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NBD Epi Jack Casady Blue Royale
- Thread starter StatesideRambler
- Start date
Regardless of your preferred style, his work is worth checking out, one of the more innovative and lyrical bassists out there and still going strong at 72...
I love mine. I did make some changes: I changed the bridge to the Hipshot, tuning keys to Gotoh Res-o-lite GB528S, and had the Jack replaced with a Switchcraft.
With the new tuners, it balances every bit as well as my Fenders. It was really neck-divey before that.
I'm still experimenting with strings.
If you don't have nut files, bring it in to a luthier for a good setup. The nut height on mine was ridiculously high.
I had to special order an extra long strap due to the strap button locations. I wear this one much lower than my other basses with the neck more vertical to make the left hand reach more comfortable.
With the new tuners, it balances every bit as well as my Fenders. It was really neck-divey before that.
I'm still experimenting with strings.
If you don't have nut files, bring it in to a luthier for a good setup. The nut height on mine was ridiculously high.
I had to special order an extra long strap due to the strap button locations. I wear this one much lower than my other basses with the neck more vertical to make the left hand reach more comfortable.
Yes, there is. If you don't want to pay for Thomastik's, 45-95's GHS Precision Flats were the same tension as the D'addario roundwounds that come standard on many basses. Plus they've got the chocolate thump.
That's the way to do it, on the diagonal, off the right hip, almost upright. Just watch Jack, that's how he plays (when standing).
I have had a gold top JCB for a few weeks now, strung it with Chromes, and it has become my favourite bass, I've been taking this to gigs instead of my 'old faithful' Fender Ps. Certainly turns a few heads when I pull ot out of the case, and then does it again when they hear what it can do. I am after a black one to go with it, and now I've seen the blue one....but three would be too many, or would it?
To answer an earlier question in this thread, I have played mine at a handful of gigs in small venues with a reasonably loud backline and there has not been any feedback at all.
To answer an earlier question in this thread, I have played mine at a handful of gigs in small venues with a reasonably loud backline and there has not been any feedback at all.
I have some better instruments, but this one really turns heads.
Regarding feedback, I'm having fun experimenting with controlled feedback, but it's never a problem. I have to put the bass right up in front of the amp to coax some feedback from it. It's not a "true" hollow body in a sense because the bridge is in a solid block.
I talked with a luthier a couple weeks ago about a Guild acoustic guitar he had. As I was plucking out Ripple I mentioned that I'm really a bass guy and he remarked that he hates Phil Lesh's playing (I disagreed strongly) but we agreed on liking Vic Wooten's work and when I said I especially admire Jack Casady I jumped up in his estimation. Jack is a melodic, graceful player and knows as well as any great jazz bassist how to harmonically and rhythmically complement the playing of the rest of a band. His playing with Jorma Kaukonen just takes me away.
From time to time I see Jack playing one of these Epiphones in performance, not referring to the Gibson he plays that was the inspiration for the JCB but this from a show just last month. And here's one with Jack playing the Blue Royale! You don't often see players on stage with their signature instruments, especially after ninteen years in production! Does anyone else even have a sig that's been around that long?! That has given me the confidence to buy this one. I won't even try to write down a list of my most admired bassists but Jack would certainly rank highly on such a list.
Oops! Time for supper then my next twenty minute practice.
From time to time I see Jack playing one of these Epiphones in performance, not referring to the Gibson he plays that was the inspiration for the JCB but this from a show just last month. And here's one with Jack playing the Blue Royale! You don't often see players on stage with their signature instruments, especially after ninteen years in production! Does anyone else even have a sig that's been around that long?! That has given me the confidence to buy this one. I won't even try to write down a list of my most admired bassists but Jack would certainly rank highly on such a list.
Oops! Time for supper then my next twenty minute practice.
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I love Phil's playing, probably can't see it in my little avatar, but there's a stealie sticker on my JCB
Not so many people seem to know what that is over here (UK).
The strings that Jack Casady recommends are the Dean Markley Blue Steel, which is what I use on mine. This bass is designed for them, and they bring out the best! The feel is almost like flat's, the sound is brighter. That's what should have been put on at the factory, but you have no way of knowing. Recommended upgrade, besides the bridge (which I did as well) is the tuners, as it has a fair amount of 'neck dive'. Hipshot ultralights cure this problem. Enjoy!
Congratulations on your new bass! I've had a Silverburst I picked up used a couple years ago and It's been a great bass. I string it with Jacks favorite strings, the Blue Steels and it sounds, looks, and plays great. I've kept mine stock with no issues. Since I haven't really picked up any of my basses in a couple months, and don't really need 3 basses, and could use money for other things, I've had mine on CL for a couple weeks. Would probably break my heart to sell it, but it was between this and my Rick, and my Rick is my favorite, so it stays. Enjoy your new bass, they really are incredible!
Bogert...total badass on the bass. And Lynott, a rock star to end all rock stars. What a loss. Can't believe he's been gone for 31 years already. Didn't realize that Felix Pappalardi was such an accomplished producer.Been my personal bass hero since I first heard the "White Rabbit" intro. He and Jack Bruce are the main reasons I play bass. (Throw in some Felix Pappilardi, Tim Bogart, and Phil Lynott to round out my top 5 from back then.)
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Years ago I heard a radio interview with Don Henley a couple years after his hit The Boys of Summer. They took calls on the air and some real fanboy asked about the lyric "I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac." He asked, "Is that the Grateful Dead?" You could practically hear Henley and the DJ cringe with a look passing between them, no doubt agreeing that they should just rip the phone out of the console and go down to the bar. Apparently people here aren't all that versed in culture either.I love Phil's playing, probably can't see it in my little avatar, but there's a stealie sticker on my JCB
Maybe a question of whose culture...
(Yesterday I bought a 5 CD box set of Iron Butterfly, but I couldn't name any of the band.)
(I also bought a Pat Benatar one - at least I can name the singer there!)
Not a great shot but you get the idea.
I do like it with Dean Markleys (Nickel Steel) as well. I had Chromes on it which also worked for me.
Currently strung with LaBella Tapewounds - another nice pairing.
For Reference - Those are Hipshot HB6-1/2" Ultralite tuners.
I think it is fair to have never heard of Jack Casady. I heard of him firstly through the Epiphone bass, then from his cameo on the Electric Ladyland album. Having now delved a bit deeper into Jefferson Airplane's output I would say it maybe isn't the most obvious place to go looking for genre-defining high-stakes bass performances; commercial hippy pop with a jam band edge, zany abstract and satirical lyrics stuffed dated political messages, interspersed with meandering out-of-tune guitar solos replete with that garishly wide, weird renaissance vibrato that all those West Coast guitarists adopted. Two singers fighting over the top of each other with a similar wailing vibrato.
If anything Jack can sometimes be a bit tricky to make out on the earlier material. On Somebody To Love he is playing quite a busy line, but it becomes swamped in the murk of reverb they buried the track in.
I'm a big fan of Jack actually. We have a broadly similar right-hand techniques, and I admire the fidelity and dynamics he squeezed from shortscale semi-hollow basses which, around these parts at least, tend to get typecast as toneless, ill-defined thump machines. The dichotomy within Hot Tuna is quite stark. Jack was beta testing pioneering active electronics, in a roots Americana band! Brilliant.
Having said that I can't really think of anything Casady achieved beyond about the mid 1970s. Where as Jack in the '80s and '90s? If you grew up with Bootsy, Jaco et al then Jack is just an ancient hippy bassist that lacked the rhythmic formalities of the former while matching the business, if not the harmonic complexity, of the latter. One of those '60s 'join in' bassists that clings onto the side of the hurtling mine cart of music their various band produced (Phil Lesh and John Entwistle spring to mind), rather than play in the pocket etc. While I admire Jack's playing, there isn't an awful lot of take-home content to his playing.
