Phil Lesh Appreciation Society: Enter the Philzone...

[atomicdog]

Lesh has aways had great tone, very unique, and bass lines that flow like liquid metal. But he's so freakin' full of himself. Sorry, in my encounters with the members of the Dead over the years, only Jerry can be said to be humble (he was awesome)—he had sincerity. He was the keeper (darn). Still, Lesh deerves more respect than he gets on TB (so does Jack Casady).

[sven kalmar]

well i met all of them on the europe tour. They were all just "great guys like you and me." Phil seemed very cool down to earth. none of them primadonnas...and you know what jerry felt about phil as a bassplayer..

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by N.F.A.

^Nice. I was still a bit young to be allowed to go to shows. 71 was another good year for the boys.

Yep, I caught two shows with Pigpen still in good health. I liked Keith too, but pretty much turned my attention to other stuff after he left. Phil's advocacy for guys like Ornette Coleman played a big part in that, actually.

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by Passinwind

Yep, I caught two shows with Pigpen still in good health...

Lucky dog!!! I hope you didn't just stand there with yo' hands in yo' pockets.

[sven kalmar]

hehe..

[kbodonne]

Phil's the man and still truckin'! Sign me up!

[spacebassed]

Some great Pigpen footage in the "Festival Express" DVD...

Hard to Handle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axunhqUCXIM

[sven kalmar]

the europe 9+0 tour was great. about 3000 american deadheads old and young and a couple of us norwegians. We traveled by train. sometimes sharing hotelrooms or just sleeping at the railwaystations. In london we were 15 people sharing a double room, in a big luxury hotel hehe..

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by spacebassed

Lucky dog!!! I hope you didn't just stand there with yo' hands in yo' pockets.

No sir, nobody playin' pocket pool here, but I still use pieces of that rap at shows all the time, at the most inappropriate possible times.

[atomicdog]

Originally Posted by sven kalmar

well i met all of them on the europe tour. They were all just "great guys like you and me." Phil seemed very cool down to earth. none of them primadonnas...and you know what jerry felt about phil as a bassplayer..

I will say that Bill's mellowed out.

[sven kalmar]

he was very friendly and nice to me..

[twhitedc]

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

Interesting. Care to elaborate? I saw a few shows with this bass and it never sounded as present as some of the other basses. I could be off the mark as to the cause, but I didn't think the Dimarzio pickups were all that great. I also missed the Alembic and Starfire, as they seemed to have a bigger presence and just were cool!

- the first thing that attracted me to the bass was the ridiculous flamed koa top, and the body shape. It looks, to me, like a rougher SG with the hard angle to the horns, I also think it bears some resemblance to Jerry's guitars. I think that just about everything I know about it I learned here straight from the Phil's mouth.. errrr keyboard: http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=5927 If this is the bass he's discussing they seem to be Alembic electronics.. not sure if that goes for the pickups too or not.

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

Anyone here ever play an Irwin bass?

- I would love to... I'm also pretty interested to get my hands on an Alembic... I just found out that there's a couple of them in a shop about an hour from me.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by twhitedc

- the first thing that attracted me to the bass was the ridiculous flamed koa top, and the body shape. It looks, to me, like a rougher SG with the hard angle to the horns, I also think it bears some resemblance to Jerry's guitars. I think that just about everything I know about it I learned here straight from the Phil's mouth.. errrr keyboard: http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=5927 If this is the bass he's discussing they seem to be Alembic electronics.. not sure if that goes for the pickups too or not.


- I would love to... I'm also pretty interested to get my hands on an Alembic... I just found out that there's a couple of them in a shop about an hour from me.

I remember the description of that bass. That's a different Phil. The bass he's describing is not the one in the picture as his had sliding pickups and a bunch of other features. Lesh's bass definitely has Dimarzios, those were the only exposed pole P pickups in that color that were available at the time and they were the pickups that Jerry was using. Lesh's bass also doesn't look like a koa core and certainly not a flame koa top. That would look more like this:

I'm also reasonably sure that his wasn't delivered to him until much later as I did not see it on stage until 1980. Prior to that, it was the Alembic or the Starfire with Alembic mods. I don't think he kept the bass hidden away for years before using it on stage.

I would definitely check out those Alembics! Sadly, I'm sending off my Series I short scale to a buyer in France today. It's a stunning bass, but my son was born 7 months ago with a very dramatic flair (he aspirated meconium, and then shredded his lungs which collapsed and then had to have his heart restarted a couple of times and finally ended up in the NICU for two weeks. My wife also suffered a debilitating injury in the birth.), so medical bills have been piling up. Of course, if I lived in France, it would all be taken care of, but that's another story. I also had a long scale Series I for about 16 or 17 years that was from the 70s, which was wonderful, but it was hard to play and ended up wreaking havoc on my neck, shoulder, etc. What an amazing sound, though!

[sven kalmar]

sorry to hear about that stuff...
phils bass was what atracted me to the dead first time i "heard" it..mars hotel i guess..
that was the alembic i guess..

[micgtr71]

Please sign me up. From SPAC 88 to Syr 11/11/11 I have been enjoying Phil Lesh. I still love to listen to his melodic playing and thunderous Phil Bombs. The one he dropped during Weather Report Suite on 11/11/11 is still being felt.

[twhitedc]

Thanks for the details Ed, I hope everything works out. Sorry to hear about the trouble.

[spacebassed]

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

Anyone here ever play an Irwin bass?

I've seen the Irwin bass in person, but didn't personally play it. It is currently owned by Kidd, he leant it to DSO for Kevin to play onstage for a little while a couple years back. The topwood is Purpleheart, and I believe it made its public debut sometime in late '79 (don't hold me to that, I've been wrong before) - Edwin is right that Phil stayed on the Alembic and Starfire for most of that year.


...And I'm sorry to hear that Edwin, that's some heavy stuff. I hope everything works out OK.

[spacebassed]

...btw, Edwin, do you know how that bass is wired? Maybe passive vol/tone, vol/tone and a master vol?? I'll admit that I was never a huge fan of that bass, it was a step backwards, IMO. I also didn't care for the Ken Smith or the Ritter - the Ken Smith just didn't fit Phil's style and the Ritter lacked the presence of the Modulus.

Ken Smith and Jens Ritter make beautiful instruments, but Phil belongs on a Modulus.

[ChrisPbass]

To be honest, being a guitar player, I was much more into Jerry but have always loved Phil's thing. Jerry is just....Jerry.
Eventually I started playing bass and Phil is definitely huge. Def one of my top five musicians.

I got my Modulus because of Phil. Chasing that tone....

My first show (4 shows in 5 days at the Capital Centre - talk about an introduction )
Hell In A Bucket
They Love Each Other
New Minglewood Blues
Dire Wolf
Queen Jane Approximately
Althea
Let It Grow

Set 2

Scarlet Begonias ->
Fire On The Mountain
Looks Like Rain ->
Terrapin Station ->
Drums ->
Space ->
The Wheel ->
All Along The Watchtower ->
Stella Blue ->
Sugar Magnolia

Encore
Black Muddy River

[joe vegas]

nice crispy board from a great show (a few months after my first).. it's a good reference for phil's Ultrabass tone back then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR9PVXqpnGI

god bless youtube.