Alembic Connection

fronobulax · Jan 19, 2010

Most people of a certain age and with an interest in electric instruments will have heard of Alembic guitars and basses. The usual Guild connection is that the modifications and technology that became the Alembic "core" were first hosted in Guild Starfire basses used by Phil Lesh and Jack Casady. According to this history of Alembic: "During 1969 we developed the Alembic electronics and pickups. We first installed them in David Crosby's 12-string Guild guitar (which he still uses to this day)" so it appears that Alembic and Guilds are even more closely associated.

adorshki · Jan 19, 2010

Always thought there was something kind of extra special sounding about "If I Could Only Remember My Name". Maybe that explains it. Thanks Frono!

jwsamuel · Jan 19, 2010

There's another connection. Rick Turner was one of the early partners in Alembic and went on to found D-Tar, the pickups used in many Guild guitars today.

Jim

sfIII · Jan 19, 2010

jwsamuel said:
There's another connection. Rick Turner was one of the early partners in Alembic and went on to found D-Tar, the pickups used in many Guild guitars today.

Jim

and Donnie Wade worked with Rick at Alembic prior to his working at Jackson.. then Fender Then Guild, Now Fender I think. I've been told that the DTAR was Donnie's work in part.. At least the battery setup..

Here's a goodread about Rick.. with one mention of Donnie Wade.

alpep · Jan 20, 2010

i thought it was just coincidence

fronobulax · Jan 20, 2010

alpep said:
i thought it was just coincidence

What was coincidence? The people coming together or the use of Guilds as a testbed or ?

My hunch is that Crosby, Lesh and Casady were playing Guilds because those were the best instruments on the market for their purposes at the time. Thus they were the logical (not coincidental) choices for a test bed.

Tangentially, there was also a quote in the Alembic history to the effect that the bass player was usually playing bass because they were the worst guitarist in the band and so Alembic started focusing on bass because no one else was taking bassists seriously. Since I don't play guitar, I guess by definition anywhere I am makes me the worst guitarist

alpep · Jan 20, 2010

coincidence that they played guild and that alembic altered the guitars.

no conspiracy. I think cassady also played a gibson and so did lesh

crosby martins gibsons and gretsch

fronobulax · Jan 20, 2010

alpep said:
coincidence that they played guild and that alembic altered the guitars.

no conspiracy. I think cassady also played a gibson and so did lesh

crosby martins gibsons and gretsch

I guess we may be about to agree to disagree. Everything I can find about Alembic's history before it was incorporated seems to me to be pretty clear that the Hagstrom PU in the Guild Starfire was the best bass PU available at the time because it had a tremendous frequency range. As such, it was the ideal driver for the pre-Alembic experiments with electronics which were the core for the modifications. So the choice of the Hagstrom PU was deliberate, not coincidence, and thus the choice to modify a Guild because it already had the PU.

That said, Lesh did have a Gibson EB-0 that was modified to use two Hagstroms so there is no hint of exclusivity. I can't find any evidence of Casady using a Gibson during that time frame but that could be bad search-fu on my part.

alpep · Jan 20, 2010

I do not know all the specifics.

I can believe what you say about the pickups.

adorshki · Jan 20, 2010

fronobulax said:
alpep said:

coincidence that they played guild and that alembic altered the guitars.

no conspiracy. I think cassady also played a gibson and so did lesh

crosby martins gibsons and gretsch

Click to expand...

That said, Lesh did have a Gibson EB-0 that was modified to use two Hagstroms so there is no hint of exclusivity. I can't find any evidence of Casady using a Gibson during that time frame but that could be bad search-fu on my part.

As a Casady fan since late '68 I've never seen him with a Gibson, unless Alpep's thinking of that Flying V bod with the Guild neck? WHich came MUCH later in any case.
AS a humorous aside, I bet they all played Guilds because Tommy Smothers had one on TV.

fronobulax · Jan 21, 2010

adorshki said:
unless Alpep's thinking of that Flying V bod with the Guild neck?

Threaded here with a picture. Basically a custom bass built by Glen "Bada** Bridge" Quann using a Guild JetStar neck and Hagstroms from Casady's stash.

alpep · Jan 21, 2010

i guess I am confused.
I thought jack used one of those epiphones like chas chandler.

I know he had the signature model and I am not confusing that one.

didn't he have a j bass also? I think I remember that in a video or two

fronobulax · Jan 21, 2010

alpep said:
i guess I am confused.

Been there, done that. You're in good company

alpep said:
I thought jack used one of those epiphones like chas chandler.

News to me but the man has been playing bass for nearly 50 years so I'm sure I don't know what he played and when for all of those years.

alpep said:
I know he had the signature model and I am not confusing that one.

Yep. See this. I seem to recall that the Epiphone is a product of the last ten years or so.

alpep said:
didn't he have a j bass also? I think I remember that in a video or two

The earliest videos I have seen of Jefferson Airplane, have him playing a Fender. I can't recall whether it is a J or a P. There is a lip-synch'd version of "White Rabbit" where there is some kind of bean bag animal puppet draped over the fingerboard which I always took to be a cynical commentary about lip-synching.

alpep · Jan 21, 2010

[

alpep said:
didn't he have a j bass also? I think I remember that in a video or two

The earliest videos I have seen of Jefferson Airplane, have him playing a Fender. I can't recall whether it is a J or a P. There is a lip-synch'd version of "White Rabbit" where there is some kind of bean bag animal puppet draped over the fingerboard which I always took to be a cynical commentary about lip-synching.[/quote]

that is the video I am thinking of and it is a fender bass but which one I can't remember

fronobulax · Jan 21, 2010

alpep said:
that is the video I am thinking of and it is a fender bass but which one I can't remember

Here. Jazz bass?

hansmoust · Jan 22, 2010

fronobulax said:
Jazz bass?

Yup! Definitely a Jazz Bass!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

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