Jack Casady Interview

[EvilLordJuju]

Fly Guitars is delighted to feature an interview with a bass legend, Jack Casady. You guys will no doubt be interested in the development of his own Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass. But it is in seven parts, including: how he started out, Fender Jazz basses, Guild basses, Alembic and Modulus, Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass, amps, and other basses.

Thanks go to Jack Casady and Graham Fieldhouse. Also thanks to the guys on the outpost who helped with some proof reading, especially Rob van den Broek and John Lessick.

[the mojo hobo]

Jack was one of my biggest early influences. When I heard Crown of Creation and Bathing at Baxters I knew I wanted to emulate that style and tone.

An Epi Casady bass is still on my wish list, and now I want to visit Fur Peace Ranch too.

I almost got sucked in by your Latest Gibson Bass on ebay. It was an Epi Les Paul with a $200 Buy-It-Now, it took a lot of restraint to resist.

Thanks for the great interview, (and thanks for the props),

John

[Droombolus]

Thanks, I'll be reading that interview from top to bottom ..... Casady's been my #3 fave bass player for ages. Not much of a fan of the Epi JCS I'm sorry to say but I found a way to pay tribute to the man anyways ...... 

[godofthunder]

Thanks that was a great read ! He had quite a bit to say, nice to get some in depth answers and not a one sentence response !

[Barklessdog]

Excellent, I too has a Casady fan way back when.

[Basvarken]

Great read Jules!

[Dave W]

Excellent interview. Thanks, Jules.

[clankenstein]

that was great! very interesting, thanks.

[copacetic]

Great interview Jules! Thanks. Brings back a lot of memories. I first ran into Jack(actually he and Jorma ran into my brother and I and invited us to their concert)  in Amsterdam in 1968 when the Airplane were playing the Concertgeboew. I had a Guild Starfire as well and he told me there was more to get out of these basses. After seeing/hearing/experiencing the sound that night of the Airplane especially the bass my whole world was turned around. Here was what I was looking for in terms of what I thought the bass was capable of. Don't get me wrong here, Entwhistle and Bruce were all pushing the bass but Jack's 'rig' and playing was in another dimension. I did get to SF & Alembic and did offer up my Guild Starfires for the very early experimentation of what he mentioned in that interview. After Ron & Rick got through(chopping up) with mine....I was speechless. I just could not stand having those 9V batteries on board.However that bass led me to be invited to meet with Leo Fender and George Fullerton who wanted to take a look when they were up here in the Bay Area and consequently led me to get one of the first Music Man basses. Still have a lot of old Guilds and Gibsons and as much as I love Jack I still love my pair of Gibson Les Paul Signatures and his prototype Jack Casady bass with a mystery pickup by J.T.(W)Riboloff. (Hey Jules whats with the spelling in that interview?!). One amazing thing I can say is after all he did giving the bass a more recognized and upfront status he ends up with a low impedence pickup in a hollow bodied bass. Actually as some here might remember Fred Hammon, Jack put one of his Dark Stars in an Epiphone EB-0( I think thats what Epiphone calls them) and was/is really happy with it.Hopefully Fred can read that interview and chime in here sometime.

[Dave W]

Actually as some here might remember Fred Hammon, Jack put one of his Dark Stars in an Epiphone EB-0( I think thats what Epiphone calls them) and was/is really happy with it.Hopefully Fred can read that interview and chime in here sometime.

Fred has disappeared and is apparently out of business.

[Droombolus]

their concert in Amsterdam in 1968 when the Airplane were playing the Concertgeboew.

That's spelled "Concertgebouw" and you may have been sitting next to me ..... Which show did you go to, the 1st or the 2nd ? Just to refresh your memory: the 1st show featured Jim Morrison dancing like a maniac .....

[uwe]

"This Gibson bass is a true hollow body. It has a light pine fluted block that's about a five eighths of an inch in depth attached to the back of the body but there's an actual space between that and the top of about three quarters of an inch so that the fluted block there dampens it enough to keep it from feeding back but it still has an acoustic quality and that's why I think that bass sounds so good along with the pickup."

Yup, that is why both the Gibson and the Epi stand out from the crowd. And why it makes sesnse to take the pick guard off which audibly muffles one F hole  (as JC does on most pics of him and the bass).

"I said the pickup by today's standards is a little translucent ...".

That is exactly what I like about the original pup, its singlecoilish, more musical nature!!! The Epi provides a thicker, but also less transparent and deader sound.

"We duplicated the pickups as they were on the old '72 model but then I took the pickup and added more alnico power to it, another three quarters of an alnico magnet on the other side. Also I took a page out of a lot of lap steels, I took the windings that were used for those pickups and used a higher gauge wire. I used a 28 gauge wire, very thick. I wanted to thicken the sound up, and they said that I could do anything I want."

Oh how I wish he hadn't!   But that does not detract from two things:

- The JC Sig has become a modern classic of the Epi line and there is no other still-in-production hollowbody bass with equal popularity that I can think of. I also applaud that Herr Casady practices what he preaches and plays them off the rack and not some fancy pants Custom Shop creation which Gibson or Epi would no doubt build for him.

- This is a brilliant interview, Jules, with a wealth of info, vielen Dank!!!

[Barklessdog]

Fred has disappeared and is apparently out of business.

Thats really too bad, he was really dedicated to them. I guess when Lakland stopped using them it was not good for business?

[EvilLordJuju]

Glad you are all liking it.

The fact is, some bassists love their gear, and want to talk about it. Some can barely remember they were in a band...

Hey Jules whats with the spelling in that interview?

uh oh.... what did I miss?

So you have a prototype of the JC bass? have the pics/story been shown before?

[Stjofön Big]

Really nice read. How popular were the Guild basses in the 60's? I remember Phil Lesh in the Dead also played one, as well as the guy in Lovin' Spoonful, Steve Boone.