M-85 II sighting and Bass p0rn!!!!!

[fronobulax]

Image below is from the Independent Shakespeare Company's production of Red Barn (if I have the story right).

M-85 II with what is supposedly the first par of Dark Star pickups ever wound.

Sound clip from the production here.

Image below has often been discussed since it is the Holy Grail of Guild bass p0rn. So many basses, so little time!

Pic was on the Dark Star pickup web site. I finally snagged a copy for my archives.

AFAIK, the black M-85 (fifth from right, in back, above) in both pictures is the same bass.

As usual, I stand ready to be corrected :wink:

 

[mgod]

So while you're still standing:

No, the top image is an ISC offshoot called "Dr. Pinch and the Pinchtones" which was a feature of their presentation this past summer of Comedy of Errors. They set it in post WW-II Europe and featured the tunes of NY-based singer Bliss Blood and her band the Moonlighters. Red Barn is an epic musical - the track you've linked does not a feature a Guild but a very nice 61 Rick 4000. ISC is run by a brilliant actor/writer named David Melville and his wife, and Red Barn is their original creation. The two lovely young women in the shot are both astonishingly talented singers and actresses. As musical director of Red Barn, I had to change into a costume in the same room with them night after night.

Some more about Red Barn. The goal is to get it to Broadway, and points farther east:
http://www.lastagetimes.com/2012/10/mel ... rn-murder/
http://laartstream.com/theater-spotligh ... ent-studi/

The M-85 in the top shot is the same one with Honkmaster™ pickups on the left end of the couch, a 73 solid-body. As that shot was taken the day Fred and I finally met face-to-face, Dark Stars were still a gleam in someone's mind. However, later that year the first pair went into that bass, and its been my main bass since then.

Next month it'll be 40 years since I got my first Guild, center right sunburst SF-II in the shot.

 

[fronobulax]

At least I got the Guilds right

The attribution and reference to Red Barn was an incorrect but educated guess. I'm sorry you had to share a dressing room :wink: but glad to help with publicity.

Interesting that the photo is pre-Dark Star since I always thought that the JS II was Dark Starred. If those are original Bisonics (and the absence of the Deep/Hard switch suggest they are) then it is a fairly rare configuration. Ignoring the bass that left the factory with a JS body and B-302 hardware in the late 70's, I thought that the two Bisonic JS II was rarest, followed by the Bisonic with mini-Hagstrom configuration.

 

[idealassets]

There's the family portrait! -Now safely saved in my private image archive. I especially like the art nuveau couch, the basses set it off quite nicely, oops I mean the couch sets off the basses. Best of success for your musical production.

very nice 61 Rick 4000

I do like Ric basses, and may get a 4003 soon, and then I'd actually put down my Guild F512 to play a little bit of bass again..

Its great that someone is keeping the Guild basses alive and current. Hmm, 40 years ago for your first Guild bass. I was playing a set of 1965 Ludwig drums then, which today sell for many multiples of my cost in the 70's.

Those M85's are quite the item, and apparently "team Guild" is not re-producing them, although the Orpheum series of guitars look impressive, especially with that sound hole decorum.

Craig

 

[fronobulax]

There's the family portrait! -Now safely saved in my private image archive.

Your prior search was one of the reasons I snagged it when it cropped up again.

Those M85's are quite the item, and apparently "team Guild" is not re-producing them,

Somewhere in all of the NAMM discussion there was a comment to the effect that Guild has not ruled out adding a M-85 to the Newark Street line although who knows when? There are also several comments about buying originals and having them reverse engineered in Korea in order to create the Newark Street line. I can make a case that finding an M-85 that is both for sale and in good enough condition to be the master prototype might be part of the issue

 

[mgod]

Fender had a 68 of mine for the better part of a decade. However, after 5 years or so I was asked for the OK to send it to Japan for measurement and said no. I thought they'd had it plenty long enough to get that together, and I also knew that there was sufficient talent in Corona.

 

[mgod]

The attribution and reference to Red Barn was an incorrect but educated guess. I'm sorry you had to share a dressing room :wink:.

Well, you know - life is pain.

Interesting that the photo is pre-Dark Star since I always thought that the JS II was Dark Starred. If those are original Bisonics (and the absence of the Deep/Hard switch suggest they are) then it is a fairly rare configuration. Ignoring the bass that left the factory with a JS body and B-302 hardware in the late 70's, I thought that the two Bisonic JS II was rarest, followed by the Bisonic with mini-Hagstrom configuration.

It was a I to which Roger Giffin added a 2nd pickup and Gibson bridge for me. My first attempt at a Phil EB-O style bass. Didn't get it right on that one.

The couch is what they call mid-century Modern. Late 50s.

 

[idealassets]

The couch is what they call mid-century Modern. Late 50s.

Its the couch, I tell you, that's quite cool. And it looks to me like the real thing, not a repro. They just don't quite make them like that any more. American ingenuity was still alive and well in the 50's.

The local Amish community makes a "mission" style of oak furniture, some of which I own. But I am loathe to give up any of my deco or nuveau items.

 

[julessg]

Thanks for posting.

 

[bluesypicky]

Hold on..... so the bass player on the top pic isn't you Frono???
Granted it's not the character my eyes are attracted to, the most on that pic, but the resemblance (if it's not you) is borderline scary.

 

[fronobulax]

Hold on..... so the bass player on the top pic isn't you Frono???
Granted it's not the character my eyes are attracted to, the most on that pic, but the resemblance (if it's not you) is borderline scary.

mgod. We do have similar hairlines, or lack thereof, East Coast roots, glasses and a fondness of Guilds, but he plays bass and I play at bass.

 

[idealassets]

Hold on..... so the bass player on the top pic isn't you Frono???

Get back! That was my exact same thought.

But wait, there's lots more wrong with this pic. OK, I can see that we have 2 hot chicks and a Guild M85 II bass. That jives. But 2 hot chicks, with bass guy wearing a flannel shirt, and Ukalele player that looks Ivy League? This just never happens, especially in the Midwest. Or if it does, someone will no doubt exclaim- "what is wrong with this picture?".

It must be that its all about the music.

 

[mgod]

The uke player is probably the most talented person I've ever met. An englishman. And his dad sings background on "Hey Jude".

For the full story, you'll have to purchase the CD "The Cuckoo and The Owl", a benefit CD for the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival.

 

[mgod]

[but he plays bass and I play at bass.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[idealassets]

And his dad sings background on "Hey Jude".

That's good enough for me. That's one of the best songs of all time. I have to thank Sir Paul McCartney and everyone for that song.

"The Cuckoo and The Owl", a benefit CD for the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival.

When I lived in Pasadena, which was before the new millennium, I would frequent the Sunday afternoon drum jams in Griffith Park, usually on my conga drums. Often some great players would show up, particularly on bass, guitar, or timbales.

 

[mgod]

There's a zoo and an Observatory too. :?

 

[chefothefuture1]

the track you've linked does not a feature a Guild but a very nice 61 Rick 4000.

Good grief! A 61 4000?!
Those are insanely rare.
They are nothing like Rickenbacker has made since...
I'd like to see that one....

 

[fronobulax]

Watch this space. I have been hosting and posting pics from mgod. I have a bunch to put up on his behalf, but might not get them up today.

 

[idealassets]

There's a zoo and an Observatory too

Yes, I do miss all that. There might still be a 2 story golf driving range in existence in Griffith Park as well. Unfortunately at the time I had very gainful employment with overtime, and didn't really check out the music scene in LA that much.

What I found to be under rated in LA was all the art deco influences still in existence, such as some of the tunnels, with very nice tile work inside them. After enduring the Northridge quake, when I lived in Van Nuys, a few of the nice old buildings in the area were leveled in the quake. That was quite a shame.

I with Randy Neuman (I Love LA), I really don't blame anyone for just plain loving it there.

 

[idealassets]

I have been hosting and posting pics from mgod

Post away, I just love to see those bad axes.