pauldo]

Rob is correct, the Dixie Dregs show was absolutely fantastic.  There were several of those "magic musical moments" where you get transported to a different plane... drawn into the layers of music that is perfectly balanced by craftsman and their instruments.

Or maybe that was the gummies my brother had...

Seriously, it was impressive how they still have it.  I think the last time I saw them was in 93'.  Andy played his Alembic only on Twiggs Approved... kinda dissapointed (I am biased) but it sounded much clearer than his 6-string Modulus (?).  But understandable that for someone that plays so many notes that having more strings makes negotiating those killer runs a lot easier.  Wonder if he knows that Alembic makes sixer's? 

[StephenR]

Thanks for the show review! Andy is mainly playing his latest custom G. Gould bass on this tour. The body is solid walnut. He has been using Geoff's basses for years. As far as I can tell all the Gould basses he owns are custom models made to his specs. The walnut bass has six-strings on a five-string neck. I think Geoff's basses are fantastic and a lot of them are very light weight which is an extra bonus. Would love to have one with Series electronics but know that will never happen. I have a 2003 cocobolo G. Gould with a wood neck. He doesn't make wood necks anymore only graphite. I didn't care for the profile of the graphite necks as much as the wood one I have.

I watched a video of the recent Dregs show at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, NY. Not familiar with the names of the tunes but on the one tune he used the Alembic for it looked like he was mainly slapping. Guessing he is enjoying re-visiting his old Alembic but is more of a six-string player now.

[pauldo]

Yes Stephen that is the same song.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WcRSRkVHHTE

The cool thing was his Alembic was on stage, on display for the whole first set and then when he strapped it on he talked a bit about it being his original bass with the Dixie Dregs.  I believe around the Industry Standard era he switched to a Steinbrenner.

Oddly, older pictures show standard oval inlays on the neck, but now it appears to be sporting some rather fancy inlay work...  wonder if anyone here knows the back story on that?  @mica. 

[rv_bass]

Pauldo, The neck was damaged on stage at some point and repaired.  He then sold it to a former student who had Alembic replace the neck and the inlay was done at that time.  Here are some links that have been posted about it:


http://andywest.com/music-gear/no-longer

Here is the Alembic file lookup info:

http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=5490.0



I’m seeing them in Boulder, should be fun!

[pauldo]

Whoa...
Rob, if I understand correctly, that is your bass (but originally Andy's) I saw the other night that you so generously lent to Andy for the tour?

Imagine you will be getting some VIP treatment in Boulder - please forward my vast appreciation to all of them for their performance in Milwaukee. 

[hieronymous]

The Santa Cruz show is coming up! This Tuesday! I'm excited - I was never a huge fan but I had a couple of the albums (Free Fall, What If) - I think I need to review some of these songs, I don't want for the music to be too unfamiliar, I actually like to really know the music before I see a performance.

Found this interview from No Treble from a few months ago before the tour started, he talks about the Alembic a little bit:

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/01/19/dawn-of-the-dregs-an-interview-with-andy-west/?utm_source=weeklynews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01222018

[rv_bass]

I saw the two shows in Boulder this weekend, very good performances, I really enjoyed them, great musicianship. They played tunes off of Freefall, What If, and several others.  Pretty loud, so you might want to bring earplugs.   

[edwin]

I saw the two shows in Boulder this weekend, very good performances, I really enjoyed them, great musicianship. They played tunes off of Freefall, What If, and several others.  Pretty loud, so you might want to bring earplugs.   

I'm so bummed I missed it! What If! However, I had 3 gigs over those two days.... Timing is everything.

[hieronymous]

The Dixie Dregs at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz was awesome! I found out from setlist.com what they would be playing so I could bone up on the tunes - haven't listened to this stuff in over 20 years! It was a little on the loud side - thanks for the warning rv_bass! But overall it sounded good - only complaint was that the bass was a bit lost  - Steve Morse's speaker cab was pointing straight at me and had a very full sound, and the kick drum was pretty subsonic, especially during the first set.

Here's the introduction of the mighty Alembic bass and the beginning of Twiggs Approved (the only song he used it on):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsAUCZc6OWY

And here they are playing (best pic I got of the evening):



I really wish he had used it at least on Cruise Control - that bass line really needed the high end that was missing from the Gould. I wonder if he had flats on the Gould?

They're in Sacramento tonight! Anyone going? I'm pretty sure it's sold out.

Oh, and the Rio Theatre was interesting - it really is an old movie theater, with what looks like the original seats - no balcony - everyone sat for the entire show (but it was an older audience, I was on the young side at 47) - but I think they have a mold problem, my friend started sneezing during the show and I felt it a little bit too.