Grateful Dead Music Forum

Another tidbit from the Alembic discussion board (May 5):

"In keeping with the back out of retirement theme...

Phil demoed "Big Brown" (the Alembicized Starfire bass he played in the 70s) during the "history" segment of the 1975 show recreation at Terrapin Crossroads last night. Before he started he mentioned that the bass had been back to Alembic for a tune-up and so they could properly document it. He flashed a picture they gave him of the bass with labels on it telling him what all the knobs and switches do. Even with the diagram he didn't seem to have much of a handle on it but it was interesting. After watching him fumble around with the bass during the demo it is hard to believe how well he used to play this bass and how great it sounded.

Haven't watched the show itself yet but the demo at the beginning is pretty cool..."

http://tinyurl.com/pljnw5h

Between about 10:00 and 18:00 Phil runs through the controls and does a little demo. Priceless.

Great stuff! Thanks for posting it. It's very cool to hear Phil talk about anything. When I read his book, I also really enjoyed the way he writes too. Gotta love him!

Can you even imagine if Jer were still alive and we were at this point?

Master Class: "So, when I go to the bridge, flip to single-coil, and pick right about.... here, I can get this sound that I'd use on, like...."

My oh my...

Yea, it would be amazing in many ways.

He also has two new Alembics. A medium scale and a short scale. Both 6 strings. Apparently sporting DR Sunbeams (glad to see he's finally following my lead!) 40-115.

Cool link, thanks.

I have a fantasy screenplay in my head, Jerry doesn't die in rehab, gets better comes out and calls a meeting to disband the Dead.

He goes to Hawaii, nice long rest. Shedding, writing. After about a year starts limited touring with JGB.

Only now a rotating cast of sit ins, Kimock, Herring, Trucks, Mattson...the usual suspects.

Then after a few years, 12 Dead gigs a year, 3in NY area, 3 in New Orleans, 3 in Chicago, 3 in San Francisco.

if only...

One more comment, when the list of hits are being read the TXR crowd is cheering the disco hits.

I can assure you in 75 most Deadheads and ABB fans were not loving disco.

As a local musician in Tampa disco was killing live gigs for bands in many of the clubs we played.

In time I appreciated some of the music that came out of that period but as a social movement sort of in opposition to freak scene.

That's cool, is there a pict of the diagram on-line?

The three little things at the bottom are test points, to check voltage coming in from the power supply and to check battery level. Not sure if they are still functional. The switch next to the master volume was a full on switch, that could override the master volume, but it's no longer hooked up.

Cool, thx. Now I gotta watch it again so I can follow along...

I'd be paranoid that my fingers would accidentally bump the knobs while I was playing.

My Starfire has a somewhat similar knob layout (at least spatially) and it's totally not a problem. You shouldn't really be strumming it like a guitar all that often!

What are the trimpot-looking things between the filtered gain and filtered freq. controls?

Sparechaynge wrote:What are the trimpot-looking things between the filtered gain and filtered freq. controls?

Gain trimpots for the neck and bridge pickups.