the more knobs you have...

mavuser

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...the more speakers you need?

NN1P5P.png
 

bluesypicky

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I'd be curious to know the purpose of each of these 14 knobs! Looks like a PIA to me.
Give me a guitar with ONE volume knob, so I can make sure it's on 10 (or 11 depending on the style played) and go about my business.... :laughing:
 

Minnesota Flats

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There are actually only five knobs on that bass. He chewed a bunch of blotter acid before the show: the extra knobs are after-images...
 

bluesypicky

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There are actually only five knobs on that bass. He chewed a bunch of blotter acid before the show: the extra knobs are after-images...
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if 12 out of these 14 knobs were just props for show..... it WAS the 70's after all.
 

mavuser

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he never really touched any of the knobs and his bass always sounds the same. to quote Phil, it is the same as cooking a rotisserie chicken... "just set it and forget it"
 

adorshki

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I'd be curious to know the purpose of each of these 14 knobs!
I'd say he's just another Phil Lesh wannabe.

Seriously, though, from here: http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2013/12/spring-1971-phil-lesh-interview.html :

Harrison: So the new bass is quadriphonic, which will allow an array of effects across the stage out to the audience. And you can stagger these effects as you see fit?

Phil: Yes. I have a six-position switch which Ron Wickersham has designed. This switch has the percussive distributions that I want.
and:
Harrison: This new bass also has a second stage which is still under development, is that right?

(and)
Phil: Actually, one is the bass and the other is the little black box with the pedal controls, which has some extra toys in it. The bass also has regular pickups with modern, efficient tone controls that actually boost certain frequencies and in certain band widths. Then it has the quadriphonic or the individual string pickup option. This, then, approaches a bass synthesizer concept. The foot-pedal black box would have four channels. It would essentially be the same thing as all of my four Fender pre-amps. It would have four inputs, and it would distribute itself to the four inputs in which I would have volume, treble and bass controls and a bright switch for each channel
Harrison: What is stage three?

Phil: This is the one that has to have the relays built into the neck.
Harrison: Oh…the computer!



(leading to):
Phil: Exactly. The only control on that bass, hopefully, would be a master volume and a function switch which will indicate pickups, quadriphonic, or computer, or whatever. Of course, the individual pickups would have volume controls on them for balance, but there would be very few tone controls.

So after all that I still don't know what each knob is for. :glee:

Edit:
In comments on the interview one of the posters says this:
"Phil goes into great detail about his new bass, and the future designs that Ron Wickersham is working on for him. Blair Jackson gives some more info on this bass in Grateful Dead Gear, p.108 - it was introduced by Alembic in winter 1971, shortly before the interview.
"The entire bottom half of the guitar [was] devoted to an easily accessible electronics compartment and 14 knobs... [As of early '71 there were just 12 knobs.] There were three Alembic pickups: two low-impedance trapezoid pickups with external hum-canceling coils, and one that was quad (an output for each string). The extensive network of electronic modules allowed for control of bandwidth, frequency response, resonance, and various filtering (highpass, lowpass, bandpass, and notch...). 'My goal...was a kind of infinitely flexible tone control,' Phil comments today, 'but it took too many knobs to do it.'"

Harrison is curious about the quadraphonic possibilities of the new bass, but it's hard to say how much Phil actually used that aspect of it, since we don't hear the effect of each string coming from a different speaker, except on a few tapes from late '72/early '73.


And there you have it.
 
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adorshki

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I'd be curious to know the purpose of each of these 14 knobs! Looks like a PIA to me.
Give me a guitar with ONE volume knob, so I can make sure it's on 10 (or 11 depending on the style played) and go about my business.... :laughing:

Yes I'm entirely content with just one knob, myself.
 

wisconsindead

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It really is the best sounding Guild Starfire Bass to have ever existed. Just sayin...

209081.jpg
 

sailingshoes72

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Check out the connector on the instrument cord. It reminds me of the systems hook-ups on a Saturn rocket that disengage during the launch. :saturn:

sailingshoes
 

adorshki

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Check out the connector on the instrument cord. It reminds me of the systems hook-ups on a Saturn rocket that disengage during the launch. :saturn:

sailingshoes
Speaking of rockets, I bet Elon Musk could come up with something that would allow you to play it remotely from either a Tesla or a Dragon.

250px-COTS2Dragon.6.jpg
 

fronobulax

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I've never been blessed with the concept of an ideal tone so I have never understood the experiments people do to try and achieve it. I can't imagine I would even know what to change or why with all those controls. Still the engineer in me is amused.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Looks like most of those knobs just do EQing. Nowadays you could plug into a programmable parametric EQ and footswitch amongst presets. Or wire up the bass for MIDI and select said presets via one of the knobs. :)

-Dave-
 

fronobulax

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Looks like most of those knobs just do EQing. Nowadays you could plug into a programmable parametric EQ and footswitch amongst presets. Or wire up the bass for MIDI and select said presets via one of the knobs. :)

-Dave-

And indeed if you read Alembic history and interviews with Casady, Lesh et. al. they all pretty much say they would not do it again because the effects/EQ they were striving for are now available in compact external units suitable for stage use. But at the time, for live performance, the alternative to building in the bass was on stage racks containing recording studio gear.
 

mavuser

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It really is the best sounding Guild Starfire Bass to have ever existed. Just sayin...

i definitely agree with this statement, but have to add that Phils subsequent solid body alembic basses essentially sound/sounded the same or as good as the big brown Alembic Starfire. or very very close.
 

wisconsindead

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i definitely agree with this statement, but have to add that Phils subsequent solid body alembic basses essentially sound/sounded the same or as good as the big brown Alembic Starfire. or very very close.

I agree. It's very difficult to tell them apart. Sometimes more than others. Pretty amazing really. Goes to show the importance of all those electronics imo.
 

mavuser

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I agree. It's very difficult to tell them apart. Sometimes more than others. Pretty amazing really. Goes to show the importance of all those electronics imo.

yes I dont know much about them, there are differnet levels of Alembics. but the "Series 1" solidbody seems to be the Phil tone, or can be made at least to sound that way. I heard Dave Dreiwitz play one in Joe Russos Almost Dead (JRAD) and that thing was crushing some serious faces.

hey man u already have the bridge...and 1 pickup removed. You're off to a good start!
 

wisconsindead

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yes I dont know much about them, there are differnet levels of Alembics. but the "Series 1" solidbody seems to be the Phil tone, or can be made at least to sound that way. I heard Dave Dreiwitz play one in Joe Russos Almost Dead (JRAD) and that thing was crushing some serious faces.

hey man u already have the bridge...and 1 pickup removed. You're off to a good start!

Yea, I'm currently looking into putting some alembic pickups in it/going active. Gotta get one step closer to the phil sound and I'm not exactly sure where else to go (other than getting a JBL cabinet)
 
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