Phil Lesh Appreciation Society: Enter the Philzone... - Page 14

jhuss88 · #**261** 02-03-2013, 12:09 PM

I posted this a week ago in this thread but....my band's Black Peter cover is being highlighted at www.dead.net today! So excited. Check it out if you've got a minute. My buddy Neil has a killer voice and does justice to Garcia/Hunter tunes. At the least listen to the bridge. I love those chord changes more than anything.

sven kalmar · #**262** 02-03-2013, 12:18 PM

nice...

mhandley16 · #**263** 02-03-2013, 12:22 PM

Cool thread! sign me up for the club please!

sven kalmar · #**264** 02-03-2013, 03:25 PM

i got "searching for the sound" back from a friend. So it confirms the stuff i said. his first bass was a Gibsom EB1. he describes it as having a "pearshaped sound". he used this bass on david crosbys "if i only could remember my name"

edwinhurwitz · #**265** 02-03-2013, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sven kalmar

i got "searching for the sound" back from a friend. So it confirms the stuff i said. his first bass was a Gibsom EB1. he describes it as having a "pearshaped sound". he used this bass on david crosbys "if i only could remember my name"

I wouldn't count on Phil's memory for the details. The bass was an EB-0, not an EB-1 and by the time IICORMY came out, it had been greatly modified by Alembic with BiSonic pickups and internal preamps. It was later stolen and then resurfaced in the late 70s in California. The guy who found it offered it back to Phil for what he paid for it in a pawn shop ($400) and Phil passed on it. I think Dan Schwartz (mgod) played it back then.

I'm looking for a decent EB-0 or EB-3 to mod to a similar setup but not holding my breath. They are way overpriced these days.

sven kalmar · #**266** 02-03-2013, 04:22 PM

DJ Bebop · #**267** 02-03-2013, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

I wouldn't count on Phil's memory for the details. The bass was an EB-0, not an EB-1 and by the time IICORMY came out, it had been greatly modified by Alembic with BiSonic pickups and internal preamps. It was later stolen and then resurfaced in the late 70s in California. The guy who found it offered it back to Phil for what he paid for it in a pawn shop ($400) and Phil passed on it. I think Dan Schwartz (mgod) played it back then.

I'm looking for a decent EB-0 or EB-3 to mod to a similar setup but not holding my breath. They are way overpriced these days.

Is this the bass in question?

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/phil-hollywood300.jpg

edwinhurwitz · #**268** 02-03-2013, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ Bebop

Is this the bass in question?

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/phil-hollywood300.jpg

That's the one after the mods. It's out there in Orange County somewhere last time it was heard from, but that was decades ago. It's probably sitting in some closet where the owner doesn't even know what they have. So, if you live out there, pester all your friend's older brothers or fathers who used to play bass back in the 70s and 80s!

sven kalmar · #**269** 02-03-2013, 06:15 PM

lets find it!!!

Dave Klausner · #**270** 02-04-2013, 03:22 PM

The pedal talk reminded me of this video - Phil checking out the Pigtronix Echolution at NAMM last year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr3wJzogrnc

TwentyHz · #**271** 02-06-2013, 10:20 AM

^^Mhm saw that a while back. What fun to see Phil discover a toy... & what could be a better fit than something imbued with esoteric classical geometry references. Zowie.

Unrelated:
I'll sheepishly admit that as a Phil-O-Phile, I have certain passages of S4tS highlighted & flagged. I revisit them in times of reflection. For me, it's those nuggets about the role of the bass, musical conversation management, evolution of band vocabulary, improvisation, etc.

Inviting y'all to post a favorite Quote for us all to chew on.

SolarMan · #**272** 02-06-2013, 10:23 AM

Watching the Furthur - Sweetwater series right now - on an 80" TV!!!

Hooked up to killer stereo -

Phil is right on the money and brilliant

(edit: no pic, no 80")

BtHt83 · #**273** 02-06-2013, 10:44 AM

In case you were interested, Jens Ritter has 3 of Phil's custom "Eye of Horus" basses available:

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/ar...-phil-lesh.php

One can be yours for a mere $17,000

DJ Bebop · #**274** 02-06-2013, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BtHt83

In case you were interested, Jens Ritter has 3 of Phil's custom "Eye of Horus" basses available:

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/ar...-phil-lesh.php

One can be yours for a mere $17,000

I guess it's time to sell my grandson

StephenR · #**275** 02-06-2013, 01:28 PM

IMO the Ritter was the worst sounding bass Phil ever played on stage. Simply did not fit his style sonically. I think he tried really hard to get it to work for him but it was only a matter of time before he gave up and went back to playing Quantum basses.

Corporate Boy · #**276** 02-06-2013, 02:04 PM

The Ritter definitely didn't cut through like his modulus.

There is an old Guitar World Magazine interview from the lates 70 (I think) where Phil references using a Pluto filter.

Anyone have information about that pedal and why he was using it?

edwinhurwitz · #**277** 02-06-2013, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corporate Boy

The Ritter definitely didn't cut through like his modulus.

There is an old Guitar World Magazine interview from the lates 70 (I think) where Phil references using a Pluto filter.

Anyone have information about that pedal and why he was using it?

The Pluto filter was an early version of the Alembic Superfilter. George Mundy built it and it was part of the filter system that went into Big Brown. He also built a pedal version, which was pretty cool in that it had two axes, each of which are assignable, so you could move the pedal up and down for frequency and back and forth for Q or amplitude. There are some threads about it at the Alembic site, including this one: http://alembic.com/club/messages/393...tml?1297127603. There was one on ebay in the last year or so.

It looks like an interesting pedal, but in this day and age, with modern circuits, I'm sure you could build one from a standard state variable filter design that would be cheaper and cleaner sounding. I built one of Craig Anderton's Super Tone Controls from his book in the early 80s, which is somewhat similar, and it was pretty awesome. For a while I had it built into a bass, but my soldering skills back then were less than amazing, so it wasn't very reliable. I still have it in a box somewhere.

Anyway, long story short, get an Alembic Superfilter. They sound great, do a very similar thing and are bullet proof.

DJ Bebop · #**278** 02-06-2013, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BtHt83

In case you were interested, Jens Ritter has 3 of Phil's custom "Eye of Horus" basses available:

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/ar...-phil-lesh.php

One can be yours for a mere $17,000

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ Bebop

I guess it's time to sell my grandson

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenR

IMO the Ritter was the worst sounding bass Phil ever played on stage. Simply did not fit his style sonically. I think he tried really hard to get it to work for him but it was only a matter of time before he gave up and went back to playing Quantum basses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corporate Boy

The Ritter definitely didn't cut through like his modulus.

There is an old Guitar World Magazine interview from the lates 70 (I think) where Phil references using a Pluto filter.

Anyone have information about that pedal and why he was using it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

The Pluto filter was an early version of the Alembic Superfilter. There are some threads about it at the Alembic site, including this one: http://alembic.com/club/messages/393...tml?1297127603. There was one on ebay in the last year or so.
Anyway, long story short, get an Alembic Superfilter. They sound great, do a very similar thing and are bullet proof.

I guess I won't be selling my grandson

However I maybe keeping my eye out for an Alembic Superfilter and selling my wife

PS

THANKS edwinhurwitz

edwinhurwitz · #**279** 02-06-2013, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenR

IMO the Ritter was the worst sounding bass Phil ever played on stage. Simply did not fit his style sonically. I think he tried really hard to get it to work for him but it was only a matter of time before he gave up and went back to playing Quantum basses.

I never got to see it live, but from recordings I have to disagree. I thought the Irwin sounded worse. I saw that one a number of times and could never hear the bass in the room and on recordings it had absolutely no punch or character at all.

BtHt83 · #**280** 02-06-2013, 10:30 PM

I was wondering why Phil quit playing that Ritter. I saw him play it live at Rothbury, I don't remember having much of an opinion either way. I wasn't really thinking about it. I was too busy thinking that they needed John K on guitar, and Bobby needing to quit butchering his China Cat lick.