After Leo Fender introduced the Precision Bass in 1951, other instrument makers saw the potential of the electric bass guitar and jumped into the market. Gibson introduced its Electric Bass (later known as the EB-1); Danelectro rolled out its Short Horn and Long Horn models; and, in 1957, Rickenbacker offered its Model 4000, the first neck-through-body bass. By the time Paul McCartney arrived in the U.S. in 1964 with his Hofner 500/1, there were many different electric basses available. One popular model in the late ’60s was the Guild Starfire Bass, a semi-hollow 4-string available in one- and two-pickup versions. It became the preferred bass of two notable San Francisco musicians, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead and Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane. Both liked the sound of the Hagstrom Bi-Sonic pickups but felt the stock electronics left something to be desired. Modifications were in order, and they turned to a group of technical wizards in the Bay Area. The mastermind of the operation was Augustus Owsley Stanley (a.k.a. Bear). He modified basses used by both Lesh and Casady by installing switchable capacitors and brought in Ron Wickersham, an innovative designer and modifier of electronic gear, to continue the work. Wickersham initiated a major upgrade in tone by putting active electronics in the Guild basses. “The circuit chosen was a Darlington-connected monolithic circuit, the CA3018,” he explained in my book American Basses. “The results were amazing. The pickups’ [frequency] response went up more than three octaves, and the clarity this brought to the fingering skills of the musicians revealed the true character of the music.” The team started by Owsley grew to include Bob Matthews, a recording engineer, and Rick Turner, who had experience as a musician (bass and guitar), sound mixer, and luthier. In 1970 they incorporated their operation under the name Alembic and soon began work on their first ground-up instrument project, a new bass for Casady that became known as Alembic #1. Whose idea was it? Did Casady ask the Alembic team to build an instrument, or did they suggest it to him? “It’s hard to say,” reports Turner. “We all saw each other frequently, and Jack knew that I was making pickups and starting to build stuff.” Casady also isn’t sure, but says that “the natural evolution was making the whole instrument from scratch, so that’s what I wanted to do.”However the project began, Alembic #1 became the instrument that changed the bass-building world, combining innovative design, high-end materials, and unheard-of electronic sophistication. Casady says he wanted a scale length that was “a little longer than the short scale [of the Guild] but not quite as long as the full 34" scale, so we compromised on a 32" scale.” Although the basic design was neck-through, Casady asked for a semi-hollow body, which turned out to be a good idea on both sonic and practical grounds. “The body halves were solid zebra