Author Topic: Grateful dead (Read 1005 times)

jacko · « **on:** September 16, 2004, 02:18:57 AM »

My mum has been emptying her house and gave me an envelope full of old pictures I had stuck above me desk when I was fairly young. This one of the dead was probably cut from International musician and recording world around 1978. I guess the gig to be around 1974. that's some sound system.

graeme

palembic · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2004, 02:43:10 AM »

Yep ...the buiders of that rig don't do it anymore. They concentrate on building bass-guitars now!

Paul the bad one

PS: you have to admit that it IS a funny sight: a wall of H 15m x W 30m and as you can see they put a MIKE in front of a cone ?!?!?!?!?!
For amplification?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?

adriaan · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2004, 03:10:28 AM »

Paul,

Perhaps the wall of sound was miked so they could record the show? Not sure if this was a PA system with someone responsible for the overall mix, or more like a separate PA for each player - then there would not have been a main mixing console where all signals came together.

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2004, 05:36:02 AM »

Hi guys,
The vocals on the Wall of Sound came out of the curved section of smaller speakers (I'm guessing 10s and 2 dome tweeters) flying above the drums.
I saw this setup live a couple of times in the early 70's at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. I believe the mixing desk out front was 2or 3 Shure M-67 4 input mixers chained together.
Mike

lbpesq · « **Reply #4 on:** September 16, 2004, 08:02:21 AM »

I was present at both the unofficial unveiling of the Wall (Winterland, February 1974), and the official unveiling (the Cow Palace, March 1974). After the Cow Palace concert, the audience, on the way out, receievd a free 4-song single size 33 rpm sample of tunes off the forthcoming dead family albums. All this for $4! Times have changed.

My favorite factoid about the wall is that the tallest colume was 32 feet high. Why 32 feeet you may ask? Phil's bass was quadrophnic - each string had a separate pick-up, each going to its own Mac 2300 power amp. The low E string, played open, put out a wave that was 32 feet from crest to crest. The idea was to produce an entire wave, not just a part of it. The wall took so much time to set up that the Dead had to have two of them, leapfrogging each other around the country as they toured. It sounded incredible but, from what I've read, nearly bankrupted the band.

Bill, the guitar one

hollis · « **Reply #5 on:** September 16, 2004, 11:10:19 AM »

I saw it and more importantly, heard it four times in the early '70's.... I'll never be the same.

Thanks for the memory jump start.... I needed it.

hollis · « **Reply #6 on:** September 16, 2004, 11:24:11 AM »

Look at the head of Jerry's guitar... looks familiar don't it?

jacko · « **Reply #7 on:** September 17, 2004, 05:35:59 AM »

I believe it's 'the wolf'. Could be wrong though

graeme

hollis · « **Reply #8 on:** September 17, 2004, 11:31:12 AM »

Yeah,that's wolf (I do believe it was so named by the wolf cartoon decal/inlay below the tailpiece). I'm going on the assumtion that the decal is what's there in this picture, because Mr. Irwin hasn't removed the Alembic logo (just above the nut) yet....

bigideas · « **Reply #9 on:** September 22, 2004, 11:05:11 AM »

i'm sure i'm just blind (or it's the light), but why does it look like wolf only has a single bridge pickup?

David Houck · « **Reply #10 on:** September 22, 2004, 11:55:40 AM »

I tried to clean it up some.

jacko · « **Reply #11 on:** September 23, 2004, 01:07:44 AM »

If you check out this link
http://dozin.com/jers/guitar/history.htm
and scroll down to 1974 theres a colour photo of jerry playing wolf - looks like it might be the same gig as the one I posted. On this you can clearly see the three strat style pickups but the scratchplate looks to be very reflective which is probably why they don't show up on the black&white.

David Houck · « **Reply #12 on:** September 23, 2004, 05:49:23 AM »

Makes sense to me.

adriaan · « **Reply #13 on:** September 23, 2004, 06:20:29 AM »

And a few photos from Wolf I think you can see the peanut guitar in more detail. It's the one with the caption March and April Jer switches to a custom built guitar. Said to be a Alembic project.

Funny how you can become a deadgearhead, even when you never were a deadhead.

dela217 · « **Reply #14 on:** September 23, 2004, 07:26:08 AM »

I am a deadgearhead. I love all the gear. I just don't understand the music.