Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I can find no info on exactly what Mel did to his jazz. I figured it's worth a shot to see if anyone here has the skinny. I got pix of the patient down a few threads in the Stacked vs stock jazz pups thread.

I thought he played a p-bass?

I linked to the vid in the stacked thread. It looks like a jazz to me, If you stop the vid at 6:20 you can see the pup, and what looks like a jazz knob config.If it's a P, he replaced the P- pup with the ebo.

You're right Charly, in that vid he's playing a '68-'69 Jazz with a Gibson humbucker replacing the "neck" Jazz pickup.

Instead of a Gibson pickup, you should go for a Darkstar! http://www.basspickup.com/

oops

Thanks jb, I edited my comment a touch after I pulled up the vid again.... {:^)

I've heard folks rave over at Dudepit, but I HAVE to get THAT sound! I'll look at 'em at least.

From the darkstar page!!!!





A tad pricey for an experiment tho.......

I think that is a Guild bass that Phil Lesh played in the Grateful dead, I believe Darkstar pickups are based on that design.
Mel did play a J bass, on the second album (Red one with Inside Looking Out) there is what looks like an unmodified J bass on the cover which I mistakenly thought was a P bass when I was a kid which prompted me to go buy a P bass.
I think 90% of his sound was his use of distortion, whatever he used he played extremely loud in the studio as on a few of the songs on that album his ending note feeds back until he stops it. I blew up the speaker in my first amp emulating Mel.
A lot of guys put EBO and Starfire humbuckers in the neck postion of Fenders back then but not a lot sounded like Mel.

The bass Lesh has here was a 60s Gibson EB-O, or maybe originally an EB-3.In any case, retrofitted with Guild/Hagstrom Bi-Sonic PUs, and modded by Alembic...

That neck seems EXTREMELY LONG?

Grand Funk Railroad used to use West amps in the early days.

My guess is it's an EB-3L.

If I recall right West amps were built in a garage in Saginaw or Bay City.

Mark Farner is playing a free concert tomorrow night locally at Arts, Beats, and Eats.

Charley,
I think the neck looking long on Phil's bass is just an effect of the angle of the photo. You might remember, I had a similar comment about a photo of a RIC bass posted not too long ago.

As far as I know, Phil's was a regular EB-3 with a new pup added (nothing done about the neck).

Phil then had a Fender for a while and then the Guild Starfire. Technically, though, there was no Alembic at that time (until '69). Phil's and Casady's Guilds were modified by Ron Wickersham who, eventually, founded Alembic.

Jack's Guild was lost (stolen) while on tour in Ohio. He bought two replacements and sent one to Ron for re-fitting. That bass is now on loan to the Rock and Roll HoF ... in Ohio!

As I mentioned once before, here is a great book about Dead gear:
http://www.amazon.com/Grateful-Dead-Gear-Instruments-Recording/dp/0879308931/ref=sr_1_1/102-7396977-5458535?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188488909&sr=1-1

Yer right, prolly the angle. It is not getting me any closer to mel's sound tho...........