Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was born near Paris (actually a town called Antony) in 1959. Now I live in the South of France, 12 miles from Narbonne.

All the best,
JL

John Wetton's a big star in England I assume? I know he was in King Crimson and was a great bass player and singer, I have a lot of those albums, I also saw him with the band UK in Boston during the late 70's, they were unbelievable.
In two weeks I will be back in Lima Perú in a section called San Miguel, it is about 2 miles from the ocean, the weather is beautiful year round, and has a thriving music scene but alas, no Rics in sight. There will be in two weeks though, I'm going to bring two of mine there along with two of my small amps. I'll buy a 220 to 110 converter and I'll be in business. I'm going to spread the Ric-Ampeg doctrine in Lima, just call me Dr. Bob (wasn't there another famous although kind of anonymous Dr. Bob?)

Bob-- I don't know. Was his last name "Owsley" by any chance?

By the way, did you ever get to meet Jack Kerouac when he was living in Lowell, Mass.?

When I hear "Dr. Bob" I think of the recurring Muppet sketch featuring a character by that name!

No I think Jack died about twenty years ago or something like that, he was a wicked alcoholic before he died and he used to give interviews from his favorite bar. Lowell is about an hour from me, it's north of boston, I'm west.
I don't know Owsley's first name, but I remember some of his products pretty well. I did know it at one time though.

Hey Gary, Do you remember Owsleys first name? He was in the chemical field too.

Ummhh... Ken or Kenneth?

You must be thinking of Owsley Stanley III, a/k/a Bear, chemist to the Grateful Dead. He was also a co-founder of Alembic. He was an associate of Ken Kesey.

Doh!

He was their sound man too. I just read an article on him, he's still in the chemical field, but he's a cook not a chemist, haha. Bear. Sounds like a pretty intelligent guy.

Sorry, Bob, "Owsley" doesn't even ring a bell! Maybe he was a "chemist" in England (what we call "pharmacist" here in the US)... sounds like he might have beeen dispensing prescription drugs at one time...

Are you guys talking about Augustus Stanley Owsley?

From "The Bass Book" by Tony Bacon and Barry Moorehouse, page 38, regarding Alembic's history:
---------------------------------------------------------
The place was San Francisco, the time was 1969, and the motivating force was one Augustus Stanley Owsley. His main source of income was from the manufacture of (then legal) LSD, a good deal of which seems to have been consumed by the premier psychedelic group of the time, the Grateful Dead. Part of the community of roadies, friends and acid freaks that gradually grew up around the Dead was sort of electronics workshop known as Alembic, named after an apparatus used by distillers (and also apparently by alchemists) "to convey the refined product to a receiver", as the dictionary defines it.

Owsley had created Alembic in the warehouse where the Grateful Dead rehearsed in Novato, CA, about 30 miles north of San Francisco. At first, the idea was for Alembic to come up with new ways of providing clear, accurate recordings of dead concerts so that the band could improve their live performances...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Alembic was among the first bass makers to feature active pickups, electronics and XLR output jack to achieve that "clear and accurate" sound.

Apparently, Alembic basses are offsprings of the Acid. No wonder they've got all sorts of awe-inspiring psychedelic inlays (which I adore).

Im about 20 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio in a little hamlet called Pleasant Hill. I've been playing bass since '77 and have owned 72 basses, 6 of them Ricks. A '79 white, '72 fireglow, '74 mapleglow, all 4001's. Also an 80's mapleglow 4003-S which I believe to be and early version of the V63, it had the old style bridge, and toaster neck PU with a VI serial #. I love Rick basses, and currently own my 4004 II cheyenne, and mapleglow V63. But looking for a newer 4003.

Paul, that's exactly who we're talking about, but Bacon and Moorehouse have it wrong. It's Owsley Stanley, not Stanley Owsley. Do a websearch for "Augustus Owsley Stanley III". He is the grandson of a former Kentucky governor and US Senator and son of a former California Supreme Court Justice. He was pretty much the undisputed kingpin of the LSD trade in California in the late 60s.

He went underground for years. I read somewhere that he lives in Australia.

Aaaand...he has his own website. Very low key, but if you dig around the music pages on the site, there's no doubt who this is: http://www.thebear.org/