JBL - Greatful Dead's Wall of Sound

jdandy · #1 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 12:44 PM

Everyone knows the Graetful Dead used McIntosh amplifiers exclusively. They also had the same dedication to JBL speakers, too.

US Blues · #2 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 01:49 PM

Dan, you've hit on a topic that is close to my heart! The WOS ran at 26.4 KW's, Ivan's Room is a few KW's short of equalling the Wall. The tweeters were made by Electrovoice, all the cone speakers were JBL's.

A few bits of audiophile related and other trivia:

1- John Curl was an engineer for the Wall, he designed a special preamp for the vocal microphones (using B & K capsules) used in the system.

2- Curl hired a brash young engineer named Mark Levinson to build the mic preamps.

3- Levinson used to sell his early gear by setting up his amps driving JBL speakers stacked up as they were in the Wall.

4- The Wall was so heavy that it required a specially designed stage to hold all the weight. There were two stages constructed, so that one was in use and the other was being set up at the next venue on tour. The stages leap-frogged one another around the country.

5- People I have spoken to who experienced the Wall in person said it was utterly amazing. One fellow told me that he did not realize how loud it was until he tried to have a conversation with the person next to him- clean sound!

6- There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. And sadly, there never will be again.

7- The WOS is why I own McIntosh gear. Until his departure Jerry Garcia's on-stage guitar amp was an MC2300.

Vintage Pete · #3 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 01:54 PM

This photo is always awe-inspiring to see!

Pete

jdandy · #4 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 02:03 PM

US Blues........Thanks for that. Great tidbits of information. Of course there was the Grateful Dead's resident chemist Owsley Stanley, too. I drank a little of his punch at a Winterland Grateful Dead concert in 1969, and wasn't right until well into the next day. Phew!!! Those were some wild days in San Francisco back in the late 60's.

US Blues · #5 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdandy

US Blues........Thanks for that. Great tidbits of information. Of course there was the Grateful Dead's resident chemist Owsley Stanley, too. I drank a little of his punch at a Winterland Grateful Dead concert in 1969, and wasn't right until well into the next day. Phew!!! Those were some wild days in San Francisco back in the late 60's.

Dan- maybe everything WAS right until the next day.

A couple more tech tidbits- the WOS was actually a collection of six separate systems that were stacked together. There were 2 guitars, a bass that could play quadrophonically (each of the 4 strings had it's own MC2300 and could be played through half of each stack of bass speakers), keyboards, drums and vocals. Each musical voice had its own system and there was no mixing of sounds, except for the drum microphones and the vocal microphones, but they stayed within their own system.

The speaker arrays were designed as transmission lines, with the entire Wall operating as a point source to minimize phase distortion. The bass speaker towers were the physical height of the lowest note available on a 4 string bass- 38 feet. The center speaker cluster produced the vocals and the keyboards had a smaller curved speaker array on stage left (in your photo the keyboard cluster was not yet finished, note the curved stacking of individual speaker cabinets).

PS- For the faithful, or folks with deep interest in technical matters, there is a wonderful book called "Grateful Dead Gear" that details the guitars, basses, drums, PA's and recording dates of the band through their 30 year history.

woodlander · #6 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 04:40 PM

Things like this are a real reminder of a different time. I lived on the East Coast at that time and I never saw the Dead live. I wish I had heard the famous wall of sound.

Sometimes, I miss the 60s.

Masterlu · #7 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 05:39 PM

Me too...

Masterlu · #8 (**permalink**) 05-20-2009, 05:41 PM

My good friend Allan Markoff provided the JBL speakers & Mac Gear at Woodstock. He is mentioned in the "For the Love of Music" book.

michaelhigh · #9 (**permalink**) 08-23-2010, 12:13 AM

I saw the Dead 2 weeks before Jerry died... not to sound morbid but he seemes kinda lifeless that night... This was after the Dead had fired off an open letter to their fans basically saying: "don't come to the shows without tickets expecting a 'miracle' (as it were)... This was also after a roof collapsed in MO on a bunch of fans who had climbed onto a roof to see the show from an outside-the-venue location. Much disintegration and gate-crashing abounded at that time. 7-6-95 was the STL show, my birthday I might add.

vintage_tube · #10 (**permalink**) 08-23-2010, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelhigh

7-6-95 was the STL show, my birthday I might add.

You're only 15???

Bob

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