Grateful Dead - Wall of Sound

[edwinhurwitz]

Do you think he didn't still have all those basses? Do you think he paid for his Alembics? Come on dude. When he played the G&L, it was in all likelihood because HE LIKED IT.

I think he used the G&L because he wanted to find a Jazz style bass he could take on the road without having an antique that might have been unreliable. Given that G&L was the state of the Leo at the time, it makes sense he'd go with that. He also seems to have an affinity for active electronics!

I saw him with the G&L ca. 1982. By the time Jerry had his coma, he had already moved on to Moduli.

Yes, Phil did pay for his Alembics, and apparently paid quite a bit. In fact, the GD financed a good deal of Alembic's development and research. As far as current knowledge goes, there are only two times when an Alembic was presented to an artist free of charge, and that was Stanley Clarke's 30th anniversary Dragon bass.

Alembic Inc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alembic has had an awareness that their basses are not cheap and they feel that if they give monster deals to famous players it just means that the rest of us have to bear the burden of that expense. After years of interacting with them, it's clear that it's a family company and they consider musicians of all levels of ability and success part of that family.

 

[BurningSkies]

I think he used the G&L because he wanted to find a Jazz style bass he could take on the road without having an antique that might have been unreliable. Given that G&L was the state of the Leo at the time, it makes sense he'd go with that. He also seems to have an affinity for active electronics!

I saw him with the G&L ca. 1982. By the time Jerry had his coma, he had already moved on to Moduli.

Yes, Phil did pay for his Alembics, and apparently paid quite a bit. In fact, the GD financed a good deal of Alembic's development and research. As far as current knowledge goes, there are only two times when an Alembic was presented to an artist free of charge, and that was Stanley Clarke's 30th anniversary Dragon bass.

Alembic Inc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alembic has had an awareness that their basses are not cheap and they feel that if they give monster deals to famous players it just means that the rest of us have to bear the burden of that expense. After years of interacting with them, it's clear that it's a family company and they consider musicians of all levels of ability and success part of that family.

Correct. I saw a whole bunch of shows between 84-88ish and Phil was on the Modulus most of that time. Bob was also playing Modulus I believe?

 

[Stranger Danger]

I think he used the G&L because he wanted to find a Jazz style bass he could take on the road without having an antique that might have been unreliable. Given that G&L was the state of the Leo at the time, it makes sense he'd go with that. He also seems to have an affinity for active electronics!

I saw him with the G&L ca. 1982. By the time Jerry had his coma, he had already moved on to Moduli.

Yes, Phil did pay for his Alembics, and apparently paid quite a bit. In fact, the GD financed a good deal of Alembic's development and research. As far as current knowledge goes, there are only two times when an Alembic was presented to an artist free of charge, and that was Stanley Clarke's 30th anniversary Dragon bass.

Alembic Inc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alembic has had an awareness that their basses are not cheap and they feel that if they give monster deals to famous players it just means that the rest of us have to bear the burden of that expense. After years of interacting with them, it's clear that it's a family company and they consider musicians of all levels of ability and success part of that family.

OK, fair enough, but I dont think he was playing an L-2000 because it sounded like a Jazz bass (which it doesnt). He was playing it because, as you say, it was the hottest new active bass out there at the time and he probably liked the way it played, looked and sounded at the time. Which in my opinion shows he had better taste in basses compared to the monstrosity he is playing now.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Correct. I saw a whole bunch of shows between 84-88ish and Phil was on the Modulus most of that time. Bob was also playing Modulus I believe?

Yup. At first I thought it was a strat, which made me laugh having seen with Jerry playing a strat and Bob on humbuckers.

Back to the Wall of Sound: the only time I saw something remotely similar was Oxford Plains, July 1988. They had a PA with a stack of Meyer subs 1 wide and probably 60' high on each side of the stage. For those who don't know the concept behind a line array: a regular speaker propagates a wave as a portion of a sphere and the sound drops off exponentially. If you stack up speakers one wide and at least as tall as the longest wavelength you are going to throw is long, the physics change and it propagates as a portion of a cylinder, with less spill up and down and a linear fall off. That's why Phil had two 40' stacks. It's also why that weekend in Maine sounded so amazing. The bass was insanely deep and quick as hell. These days PAs are configured as line arrays in the mids and highs, which adds considerably to the intelligibility as there is much less comb filtering going on, but they don't do bass line arrays, which is a shame because it really is a profound bass experience.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

OK, fair enough, but I dont think he was playing an L-2000 because it sounded like a Jazz bass (which it doesnt). He was playing it because, as you say, it was the hottest new active bass out there at the time and he probably liked the way it played, looked and sounded at the time. Which in my opinion shows he had better taste in basses compared to the monstrosity he is playing now.

I assume you mean this:
Invalid Link Removed

He's back to a Modulus these days.

BTW, I like your sig. In the 80s, I used to drive a cab in Boston from 4pm to 4AM and then come home, chill out and then practice until 9AM or so through headphones. I practiced a lot of slap stuff then, and one day one of my housemates asked when my new novel was going to come out! They used to hear me when they were waking up and assumed I was typing away madly.

 

[CDweller]

No satellite for me...the fewer 'subscription' services I have, the happier I am. I'm glad that there are places for people to hear music that isn't genre-ized. I grew up in the greater Boston area, and good radio was one of the perks. It meant the 'big' stations like BCN were still DJ/local chart driven and that there were also plenty of college radio stations to play stuff that was on the fringe.

Of course, it did mean that I got a fair amount of Aerosmith, J. Geils, Cars, and Boston, etc...which would make anyone a bit squirrely.

Not knowing any better at the time, me and my buddies couldn't believe how good Joe Perry's lead was on "Train Kept a' Rolling", thinking it was actually recorded live, and actually him... And "First I Look At The Purse" from the J.Geils live album was one of the first songs we covered in my little band of 15 year old budding musicians...

But I digress; Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad is playing in the background on my laptop off the Dec '71 concert Mr. PW so graciously posted, and although I'm out on the road in a hotel room a thousand miles from my home, all is well for the moment. I've been marveling at Jerry's touch on his notes; he has the dynamic grace of a classical violinist. And a killer tube amp, no doubt.

*edit*: listening to Scarlet Begonias from the '76 concert Edwin Hurwitz posted; fine, fine form.

 

[mellowinman]

This thread made me really happy.

Music is art, and art should be about creativity and expression. I can't think of too many bands that did that better than the Dead. I saw them in the eighties, and I'm pretty sure it was the best live concert I ever saw. I don't even think they had an opening act! I remember this hippie girl in a long skirt, just dancing and dancing, and how I only knew about three of the total songs they played, and yet I just loved every minute of it!

By the end of the decade, I had every studio album, lots of live stuff, and tortured many a roommate with high volume Grateful Dead magic.

Musically, they were the BOMB!

Garcia is probably the most criminally underrated guitar player in the history of music. He could play a mean acoustic, and he was no slouch on the electric, either. He was never trying to impress anybody; he was just expressing himself honestly through music, and that's something more of us should strive to do.

What a great band!

 

[Blue]

Hell yes! To this day I will never understand it when bass players tell each other that they need to follow the bass drum. No you don't.

Could be ... I spend years doing blue grass on a dog-house with no drummer (hear the Banjo as the back-beat snare) ... but at one point (years later) a rhythm guitar player told me that once he started playing in at way that "makes the drums louder" .. he started getting more gigs.

That rung for me. To this day, I insist on a good drummer, meaning: solid rhythm - as in knows what we want - and with a steady tempo (really critical) ... then i stand close and watch his kick-foot and work to sync his rhythm to the melody, watching the 3rds and 7ths.

Gimme the groove and I'm happy. Thank you Phil (Lesh) .... and Paul (McC') and Bill (Wyman) and Chas (Chandler) and Charles (Mingus) and Jack (Casady) and Jack (Bruce) and Bruce (Thomas) and ...

 

[Blue]

What a great band!

... but they could profoundly suck. I was occasionally embarrassed for them (Houston 1980 stands out).

 

[N.F.A.]

I would give almost anything to still have the boys playing, even sucky shows. I did lots of shows between 80- 95. Nothing else live comes close IMO. I guess my user name here on TB explains it all to my fellow Deadheads...

 

[BurningSkies]

Yup. At first I thought it was a strat, which made me laugh having seen with Jerry playing a strat and Bob on humbuckers.

Back to the Wall of Sound: the only time I saw something remotely similar was Oxford Plains, July 1988. They had a PA with a stack of Meyer subs 1 wide and probably 60' high on each side of the stage. For those who don't know the concept behind a line array: a regular speaker propagates a wave as a portion of a sphere and the sound drops off exponentially. If you stack up speakers one wide and at least as tall as the longest wavelength you are going to throw is long, the physics change and it propagates as a portion of a cylinder, with less spill up and down and a linear fall off. That's why Phil had two 40' stacks. It's also why that weekend in Maine sounded so amazing. The bass was insanely deep and quick as hell. These days PAs are configured as line arrays in the mids and highs, which adds considerably to the intelligibility as there is much less comb filtering going on, but they don't do bass line arrays, which is a shame because it really is a profound bass experience.

I was at that run of Oxford shows. Little Feat opening up. I seem to remember the band being upset one of the nights because an ultralite buzzed the crowd (I think during Birdsong). And yes, that was a ridiculous PA system. It was also one of those places that I got to see the band from everywhere from the very front to far back of the space.