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Jack Casady-can you help me get his sound?

#21
Sunnmon said:
Hello,
My first concert was in May of 1968, Jefferson Airplane.
Jaco said it best, "the secrets in the hands". Jack is one of the FAB FIVE top electric bassists of all time. "Bless it's pointed Little Head" came in '68/69 I do believe. My first amp was of course a 1968 Fender Dual showman with 2 JBL D-140f's. I still have my first bass, A 1967 Fender Precision, Maple cap neck, paddle style tuners. IMHO Jack's best set-up was this: 2 Silver-faced Fender Dual Showmans atop 2 Sunn 200S cabinets with 2 JBL D-140f's inside and his Guild bass. See Woodstock, the new directors cut which has 2 extra Jefferson Airplane Songs on DVD. I live in Kal-ee-Fornee-a and am an old hippie! And I did have a 1968 Hagstrom bass and a 1962 Gibson EB-0. BTW I measure all amps by the Dual Showman because it has such great tone. Brother Berry liked 'em too. Jack Cassady is a bass STUD. Back in 1967 he was and by today's standards still is a bass STUD. Who's Sting and Flea and all these Snapple drinkers? PLease do not be offended. Bottom line, in “Your mind’s Eye” you have a mental vision of what your particular sound is, goal should be to get gear to achieve that sound. So If a Line 6 amp,a Crate 2 x 10” cab and a Cort 5 string does it for you then get that gear and have fun. I currently own a 370 pumped into 2 301 cabs, 2 Sunn Coliseum amps, 3 Sunn 2 x 15" cabs loaded with JBL K-140's, A Sunn MOdel T, and just to pierce the little ones a pair of SWR Goliath III 4x10" cabs. And in reserve a Sunn concert Bass amp, an Acoustic 450, 140 and a spare 406 cab.
Peace and Happiness to all
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:cool:
This is the s**t.
The Sunn 200S cabs, are the best "old school" cabs I've ever heard.
Wish I still had mine?
 
#22
The Guild Starfire bass with the Hagstrom Bisonic pickups was certainly a big part of Jack's sound (although I saw him play a Fender Jazz bass at a JA concert once). The JBL D-140's provided the thunder and the Versatone amp completed the picture. At about 2:30 in this video of the Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock, you can clearly see Jack's Versatone amp (with large horizontal diamond shaped logo).
 
#24
You need to grow up in D.C., have a funny mustache, play with James Brown and other greats at the Howard Theatre, meet some guitarist with a name like Jorma Kaukonen, move out west, join some so so band called the Jefferson Airplane, shave off the funny mustache at the request of the very beautiful lead singer, and play your #$$ off the whole time. Get some Sunn JBL D-140/Versatone action too. Check out Hendrix Electric Lady Land, Voodoo Child cut. Oh yeah, that's Jack on Bass!
 
#25
It is definitely not that old Les Paul signature bass or any amp by itself. I've watched his video with Jorma a hundred times. Jack is the rhythm section. There are times when he pounds on the strings and other times when he barely touches them. He uses a lot of octaves up and down the fingerboard. His tone is open and raw, then in a single beat he produces the most melodic sounds. He uses Hi-Beams lights and tunes E A D G.
He does this without a huge ego.
He and Jorma will be here in Chicago at the end of the month.
Come listen for yourself.

G
 
#26
It is definitely not that old Les Paul signature bass or any amp by itself. I've watched his video with Jorma a hundred times. Jack is the rhythm section. There are times when he pounds on the strings and other times when he barely touches them. He uses a lot of octaves up and down the fingerboard. His tone is open and raw, then in a single beat he produces the most melodic sounds. He uses Hi-Beams lights and tunes E A D G.
He does this without a huge ego.
Click to expand...
Sums it up better than I could. The equipment helps (like when doesn't it?), but as somebody pointed out above, Jack got quite a similar tone earlier in his career off a Jazz bass. It's in the fingers.

Interesting side note, Fred Hammon (Dark Star pickups) heard from Jack a while back. Jack said he'd put a single Dark Star on a cheapie, bolt on Epi EBO copy - just to fool around with on the road, but not for any serious purpose and largely because the investment was so modest that he could afford to leave it around (without fear of theft). Well, it appeared Jack was experiencing a dilemma: He was liking that little bass so much, and using it so often that he had to start worrying about someone walking off with it... :bassist:
 
#27
Jack is Jack. He sounds like himself (which is great!). BUT you still can't get a mix of clean & dirt with your hands. You can get clean. You can get dirt. You can get clean to push into dirt, but you can't double them without...errr...doubling them. To answer the OP's question I would recommend running a A/B/Y box set to Y, with A going into clean amp. Then run B through an overdrive pedal, then a volume pedal, then into another amp (or a dirty guitar amp & skip the OD pedal, like Jack). You can then blend between clean & dirt. The SWR IOD does this in one preamp space.

(it also helps if you exhibit Jack's confidence on your instrument)
 
#28
I'd seen a picture (by Rodent) of an Ibanez Artcore AGB140(?) semi-hollow with a Dark Star and was inspired enough to buy the same Artcore (no Dark Star yet). I know Jack Casady is the inspiration. I'm looking forward to the day when I get the follow through done. I need to sell a bit more gear to get the Dark Star then get the work done on the Artcore.

KO
 
#30
emblymouse said:
Yeah, I took a master class with Jack and he emphisized this simple thing-If you want a meaty sound, pluck with the meaty part of your finger, not the tips. Very basic, but very effective.
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I've taken that class too & watched him play from real close up. Jack's fingers are fairly thick and meaty and his right hand index and middle finger are about the same length, and straight. His wrist is straight and his hand hangs down over the strings in a very relaxed fashion.

I have long narrow fingers and my middle finger is 3/4" longer than my index finger. I tend to hold my wrist at an angle to compensate for the diffferent finger lengths. Suffice it to say that I cannot copy Jack's technique or cop his sound.

We all have to get at the sound in our heads, in our own way.
 
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#31
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h118/movzg/JackCassidyJefAir.jpg

Hands down the coolest picture of Jack I've seen. :D

JackCassidyJefAir.jpg
 
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#32
pedro said:
(pedro stares in disbelief at the above admission.)
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I will proudly admit that Jack Cassady is one of my all-time favorite bass players. And I love live JA and Hot Tuna (it's gotta be Jack and Jorma for it to work). That particular album is when the BAND was working as a whole band, and Jack is the key to what they did. Unlike most improvisational bands, JA is working off the bass player, not being a turgidly stagnant bass/drums section for the guitarist to masturbate over.

And his sound is great on that album. Like I said in the first post, the equipment aspect of his sound is (especially thru "Burgers") is NOT the Varitone (actually his Les Paul and the Epiphone recreation doesn't have a Varitone- it's an impedance selector) it's the combination of the Versatone tube amp for overdrive being mixed with a clean amp. What amp? Early on it was Fender Showmans, then Showman pre-amps going into Macintosh power amps and lots of JBL speakers. Those probably became Alembic pre-amps with the Macs. I seem to recall some Ampegs for a while, and then some SWR stuff. Most recently he's got a signature cabinet from Aguilar too.

So, besides Jack's hands and ears, the key point is mixing two different amps.

jte
 
#35
JTE said:
I will proudly admit that Jack Cassady is one of my all-time favorite bass players. And I love live JA and Hot Tuna (it's gotta be Jack and Jorma for it to work). That particular album is when the BAND was working as a whole band, and Jack is the key to what they did. Unlike most improvisational bands, JA is working off the bass player, not being a turgidly stagnant bass/drums section for the guitarist to masturbate over.

And his sound is great on that album. Like I said in the first post, the equipment aspect of his sound is (especially thru "Burgers") is NOT the Varitone (actually his Les Paul and the Epiphone recreation doesn't have a Varitone- it's an impedance selector) it's the combination of the Versatone tube amp for overdrive being mixed with a clean amp. What amp? Early on it was Fender Showmans, then Showman pre-amps going into Macintosh power amps and lots of JBL speakers. Those probably became Alembic pre-amps with the Macs. I seem to recall some Ampegs for a while, and then some SWR stuff. Most recently he's got a signature cabinet from Aguilar too.

So, besides Jack's hands and ears, the key point is mixing two different amps.

jte
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Well said. I agree 100%

pedro said:
JTE, I like Casady but to me JA was rather grooveless, as were most of the bands of that era from California.
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I respectfully disagree.

I would ask you to listen to Plastic Fantastic Lover, The Other
Side of This Life, and Somebody to Love, the live versions
from Bless Its Pointed Little Head. After you listen to these
three songs, tell me you found them grooveless from a
bassist's POV.

(Without going to far off topic here, there were plenty of Cali bands with great groove
of that genre. Examples: Spirit (check Mr.Skin on 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus), Sons of
Champlin, Quicksilver (Happy Trails), Santana. No need to go further.)


And thanks for the gear info guys, I have always wanted to know about that.

Also, I have a major case on envy going on with you guys that took the
level 3 or level 4 classes. Closest I have come is to his DVD, which btw is
chock FULL of fingerstyle>tone discussion and I would highly recommend that to the OP.
 
#37
pedro said:
(pedro stares in disbelief at the above admission.)
Click to expand...

?? Drop the needle at "Other Side of This Life" and tell me what you hear. JC is flying on that tune, Then get over to "Volunteers" and get a load of "Eskimo Blue Day" ap off your evening with the title song from "Crown of Creation" and set your sound up from that. His sese of tension and release is amazing, and he's so far up front in the mix you have to respect his place in bass fundamentals.
 
#38
I respectfully disagree.
Click to expand...

It's your right.

I would ask you to listen to Plastic Fantastic Lover, The Other
Side of This Life, and Somebody to Love, the live versions
from Bless Its Pointed Little Head. After you listen to these
three songs, tell me you found them grooveless from a
bassist's POV.
Click to expand...


I've heard 'Somebody to Love' a million times and absolutely refuse to play it. That's the tune I was thinking of when I said 'grooveless'. I've heard 'Bless Its Pointed Head' as well but admit its been a long time. 'White Rabbit' also grooveless, IMO. Thats not to say that Jack isn't great (he is) but I just couldn't get into that music.
 
#40
pedro said:
It's your right.




I've heard 'Somebody to Love' a million times and absolutely refuse to play it. That's the tune I was thinking of when I said 'grooveless'. I've heard 'Bless Its Pointed Head' as well but admit its been a long time. 'White Rabbit' also grooveless, IMO. Thats not to say that Jack isn't great (he is) but I just couldn't get into that music.
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I figured that, The live version has a much different feel than
the studio version, made a couple of years earlier and very watered down. The Fillmore shows really exhibit JA at the peak of their live form, and Jack and his tone is central to
the mix and the performance. Just sayin'. They grew a lot in 3 years. :)

Anyway, let's not get too far off topic. Sorry for the derail.
 

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