Bob Weir and his Guild F50

Aristera

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In the June issue of Acoustic Guitar p43 there is an interesting paragraph or two where Bob Weir references his playing a custom order archback F50 with an oversized peghead. He said he used it on the '69-'70 acoustic sets and that only three were made. One for him and two Dead roadies got the two others. He wanted an acoustic that had some projection and the archback was it. The article said the Dead were in tight with Guild and he said." So I said to Mark Dronge, why don't we do a flattop with an arched back?" He also mentioned that it is one of the most prized guitars in his collection.
 

idealassets

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Too cool. This guitar was also made with Brazilian rosewood, no?

On another note I bought the "Workingman's Dead" acoustic album right when it came out. That was a great album then, and great today too.

Craig
 

hansmoust

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In the June issue of Acoustic Guitar p43 there is an interesting paragraph or two where Bob Weir references his playing a custom order archback F50 with an oversized peghead. He said he used it on the '69-'70 acoustic sets and that only three were made. One for him and two Dead roadies got the two others. He wanted an acoustic that had some projection and the archback was it. The article said the Dead were in tight with Guild and he said." So I said to Mark Dronge, why don't we do a flattop with an arched back?" He also mentioned that it is one of the most prized guitars in his collection.

Don't agree with the dating and the sequence of the various events, but nevertheless these guitars are absolutely historically interesting.
The ones I've seen had laminated Brazilian rosewood bodies and 5-pc. laminated maple necks, which made them somewhat odd looking.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

SFIV1967

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That below picture from 2012 is showing his special F-50R.
No G-shield or inlays on the headstock either, just a silk screeded "Guild" on that rosewood veneer.

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Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/grateful-dead-bob-weir-national-304041

He played the same guitar already back in 1970: (with Jerry Garcia playing a normal F-50 Maple):

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I found another one (that I had not seen before) of a 22 year old Bob Weir with his Guild Starfire VI. 7
Same guitar (missing TRC) as he already played during the Colombia University student strike in May 1968:

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And since I am at pictures, I also like the picture of him and his early Alembic modified ST-402 (?):

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Craig had mentioned in another thread that Bob Weir also used to play a F-512 at that time, I didn't find a picture of that.

Ralf
 
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sailingshoes72

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I love that 2nd photo with a young and slim Jerry Garcia with a Guild F-50. I didn't recognize him at first. A few details... check out the Princeton Amp on the stage behind Garcia, a lot different from the three Twin Reverbs he toured with later on. And, the folding Buck knife on Phil Lesh's belt. You never know when you might encounter some dancing bears!
 

adorshki

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And since I am at pictures, I also like the picture of him and his early Alembic modified ST-402 (?):

prev32.jpg
Ralf you got my curiosity up on that one, but I didn't find an ST-402 in "the Book", it topped out at a 303.
I never heard of Bobby having an Alembic-ized Guild, not that that means anything, but it was kind of interesting that in the book Hans says Mark Dronge recalls him getting a custom CE-100 with a through-neck construction. And that don't look like a CE-100.
I could swear I've seen the guitar in that Woodstock pic before, it was what I started looking for because I thought it was shown in Hans' book and was supposed to have been ordered from Westerly that way.
On the other hand it wouldn't surprise me if he ordered more than one with the extra volume/tone controls.
As for Jerry and his F50, there're pics of him with one going all the way back to '62 in Hank Harrison's "The Dead", as well as some very early remarks from Phil about what he was hoping to accomplish with the technology in the bass that would become the "Alembic prototype". It wasn't even complete yet at the time of the interview.
Anyway all of this tends to reinforce the comment that "they were in tight with Guild".
 

SFIV1967

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Ralf you got my curiosity up on that one, but I didn't find an ST-402 in "the Book", it topped out at a 303.
Al: You need to study Hans book better ;-) Sure the ST-402 is mentioned as deep body model in there!
And Alembric didn't only mean "bass"...From Wikipedia: "The company was founded by Owsley Stanley as a workshop in the rehearsal room of the Greatful Dead in Novato, California, near San Francisco, to help improve the entire sound chain for the band's live recordings, from instruments to PA. Soon the group was active in sound recording, modifying and repairing guitars and basses, and PA systems."
Ralf
 

fronobulax

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It is true however, that the first instruments Alembic built under that label were basses. I find the official history here to be a little more nuanced than the Wikipedia entry which people who know people who were there have told me is not especially accurate.
 

SFIV1967

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It is true however, that the first instruments Alembic built under that label were basses.
Sure, but you also read there: "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) and then into Phil Lesh's SG bass that had been hand painted by Bob Thomas in his trademark renaissance/psychedelic style. After several more experimental designs, both Phil Lesh's and Jack Casady's hollow-bodied Guild basses were renovated with new low-impedance pickups and new active electronics. Bobby Weir's and Jerry Garcia's guitars were done as well."
Ralf
 

fronobulax

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Sure, but you also read there: "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) and then into Phil Lesh's SG bass that had been hand painted by Bob Thomas in his trademark renaissance/psychedelic style. After several more experimental designs, both Phil Lesh's and Jack Casady's hollow-bodied Guild basses were renovated with new low-impedance pickups and new active electronics. Bobby Weir's and Jerry Garcia's guitars were done as well."
Ralf

<veer>
I'm not sure whether we have a difference of opinion or whether English is just an interesting language :)
I phrased things the way I did to distinguish between an Alembic produced and branded instrument, of which the first was Jack Casady's bass, and an instrument built by someone else and modified by Alembic (or proto-Alembic, see below) of which Crosby's 12 string Guild would be the first. Part of the reason for the distinction is that, while the people who eventually formed Alembic, were working together prior to the formation of that company, and the basis for some of the modifications and innovations were developed, Alembic was not actually incorporated until 1970. My attitude has been colored by folks who make a distinction between what Turner, Wikersham, et. al. did before 1970 and after 1970 and refuse to allow the word "Alembic" to be applied to the earlier collaborations.

It's like the start of Guild - 1952 or 1953 depending on how you define "start" or when the Starfire bass was introduced since there are examples with serial numbers from 1964 even though the available evidence suggests they were first shipped in 1965.

:redface-new:

</veer>
 

adorshki

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Al: You need to study Hans book better ;-) Sure the ST-402 is mentioned as deep body model in there!
yep, was doing a quick look through 'cause I was expecting to find the pic of Bob.
Alembric didn't only mean "bass"...
Oh I knew about the guitars just thought '69 might be a wee bit too early and didn't know Bobby had one, but now I know you're confirming it. ;)
Also in the interview with Phil in Harrison's book he talked about that same group of guys but Alembic the name wasn't in use yet, or at least it wasn't used in that interview.
What is kind of an amusing anecdote is that they moved away from San Rafael partly to get away from Owsley, who, although he was an electronics genius, was a micro-manager given to flights of impractical fancy.
Phil mentions having volume/tone control for each string on the bass, and developing a new kind of tone control since the ones in use at the time generally only rolled off treble, and the search for the quadrophonic effect mentioned in that article about Alembic's history.
The really interesting anecdote was when he started talking about installing modules in the neck that would sense how long and how hard he was fretting and generate harmonics based on that. Synthesizer stuff, loosely speaking, although he didn't use that term. But that was his ultimate goal, to be able to control the tone completely by touch and not actually need to touch the knobs.
Hadn't read that book in twenty years and forgotten most of it.
 

walrus

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I have enough complexity dealing with volume and tone for each pickup! These Alembic guitars and basses are wild!

walrus
 

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Owsley was an engineering student here at the University of Virginia before dropping out and moving to San Fran. The rest, as they say, is a "long, strange trip".

He joins Edgar Allen Poe as one of our more notorious students. Poe got kicked out after burning all of his dorm furniture to stay warm, given that he had gambled all of his money away during his first semester and couldn't afford firewood.

Neal
 

jcwu

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He joins Edgar Allen Poe as one of our more notorious students. Poe got kicked out after burning all of his dorm furniture to stay warm, given that he had gambled all of his money away during his first semester and couldn't afford firewood.

I'm glad he didn't own any guitars. Or maybe he did...
 

adorshki

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Isn't everything?
walrus
Well, joking aside, and only continuing the veer because it did have a huge impact on popular music and the Grateful Dead in particular, I guess it just depends on who you ask.
I actually read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test before I ever met anybody who might have "hooked me up" so I had an inkling of what was goin' on, and learned about the Kesey/Owsley/Dead connection, but I was much more into the Airplane and Quicksilver than the Dead.
Ironically I didnt really start to appreciate the Dead until I was well into my '30's.
Just refreshed Owsley's bio on Wiki, kind of a mind-blower, no joke intended.
300,000 doses on the street in LA in 1965.
Legal but about as safe as Russian Roulette when it was literally gettin' tossed around like candy.
Anybody remember the Dragnet "Blue Boy" episode?
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The older I get the more I identify with Friday. :shocked:
So I don't regret my experiences but I don't plan on having any more.
I finally understand what Kesey meant when he said "you don't need to keep going through that door" and I think most of us survivors would agree..it's why we survived.
 
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adorshki

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Owsley was an engineering student here at the University of Virginia before dropping out and moving to San Fran. The rest, as they say, is a "long, strange trip".
After a short side trip to LA to be a ballet dancer. That was a new one to me.
The aforementioned Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley

I'm glad he didn't own any guitars. Or maybe he did...
Actually, wouldn't surprise me if he did. After meeting the Dead, who were basically the house band for all of Kesey's Acid tests, he became their sound man and financial backer, providing all their equipment in '65-'67 at least.
It might not be going too far to say that if it weren't for Owsley's gestational care they may never have become big enough to have approached Wickersham, thus giving him some impetus to begin the gestation of what became Alembic.
(edit) OOPSIE I just realized you were talkin' 'bout Poe not Stanley...:sheepish grin:
 
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walrus

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"Sgt. Al Friday" has a nice ring to it! Although it sounds like you may have to arrest yourself!

Back to the OP, I can't help but wonder if the "new" Guild could use the Bob Weir connection to it's advantage. I'm guessing a "Bob Weir Signature Model" would sell...

walrus
 

adorshki

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"Sgt. Al Friday" has a nice ring to it! Although it sounds like you may have to arrest yourself!
It's not a crime to admit to having committed a crime.
It is kinda pushin' it to say you enjoyed it, though.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
:unconscious:
Back to the OP, I can't help but wonder if the "new" Guild could use the Bob Weir connection to it's advantage. I'm guessing a "Bob Weir Signature Model" would sell...
walrus
At this late date, I fear the majority of their target market wouldn't want to drive their father's guitar.
 
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