Any M-85 bass owners/lovers out there?

[idealassets]

mgod,

I also don't quite follow what you mean by none of it mattering. You mean because we aren't negotiating?

What I meant was that in the LTG chats, thers a lot of "just talking" and it "it really doesn't matter", meaning that its really a bass owners somewhat private matter, so maybe my question was digging in a little too much. But really I am interested in the fate of the Phil Lesh bass, and find that to be quite a bit of guitar lore. Another thing that doen't matter is that I am not so good at all on bass. Its drums at #1, and 12 string at #2 for me. I have considered a possible purchase at some time of an M85 bass, with the latest one, a late 60's M85-I(?) going to an LTG member at around $3600(?), or so, which staved off a lot of other fierce competitive bidding on ebay, I quit bidding at around $2500 for that one. No guts, no glory. If you have one to sell, please PM me.

You're confused.

Perhaps, I've been told that once or twice before maybe.

The bass I got from Phil, which I'm using in that video,..

That's what I was interested in. Hans was able to write his book about thess very type of interesting things, which folks like me (and others) like to figure out.

As I said elsewhere, I have five M-85s and they're all quite different.

OK, 5- M85's, and 6- Starfire's. Thats quite a set of guitars. I lost your "family portrait" of the Starfires on my computer. Can someone plaese PM it to me, or give the LTG link, so that this time I put it in a good file?

I'm not sure what you mean by a player bass

A player bass is one that I would have no qualms about playing in public, and not have a concern about possible ruination by a less than discreet (perhaps drunk) music patron. I often play out with a >$3K value guitar, with the provision that it is insured at a near full value, and it can be replaced. In the local area most folks play a recent year Fender Pbass. So my similar "player" might be the Ric 4003 or perhaps an Ephiphone Jack Casaday. I bring my Starfire I, or 68' Gibson EBII to selected folk society gatherings, thats alittle more safe.

If you would like to hear when I was keeping my "chops up" with drums its here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/comp ... aiggriffin
I like "Walk With Me" (Kenny Rogers), and "Freedom" the best. I will add 6 original songs from this group, when I send the sheet music to BMI. You may note that our bass player tended to hold the group together fairly well.

-Craig

 

[fronobulax]

http://web.archive.org/web/200610112017 ... image9.jpg

From Fred Hammon's site by way of archive.org, which is a wonderful place to go for things that used to be on the internet. My recollection is that the pic is several years old, includes some of Fred's and mgod's instruments and are a mix of Bisonic and Dark Star PUs.

On the Lesh M-85 what is getting confusing is that you ask questions that make absolutely no sense if the people trying to answer you assume that you recall the previous discussions on the instrument that you have participated in. If you are asking history then it's out there and hasn't changed. If you're asking for status then mgod has been using it when the spirit moves him, it has not been modified and it is not for sale.

As for the rest of mgod's instruments my guess is that the bidding opens at $3,000. Unlike many sellers of Guild basses, mgod knows exactly what he has, and they have been used and maintained professionally so condition is likely to be much better than average for the age, even compared to a case queen. And as long as the royalty checks keep coming in and people record music, he is unlikely to have a low price fire sale just to make rent. Last paragraph is entirely my opinion except for the fact that when I made a serious inquiry about one of his Starfire II's the opening price was higher than $3K.

 

[mgod]

If its the picture I think it is, there are no Dark Stars in the world yet. The picture Fred called "Guild orgy" was taken at my house the day he and I met, a month or two shy of 10 years ago. The idea of recreating the pickup was one of many subjects we discussed that day. I just invited him to hang out because I liked the tone of his posts in the olde Pit.

The first pair he made ended up in the black 73 solid M-85 that's in the picture. Its one of my three most-used Guilds, the others being the fretless M-85 and a sunburst 67 Starfire - which I bought just about 40 years ago - and which got the original pickups and brass bridge blocks out of the fretless when RT remade it.

Something to consider about the fretless is that although it was made for Phil and he owned it from 68 to 73 and didn't use it. I've owned it since and used it extensively in all those years. So other than its derivation, its not really a Lesh bass, Unlike say Jack's sunburst Starfire, which he still owns. Also, unless one is a Lesh freak, I don't imagine that it matters.