Epi Jack Casady Signature bass - neck distance and scale "feel"

Standing it’s great, just get a strap that isn’t slick it’ll sit still. The scale is better than a thunderbird and comfortable. It’s great sitting down too. I’m 6’4” with long arms but it is played by guys/gals around here that are much shorter than me.

 

@McG will be a great resource for you, as he plays a Jack Casady and will be able to provide valuable feedback (and very smart hardware upgrade suggestions.)


My son and I owned a JC a few years back. Beautiful bass, and very well made. However, it did not fit he nor I very well (for different reasons,) so we let it go. However, I still had the hollow body itch, and eventually purchased a short-scale Fender Starcaster bass. I love this thing - very versatile, great sounding pickups, and the playability of the shorter neck with the big body worked out great for me. I strung mine with Thomastik flats, and play it with a pick for my Beatles band. Many Starcasters are heavy, but lighter versions are out there (like mine.) You may want to check one of these out if you have the chance.

 

Long wide strap, grippy shoulder surface, wear it on the diagonal off the right hip like Jack, you'll be fine:

 

The bass, itself, is only part of the equation. Casady did it with on-board electronics in his Starfires PLUS a Versatone Panoflex amp (and of course his superb touch and talent) back during the 60s, but you can get plenty of grit running a Starfire through contemporary pre-amp and OD pedals while leaving the bass, itself, unmodified.

In addition to having a short scale length and narrow nut (1-1/2" [earlier "Newark" MIK production] to 1-11/16" [current production]), the Starfire has less taper (increasing width) as you go up the neck than most Fenders (and, I suspect, the Epi JC). This translates to "fast" neck with narrow string spacing: very comfortable for me (others may differ). Plus the Bi-Sonic pups are hard to beat.

Personally, I think your best bet is to find the semi-hollow that's physically most comfortable for you to play and then look for the right combination of pedals/amp to zero in on the tone you're after. Some better OD pedals will let you blend clean signal with OD so that you don't lose all your low frequency output (which tends to happen otherwise when you really lay on the heavy pedal grit). Another way to achieve this is to use a quality AB/Y pedal with isolated channels (e.g.: Lehle) and then run your signal through 2 amps of about the same power simultaneously (one with the OD pedal after the AB/Y for grit, the other clean for bottom end).

BTW: unless you have obscene amounts of discretionary funding, don't bother looking for a Versatone Panoflex. They are very rare and long out of production.

 

From what I understand, he still uses it to this day (at least for recording, not sure whether he tours with it).

 

"From what I understand, he still uses it to this day (at least for recording, not sure whether he tours with it)."

I've heard that he has several. Maybe that's where ALL of them are.

 

I go into a Hartke VXL "Bass Attack" Toneshaper (version 1) DI/pre-amp that I found used then split the signal into 2 amps with a Lehle Little Dual AB/Y. The Darkglass Vintage Microtubes is the only one of their pedals that I've tried. Based on demos I've seen of their others, I'd say it's not their most aggressive OD pedal, so you might want to look at some of the others if you're looking for more breakup. It's a great pedal, but may be more subtle than what you're looking for. Try before you buy if you can.

 

Maybe someone else who has used some of the other Darkglass pedals (there are several) will give you a first-hand opinion.

 

Figures, sure, if I were in his position and used something that rare as part of my signature sound, I'd buy every single one I came across. I would bet he has most of the known working units, actually. Always good to have backups.

 

"Figures, sure, if I were in his position and used something that rare as part of my signature sound, I'd buy every single one I came across."

If anyone deserves t'have 'em, it's him. I certainly wouldn't begrudge him if that were true.

Was just sayin'...

 

"The Darkglass Vintage Microtubes is the only one of their pedals that I've tried. Based on demos I've seen of their others, I'd say it's not their most aggressive OD pedal, so you might want to look at some of the others if you're looking for more breakup. It's a great pedal, but may be more subtle than what you're looking for."

I'm gonna have to beg to differ with myself (already): that opinion (quote above) was based on how I have been using my Darkglass Vintage Microtubes. Just went and quickly horsed around with it and the Guild NS SF-I (bridge pup only) and found that with the bass's volume pot dimed and the tone backed off to "7" I think I was getting into the neighborhood of what you're after. My DGVMT is the basic, four-knob one, not the "Deluxe" model (the possible permutations with just FOUR knobs is enough to keep me entertained, thank you).

I wound up with the "blend" @ 10-o'clock, "level" @ 11-o'clock, "era" dimed counter-clockwise and "drive" @ 11-o'clock. That seemed to be a sweet spot which yielded some decent wool without descending into excessive "fuzz" or "murk". Still had plenty of pedal pot sweep left in reserve if further mayhem was needed. Keep in mind that I was running through that Hartke pre-amp pedal, which also alters the tone considerably. But the wool was all coming from the Darkglass.

 

I think you’re right to be concerned about this issue. Unless you could make a go of it with that slung low on the hip style it might not work for you. There’s no way I could adjust my playing to that position so it wouldn’t work for me. Maybe if you search around the net you can come across some specs or measurements like how long the instrument is, or the distance from the bridge to the butt etc.

 

Sounds like if you’re woried about it so much then you aren’t adaptable so might pass on a JC. Really, once i got the right strap height dialed in and get it sitting in the right position it’s one of the nicest basses i have to play. Just angle the head up and the first fret is right there in front of you. It has never fatigued me yet. And the cool TONEZ!

Plus its like holding air so allover fatigue is next to nil.

Minez Blue!

 

I never seriously considered the JC Sig myself because of the scale length and wide neck, neither of which work for my arthritic hands.

 

I regularly bounce between a Ric and a JC and have no issues. Maybe the JC's nut sits a bit further away than the Ric but if so it's never been enough for me to really notice it. The JC's neck actually feels noticeably slimmer (especially at the nut) than my Ric.

 

With my JC, I do feel like the nut is further outboard to the left than I'm used to; however, I confess that I quite like that feeling when I play so it doesn't bother me one iota. It feels no worse than playing my 35" scale Cirrus.

 

Wow, the Starcaster looks beautiful!!! I never quite liked it from the pics on the Fender website, it looked kinda lopsided to me, but in actual playing position it looks gorgeous!!!

 

Oh, he tours with it.