Phil's Modulus Basses - a pictorial history

[seanc]

"My understanding was that his regular Quantum is also a custom - a regular Q6 in every way except 34" instead of 35" scale. IIRC they built 4 of them, Phil got two, Mike Gordon got 1, and I forget what happened to the 4th. And the official Modulus policy on their site was "we're never doing this again so don't ask!" "

If I am not mistaken.... If we are talking about the neckthru quantum 6 string in the early 90s... This was the "new" neck. Phil, being about 8 feet tall was looking for "a bit wider" neck. Jeff G. made a new mold that is substantially wider than the thin necks. It IS a 35" scale.


So, to clarify..If this the run that you are making reference to... The bass missing from the above is/ was actually #2. It currently resides at my house and has since the Modulus Stork dropped it at my place..

Description.
Neck through body 6 string.
Cocobolo fretboard.
Lovecraft inspired inlays (done by Noll Guitars in prov, RI)
5 piece layered body, cocobolo-ash-purple heart-ash-cocobolo.
2 EMGs, vol/ PU mix/ EQ boost/ EQ freq.

It actually made a quick appearance (with me attached) for a Shakedown St, at Effins 7/14 with the Loose Change band.. So, even a confirmed sighting!!!


Any questions.. fire away..


As a newbie here... My name is Sean, I live in the Mass/ RI area. Played in dead bands @ 15+ yrs.. And looking for people to play with!!!

[Emoto]

Hey Sean, what instrument do you play, and what role?

[Rusty the Scoob]

I was talking about this one: http://dozin.com/phil/q6.html

Not the same bass but similar to yours from the sound of it. We need pics of yours, please! Very curious to see it! Was it really Phil's?

[seanc]

Geoff G really seemed to not like making them and did say that he was was never going to do the neck thrus again.. But, I can't say that I know if that to be true or not.


Anyways... here are my main basses..





And to answer the other question. I am a bass player in the Ma/Ri area. I played in dead bands for @ 15yrs off and on. And finally coming out of my cave to try to find some people to play with..

[seanc]

I was talking about this one: http://dozin.com/phil/q6.html

Not the same bass but similar to yours from the sound of it. We need pics of yours, please! Very curious to see it! Was it really Phil's?

No.. this was never Phil's. This was made for me by Modulus. But, my understanding is that 4 of these were made. Phil's was the first one, mine was made at the same time as his, then there were to be 2 more made. one for Mike Gordon and then Geoff G said he was going to make the last one for himself. and then never make another neck thru.. It took start to finish about 2yrs. And by the end of it he was very happy to not hear from me again "hey Geoff, me again, is it done yet?" ...

[Rusty the Scoob]

Awesome! I guess I had the right story but the details mixed up. How is a graphite neck-through made anyway? I guess you'd have to somehow glue the graphite and wood together?

Are those Alembic pickups in the tree-of-life one in the middle?

[seanc]

Awesome! I guess I had the right story but the details mixed up. How is a graphite neck-through made anyway? I guess you'd have to somehow glue the graphite and wood together?

Are those Alembic pickups in the tree-of-life one in the middle?

The sent me the raw neck so that I could have it inlayed. At the time I didn't know Larry Robinson, so I had Marie (?) at Noll guitars do the inlay. So, we all got a real good look at the raw neck and how it was put together. But.. The back of the neck is one piece all the way down to the tail section. Underneath the body section, there is a graphite latice/ bracing arrangement, then the body/ face of the neck has a few layers of graphite that match that "head cheese" modulus look.

The wings are glued, somehow to the neck. there are no visable glue lines on the face. But there is a slight one on the back. There are also visible glue lines where the coke fretboard joins the neck.

Yes, those are Alembic pick ups on the tree of life Campellone. It came with Bartolinis that I absolutely hated. Then Lane Poor made me a set of pick ups. That set didn't work out well and it was his first time making 6 string pick ups (as he'd never seen one before) So, he redid them. It was a 200% better sound. But, it still just wasn't THE sound. Then I pulled Lane's and put in Alembic and have been happy since.

The other Campellone (fretless) has one of Lane's still in there. It is absolutely the perfect tone.

[cosmicbass]

Not sure if this is your run, or whatnot. But according to Bass Player magazine (in a piece that ran with a Phil interview), when they made Phil a Q6 in the late '90s:

"Since Modulus had to dig up the old mold for Phil’s neck and work up some new tooling, the company decided to make four of the custom basses. Lesh will get two (his main bass and a backup), the Doobie Brothers’ Tiran Porter will get one, as will Mike Gordon of Phish. "

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/anthe ... r-08/34335

[Rusty the Scoob]

I read an interview with Mike that said that article was the first he'd heard of it. So he called Modulus up and said "Hey, where's my bass?" Apparently that's the story behind the through-neck TBX that he plays now... looks just like a Q5 to me but what do I know.

[cosmicbass]

Ha ha That's funny.

I know a guy who went to college with those Phish guys and still stays in touch from time to time. He said Mike scours the country (shops, eBay, etc) and buys up Modulus TBX's that he finds that fits his needs. He's cornering the used market on those basses!

[RiverRat]

image links fixed

[Phil Lesh101]

I beleive Phil used a 36'' not 35'' or 34''

[Phil Lesh101]

Giants Stadium August 4, 1994


i also believe that phil's custom modulus's had wider bodies then stock modulus basses?

peace,
waldo

Yes This is a Different Modulus, He added the Delightful Black Pick Guard on it, and yes He used a 36'' Scale

[RiverRat]

I beleive Phil used a 36'' not 35'' or 34''

There is no evidence to support claims that any of the basses had a 36" scale length. Given the design flaws and high cost of the early monocoque trussless throughneck construction technique, it's doubtful that they would have attempted it repeatedly.

Because of Geoff Gould's goal of a trussless neck, neck and phenolic fingerboards had to be engineered to have the proper relief based only on the string tension. So each change in scale length, neck width or even string gauge meant that a new mold had to be made for both pieces of the neck. This also is the reason Modulus contracted to have strings engineered for their own product line. The basic goal was that the string have a specific tension when tuned to pitch to guarantee that the neck relief was correct.

Discussion thread on Alembic Club about Modulus necks and their design:

http://alembic.com/club/messages/449/47317.html

And a another on BassChat UK:

http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:tech:use_of_composites_graphite_necks_in_bass_guitar_design

A thread on Talkbass about the early TBX's:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/modulus-tbx-pics-382258/

Coincidently, that thread has posts from a member who not only sold Mike Gordon his first 5 string TBX, but he also owns a 4 string pre-TBX made from the same mold used to make Phil's 2nd Modulus... no mention of super long scale length.

Photo gallery of the 4 string TBX:

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k206/tsarter/ModulusTBX/

Yes This is a Different Modulus, He added the Delightful Black Pick Guard on it, and yes He used a 36'' Scale

The pickguard was added due to this bass having the wired fret MIDI installed. It's the nearly the same as the other black cherry cocobola TBX 6. Geoff Gould stated that both of these basses are 26 fret 34" scale necks.

[RiverRat]

"And the official Modulus policy on their site was "we're never doing this again so don't ask!" "

Never say never!!!

http://www.planetbass.com/basses_modulus_TBX.htm

Anyone have $7500 they care to part with?