Can we ID?

[fronobulax]

Picture is Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame. It was posted elsewhere as being from their high school years which would make the photo date to the early 1960's. I am curious about the bass since most of the interviews I recall start with Jack playing a Fender, originally borrowed and later another Fender owned and modified by Jack. Perhaps this is evidence of other borrowed basses or maybe the stories don't start early enough?

I note the wide leather strap which is certainly the mark of a bassist who plays a lot and wants to be comfortable.

 

[SFIV1967]

The picture you posted is not from the 60ies but from April 1977 (!) at Jorma's house in San Francisco, so Jack was 33 years old there. The photo is by Ed Perlstein/Redferns any is owned by Getty Images now.

Theer are plenty of pictures owned by Getty Images showing him with this bass in 1977.
He used that bass also on the Santa Rosa County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California, in June, 1977.

It's this one:






Also used on the same gig as the gigantic "Guild Jetstar-neck" V-bass made by Glenn Quan:



Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

That seems to have been taken at the Palladium in New York City in December 1977 by Barry Berenson.

Looking at other photos at https://www.berensonphotography.com/hot-tuna-photographs-1975-1976-1977 there are a couple of shots of the same bass. There is also a shot dated 1977 that appears to a rehearsal at Jorma's house with similar tile in the background.

So if I can only change one thing I think it would be the claim dating the picture to High School and a time before Jefferson Airplane.

This is a screenshot of one of Berenson's pics which shows the headstock so we can still id the manufacturer, possible.



Since Mr. Berenson expended some effort to make his pictures difficult to copy and share if this is an unauthorized use reporting it to a Mod will result in a takedown. In the meantime, who made the bass?

 

[fronobulax]

And my post made a lot more sense before @SFIV1967 edited his.

 

[SFIV1967]

Not sure what "L" is:



Ralf

 

[hansmoust]

Could be a custom version of a B.C. Rich Seagull bass.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[chazmo]

Think the point on the bass side is for a thumb rest? Very interesting shape. Never seen one like it. I'll bet some of our bass buddies can identify this though.

 

[cupric]

I think it's a Lieber.

Jefferson Starship's Pete Sears Reunited With Stolen Bass After 35 Years

Musician lost treasured instrument during riot in Germany

www.rollingstone.com

 

[jedzep]

Yes. Tom is my neighbor and sometimes luthier. I think he's on the client list.

Lieber Guitars - Handcrafted Instruments by Master Luthier

Thomas Lieber, a Designer and Luthier, has been creating guitars since 1971. Order online, including The Garcia, The Coco Tiger, Spellcaster.

www.lieberguitars.com

 

[fronobulax]

I can't find anything like that logo but looking at Lieber's clients in the 70's I'd put my money on Lieber as the maker of that bass, probably in consultation with Casady.

 

[adorshki]

One look at the photo told me there was no way it was them in high school. Neither one of 'em's hair was that long until well into their Airplane tenures, for one thing.

Plus the anachronistic details: printed logo t-shirt, big glasses... Jack was wearing black hornrims back then:

JA '65 pre-Grace. Seated gent btw is original drummer Skip Spence who left to play his preferred instrument, guitar, for Moby Grape.
Or was let go for going AWOL to Mexico once too often, depending on what you read.

 

[fronobulax]

I though Jack looked too old but my question wasn't as interesting if the picture wasn't an early picture.

 

[SFIV1967]

Tom Lieber and Jack Casady are featured here talking about the first Alembic bass with S/N 01 Jack got and also about more:




Ralf

 

[SFIV1967]

Hans said it could be a "custom version of a B.C. Rich Seagull bass". That makes a lot of sense.

Those early B.C. Rich Seagull basses had Rico's "R" in the headstock, so the "L" made sense if Tom Lieber worked on it. But maybe the "L" stands for somebody else, I found no reference so far.

The body is a bit different but the 6 string guitars also had no cutout on the bass side, so maybe it is a 6 string body with a bass neck?
Or a body built from scratch to look alike with a B.C. Rich neck? I guess that is how it worked, similar to that V-Bass.




The headstock shape with the little pointer on the trebble side is the same as a B. C. Rich.



Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

As an aside the pics date from 1977 which is also when Jack had and was using the Flying V bass. That was commissioned by Jack and includes a Guild neck and Bisonic's from Jacks "stash". So maybe it was a time of experimentation - mixing and matching parts and luthiers?

I'm going to tag @mgod because he will be amused by the speculation and may choose to comment if he has any answers. He has, after all, played that Flying V.

 

[walrus]

That Flying V bass looks HUGE and HEAVY! Is it really any bigger than a "regular" Flying V?

walrus

 

[fronobulax]

That Flying V bass looks HUGE and HEAVY! Is it really any bigger than a "regular" Flying V?

walrus

I can't recall the origin story of the body but it was awkward to play. mgod had some comments about it but I don't recall whether there were on LTG or The Dude Pit.

 

[mgod]

Since I’ve never played an actual “V”, I can’t say whether it’s the same size or not. But it sure is big. The instrument was made from a late 60’s Jet Star neck. Glen Quan made the V and put one of his bridge/tailpieces on it.

 

[mgod]

Also, in the early 60’s, Jorma was graduating from college.

 

[SFIV1967]

In an interview with flyguitars.com Jack Casady said about that "Guild V-Bass":
"...Glenn Quan did what's known as the Badass bridge. Here's another guy that basically started out working on guitars and just refitting them and stuff like that. People were trying different things, they were trying brass nuts at the top and they were trying brass pieces for saddles and what not. He got the idea of taking a nice big huge plate like a plate on a Fender Telecaster you know, that big plate down at the bottom, the way it's anchored. The Badass bridge which was a big heavy brass plate, he would notch out in to a flat top guitar or bass and then the idea was get a little more sustain. Right everybody wants sustain?
He was playing around with V guitars and he had down there a Guild bass solid body [a Guild Jetstar] and he took that neck off and he made what he thought would be the appropriate size for a V Bass. Then he got his paint and colours together to make it what would be in a typical Guild dark maroonish red. He put two Guild pickups on it and a Badass bridge and I played that for a while. Again it was a short scale neck."



Ralf