Phil Lesh Appreciation Society: Enter the Philzone...

[EMF]

nice to see all the love for phil. its amazing to see him still bringing it in his 70's. looks like he found the fountain of youth.

agree re: sipe and sless. my favorite plf was the feb. 06 band with barry, larry, joan and sipe. had a great texas swing feel at times and they were killin' on the ryan adams tunes. was sorry to see that band go

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by sven kalmar

holy moses how this stuff grows.Nice!!
yes i understand he stared out with a gibson EB and went to work on these scales..modular and pentatonic etc.. jerry did the same and got phil into it i guess. So with these intellects and souls it got real interesting. It was the bass that sucked me into the deads music in the first place..76 or something...spaced out times.

Might have gone the other way with Phil and Jerry. Phil had a more of a technical background in music than Jerry and brought a lot of jazz knowledge.

[spacebassed]

Check out Sipe killing it at the end of this "Slipknot" - around 9:00 in for anyone who doesn't want to listen to the whole thing.

http://archive.org/details/pf2006-02-12_dsbd

[sven kalmar]

i think phil mentions in the book that jerry told him to "just learn these scales and youell be fine" or something. Ofcourse phil was awaere of this stuff, but as i understand it jerry showed him how to do it on the bass.

[Zootsuitbass]

The most fun I've had at a post dead show was with Joan Osborn fronting Phil and Friends. She just killed me.

Check this New Speedway,,, The woman sings the blues!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CchPrgRNb0

[oldleftybass]

Originally Posted by EMF

nice to see all the love for phil. its amazing to see him still bringing it in his 70's. looks like he found the fountain of youth.

+1! Some nights he absolutely carries those guys decades younger. I don't know how he does it, can't be just the new liver?

[oldleftybass]

Originally Posted by spacebassed

I hated Warren in that band (I love him with David Allan Coe, Gov't Mule, The Allman's, and even Phil & Friends).

+1

[sven kalmar]

the grateful dead have always been a spiritual thing to me. the band was a vehicle for SPIRIT..

[moonliner]

I'm late in finding this, but I'll join any club that celebrates Phil... especially if there's lots of photos of his early basses!

[Vince Klortho]

One guy I really enjoyed hearing play with Phil is Barry Sless. He's also a really nice guy too. I've spent quite a bit of time with him and he is very cool !

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by Vince Klortho

One guy I really enjoyed hearing play with Phil is Barry Sless. He's also a really nice guy too. I've spent quite a bit of time with him and he is very cool !

I agree. I've gotten to do a bunch of playing with him with Great American Taxi and it's always been an excellent time.

[moonliner]

Hey Edwin!
Good to see you here at Talk Bass :-)
Speaking of Phil.... any chance you were able to do any measuring on the SF2?
Super excited about those new Starfires Guild will be selling!

[TwentyHz]

Howdy All

I'd have posted this in effects, but hoped to avoid misunderstanding and getting ding'ed. Even I am not sure what the heck I am trying to say.

Any recommendations for an affordable pedal that will let me get a quasi-similar decay on bass as Jerry's guit on Shakedown intro?

I think what I want is just to shape the closing of each note -- BwOm -- w/o any quack up front or tin can/ tunnel throughout.

MXR M82 and/or MXR smart gate not successful. (my incompetence? Tips?)

And, when possible, I prefer dialing pedals to the cusp where they are responsive to my playing rather than having a homogenous or cyclical mind of their own.

Any help appreciated.

Oh, and no - not so I can play shakedown... Just want that kind of expression . And yep, I can imitate it to a degree with technique, but I'm too uncoordinated to pinky the volume knob or (!) even foot expression pedals.

Thanks!

[sven kalmar]

a touchwah or a filter with a envelopefollower should do. quack..

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by TwentyHz

Howdy All

I'd have posted this in effects, but hoped to avoid misunderstanding and getting ding'ed. Even I am not sure what the heck I am trying to say.

Any recommendations for an affordable pedal that will let me get a quasi-similar decay on bass as Jerry's guit on Shakedown intro?

I think what I want is just to shape the closing of each note -- BwOm -- w/o any quack up front or tin can/ tunnel throughout.

MXR M82 and/or MXR smart gate not successful. (my incompetence? Tips?)

And, when possible, I prefer dialing pedals to the cusp where they are responsive to my playing rather than having a homogenous or cyclical mind of their own.

Any help appreciated.

Oh, and no - not so I can play shakedown... Just want that kind of expression . And yep, I can imitate it to a degree with technique, but I'm too uncoordinated to pinky the volume knob or (!) even foot expression pedals.

Thanks!

Clearly you need to listen to some Bootsy Collins! He used two devices that can get in that neighborhood quite well: the Mutron III envelope filter (which are affordably approximated by the QTrons) and the Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth. I think the latter might have what you are calling a homogenous mind of its own in that it responds to the attack of your playing in a set fashion, but it's pretty easy to work with it so that it does respond to how you play and the fact that you can set an upper filter limit, a lower filter limit and a sweep speed between the two (going either from high to low or low to high) gives it a lot of flexibility in a way that an envelope filter that relies completely on the level of your signal (that decays quite quickly) does not. Thus, the Micro Synth can give you a quite dramatic filter decay without the quack or other things you seek to avoid (in other words, it can give you the downward sweep of the filter without having to go through the upwards part of it like the envelope filter does). The only thing you have to decide for yourself is whether the tonality of the signal it provides is what you are looking for. It's a synth effect that can work with the original signal, but it does change the nature of the sound. I happen to like it as you can add in a square wave that really increases the drama of the effect.

I have probably 10 or 12 envelope filters and they all do it differently, so experimentation is your friend. You want something with a slow decay, and a lot of them have a quick decay that is tied to the quick decay of the notes. The Electro-Harmonix BassBalls might also be something to check out.

HTH.

[enjoytheband]

I, too, would like to become a member of this group. Please sign me up. Phil Zone!

[sven kalmar]

nice! yes, i remember the mutrons. and i actually had the micro synth for some time...
have you tried the MOOGerfooger lowpass filter? one could also ues a synth. the dave smith evolver which is my favourite lead synth also is a great machine for external stuff with envelopefollower.. two filters curtisfilters gives nice panning possibilites..

[TwentyHz]

Thanks Edwin! This gets me a pointed in a direction! I really appreciate it!

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by TwentyHz

Thanks Edwin! This gets me a pointed in a direction! I really appreciate it!

You're welcome! As you can imagine, I've had a weakness for these kinds of things. I can't guarantee that I've interpreted your desires properly, but it's all about the journey!

[shoesandbasses]

I love Phil.