Phil Lesh and his short scale Series II 6-string bass

[hieronymous]

OK, here's some video:


Dark Star excerpt


You definitely want to listen on good speakers or headphones for full Philzone effect! It's not the most dynamic bit but it's all I got! (well, I have a shorter clip from Uncle John's Band that I will post later) I wanted to try and capture his jamming style - he's not the type of player to play an ostinato under the other instruments - he usually modifies his part, presumably within the larger shape of the entire piece.


(Please note - this video isn't publicly listed - please don't publicly share on Facebook, etc.)

[rv_bass]

Very nice!

[edwin]

Thanks for the video! Early on (from about 15 seconds) he plays a line that sounds sort of like a quote from Terrapin.

[hieronymous]

Thanks for the video! Early on (from about 15 seconds) he plays a line that sounds sort of like a quote from Terrapin.

Nice catch Edwin! I thought I heard a bit of The Other One in there myself, before they went back to a more major, Dark Star tonality.

Here's another one - beware, dancing hippies in this one too!

Uncle John's Band

Jams like this one are one reason why I love the Dead - even in a happy song like Uncle John's Band they could insert a minor-sounding instrumental passage in 7/4 to build tension. I was into progressive rock (Rush, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, etc.) long before I got into the Dead and it was the proggy stuff that got me hooked!

[hieronymous]

By the way, I forgot to mention that Brian Rashap, a fellow Alembic user, told us on the "Alembic musical instruments" group on Facebook what the laptop in Phil's rig does:

The laptop monitors the humidity in room and changes the eq respectively.

Now that's cutting edge technology!

Here's a closeup of the rack:



And a list of my friend's best guess at what's in there:

[/size]1.Furman PWR rack
2. Wireless half space?
3. Not sure almost looks like a RockTron not sure…
4. Korg DTR-1 Tuner
5. Meyer Sound CP-10 Parametric EQ
6. Meyer Sound Galileo loudspeaker management system
7. Meyer Sound Galileo loudspeaker management system
8. Power amp?

[StephenR]

Monitors humidity from beer spilled in the Grate Room?

You probably noticed that when Phil plays the EQ graph displays all the high frequencies as rolled off. Thanks for the image and list of probable gear in Phil's rack, always been curious. As far as a power amp I am almost sure his cabinets have built in power amps, very common with the Meyer gear. The only time I have had the pleasure of playing through a Meyer rig was a handful of UBC benefits the Broken Angels did with Phil at Maritime Hall back in late 97 and one at the Fillmore in January of 98. I played the first 40 minutes or so of the set one then we would bring out Phil to finish set one and play set two. Meyer lent us powered cabinets for those gigs and we used my SWR/Groove Tubes pre to drive them. The low end on the Meyer gear was truly joyful to experience, effortless smooth reproduction of all lows and subsonic frequencies.

[rv_bass]

Comment for Hieronymous post 1675: Dave's Picks Vol.5 (UCLA '73) Uncle John's reprise is a good example of where they could go with an Uncle John's jam.

[hieronymous]

I ended up going to the free July 4th show - I was really surprised how few people were there - I guess because it wasn't billed as Phil Lesh (though he sat in with the various bands) people weren't interested? Or maybe they had family obligations - I know that was the case for at least two people. Anyway, the back outside area is really nice! They have a stage area you'll see in the video with what looks like a small PA (as in "speakers on sticks") - Phil used his Eden rig - Eden head, CP-10 Parametric EQ (I think) and two Eden cabs (both 4X10?). I shot U.S. Blues because it was the 4th of July!


U S Blues


And here's a photo - lighting wasn't ideal but I like this one!

Monitors humidity from beer spilled in the Grate Room?

You probably noticed that when Phil plays the EQ graph displays all the high frequencies as rolled off. Thanks for the image and list of probable gear in Phil's rack, always been curious. As far as a power amp I am almost sure his cabinets have built in power amps, very common with the Meyer gear. The only time I have had the pleasure of playing through a Meyer rig was a handful of UBC benefits the Broken Angels did with Phil at Maritime Hall back in late 97 and one at the Fillmore in January of 98. I played the first 40 minutes or so of the set one then we would bring out Phil to finish set one and play set two. Meyer lent us powered cabinets for those gigs and we used my SWR/Groove Tubes pre to drive them. The low end on the Meyer gear was truly joyful to experience, effortless smooth reproduction of all lows and subsonic frequencies.

Stephen, thanks for the story and insights! Good call on the Meyer stuff being self-powered, and so cool you got to be on the same bill!

Comment for Hieronymous post 1675: Dave's Picks Vol.5 (UCLA '73) Uncle John's reprise is a good example of where they could go with an Uncle John's jam.

I'll keep an eye out for that one - those come up used sometimes at Amoeba.

[jazzyvee]

This came up on facebook and sounds really good. https://www.facebook.com/deadvideos/videos/570040266508511/

[jazzyvee]

Just spotted this video of Phil playing his alembic with Carlos Santana on guitar.

[jazzyvee]

I can't seen enough to know if it's his short or medium scale bass.
But just spotted it on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/phil.lesh/videos/1112101902504448/

[mario_farufyno]

This bass really looks amazing and thanks for the video, great stuff.

[jazzyvee]

Bumped into this on facebook and thought the deadheads would enjoy it. :-0)
https://www.jambase.com/videos/?query=phil%2520lesh

[StephenR]

Thanks for the heads-up Jazzy (pun intended)!  The sneak peak previews are up on youtube, too, we watched the previews for the first set the last two nights and both were quite good. Still weird to see Phil with a Hartke rig. He runs a really drastic and strange EQ curve these days, too. But, as always he still plays his butt off!

[jazzyvee]

From what i could see it looks like he is using the bass with the new bridge design.