It's back!

[chazmo]

Thanks, Mungi. FYI, a number of us don't do FB.

I can't imagine being re-united with something that was stolen from me 47 years ago. I had a Raleigh Chopper when I was a kid that was stolen out of my garage... I would love to get that back!

 

[walrus]

Trying to avoid a veer, but Chazmo, mentioning a Raleigh Chopper just blew my mind with memories!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Chopper

walrus

 

[chazmo]

I guess mine must've been a Mark 2, but mine had a Sturmey-Archer (sp?) 5 speed shifter for the rear derailleur on the top tube, like some of the pictures, and I had the one-piece banana seat (which was AWESOME). Also, I don't remember having fenders, but y'know... that was a looooong time ago. Mine was a really cool blue color.

 

[walrus]

Easy to pop wheelies!

walrus

 

[davismanLV]

I had a Schwinn Sting-Ray!! Not dissimilar to this bike which was borrowed at a horse show to get from the main arena to the barn and back. Golly, what a dork I was!! LMAO!!

Sorry to embrace the veer!! :stupid:

 

[walrus]

Tom, I'm loving the overalls! And the bike!

walrus

 

[Daghdha]

It *is* pretty cool and amazing that it made it's way back to JC after all that time.

Out of technical curiosity, does anyone know what the control layout is? I remember reading that it was all passive electronics, but there's a lot there for all passive circuitry without a lot of signal loss.

The first thing after the hot rodded (2 magnets on each) pickups was a bipolar buffer, electronically lowering the impedance and negating any load from further electronics and long cable runs.
I don't think it is passive though. The buffers certainly were not.

 

[davismanLV]

Tom, I'm loving the overalls! And the bike!

walrus

walrus, I had my horse riding getup on, boots and breeches and all that. The overalls were necessary to keep me from getting TOO dirty!! LOL!

 

[Mungi]

The first thing after the hot rodded (2 magnets on each) pickups was a bipolar buffer, electronically lowering the impedance and negating any load from further electronics and long cable runs.
I don't think it is passive though. The buffers certainly were not.

As far as I know Yggdrasil was passive. No lo-z. A buffer at the end but controls and pups were passive. I might be wrong.

 

[Daghdha]

As far as I know Yggdrasil was passive. No lo-z. A buffer at the end but controls and pups were passive. I might be wrong.

I might be also.
Wish I could get a definitive layout of what each control did.

 

[Mungi]

I might be also.
Wish I could get a definitive layout of what each control did.

Yes indeed, and to know what he actually used, and for what. I played around with both buffers and passive controls in my SF, but I ended up taking it all out. Well, almost all. I kept a Villex Mid Boost and volume controls. I don't even have ordinary tone controls anymore.

 

[mavuser]

Wish I could get a definitive layout of what each control did.

here's Phil's:

not sure how similar Jack's is. Mgod may know.

I just read all the posts and the story of how Jack got the bass back. crazy stuff indeed.

 

[mikko]

I have never seen that particular Seattle gig listed anywhere, where Airplane shows are listed. It´s not that important, I´m just wondering what show was the last Airplane show with this bass. I´m happy to hear it found it´s way back to it´s rightful owner after all these years.

 

[Daghdha]

http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2009/07/october-december-1969-jefferson.html?m=1 lists the Seattle gig.
17 & 18 are listed some places as Honolulu, HI.
the next gigs listed is Oct 24-26th at Winterland (plenty of places to find recordings of 25 & 26 out there.
I'm curious if the 2 weeks in between was enough time for Ron Wickersham to have the time to modify the sunburst replacement Starfire. The recording I have of 10-25 has Jack way up front in the mix.

 

[edwin]

As far as I know Yggdrasil was passive. No lo-z. A buffer at the end but controls and pups were passive. I might be wrong.

I might be wrong, but my understanding is that the pickups did have the buffers, but the filters were all passive, using inductors, similar to the ES-355 Varitone. Of course, this is the way rumors get started! But there was no state variable filter a la Phil's bass.

 

[ric426]

I played around with both buffers and passive controls in my SF, but I ended up taking it all out. Well, almost all. I kept a Villex Mid Boost and volume controls. I don't even have ordinary tone controls anymore.

I was about to add some buffers to the pickups in my NS SFII and rewire it with better pots, etc. so I'm curious about what you did or didn't like about the buffers and other circuitry. If my buffers work out I plan to try variable filters next, but I may keep them outboard. Don't know if I can bring myself to make any non-reversible mods to the bass. Buffers and a battery will be easy to fit in the stock bass, but more circuitry than that would probably demand more than f hole access.

 

[idealassets]

Is the returned bass Ygdrysel?

 

[adorshki]

Is the returned bass Ygdrysel?

Apparently so from this 3-year old thread from the Grateful Dead music forum:
http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=346&t=14918

I first saw "Ygdrassil Bass" on the Crown of Creation credits, it always stuck with me because I recognized the Nordic myth reference ("Tree of Life"), but I didn't actually realize it was the first "Owsley/Wickersham-modified instrument" (since Alembic did not yet actually exist) until I joined here and read about it.
This thread from the Alembic Club has some more info about what exactly was done to his and Phil's bass:
http://alembic.com/club/messages/393/26421.html?1143641487
"Big Brown" was much more sophisticated than those first two.
A little more searching yielded up this great interview with Jack, with the story of how the bass got its name, and some wonderful anecdotes about his 50+ year friendship with Jorma:
http://music-illuminati.com/interview-jack-casady/

 

[mgod]

I might be wrong, but my understanding is that the pickups did have the buffers, but the filters were all passive, using inductors, similar to the ES-355 Varitone. Of course, this is the way rumors get started! But there was no state variable filter a la Phil's bass.

Yes, you're wrong, as are the others. This bass is all passive. RT is working on diagramming it as we type (with Bear gone now).

And no, this bass is not Yggdrasil. No bass is - Yggdrasil is the man's playing. This is just his first Starfire.

 

[Daghdha]

I've since gotten some info on this bass. I stand corrected. It was indeed passive.

I wonder if Jack has brought it to Rick for any work & this diagraming.