"Interesting how the rawness of the bass kind of reflects the direction of the band around the same time... becoming louder, more raw..."
Yep. "After Bathing at Baxter's" is, IMHO, the pinnacle of the Airplane's recorded output. I never seem to tire of listening to it.
"Flats", forgive me if you're already aware of this, but Jack remembers
Baxter's as being recorded with his Fender.
It's probably my favorite Airplane album too, although all the rest of the original releases keep gaining ground in the last couple of years.
Anyway, until a while after I joined here I always thought it was recorded with the Starfire just because of the way it sounds, especially "Spare Chaynge" and "Won't You Try", the sheer woodiness of the tones... (Also there's a pic of him playing it in the sheet music book for it.)
It was a pet hypothesis of mine until recently, and I'd still like to think it really did make it onto the album even if nobody remembers or can prove it, but I'm willing to admit chances of that seem to be pretty small now.
He did acquire the SF just before the sessions for
Baxters were completed, and he says in an interview that he thinks he brought it to the studio during the Baxter's sessions but doesn't think anything was recorded.
It was definitely in use on
Creation though, and one of my favorite live albums,
Live at Fillmore East (May 1968), features a
screaming solo on "You & Me & Pooneil" that shows just how far the envelope was being pushed on the Starfire at the time.
It also has live
Baxter's material that somehow was leap-frogged when
Bless its Pointed Little Head was released.
So speaking of loud & raw, I woulda killed for that stuff when I was 17, in fact I snatched it right up the first time I saw it 30 some-odd years later.