AudioAficionado.org - JBL - Greatful Dead's Wall of Sound

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- - JBL - Greatful Dead's Wall of Sound (https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=890)

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelhigh (Post 102653)

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.

I was a regular tour head from 77-90, but then things went downhill from there (IMO). After 90, I wouldn't travel far and wide to see them anymore. Just a few shows here and there. Besides the "seedy" tour scene, it was pretty apparent that Jerry was having difficulty, so much so that they began to turn Jerry's rig volume down. It was too painful to watch..He was on stage but he was in a different place. Very sad:tears::tears:

'Twas the anniversary of my mother's birthing of twins: Michael Hy and Michelle Jo, hence my moniker.

Me during my wonderfully misspent youth. 22 years old and living on the road. Life was good.

http://analogtubes.com/tubeshop/tnt.bmp

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnalogTubes (Post 161883)

Me during my wonderfully misspent youth. 22 years old and living on the road. Life was good.

http://analogtubes.com/tubeshop/tnt.bmp

Wow.. cool photo...what bands set up was that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by US Blues (Post 15689)

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. :tears::tears:

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

Great history and info guys!

I have always liked my Curl Halo amps, but there latest models seem somewhat cutback.

Was not John also involved with the THX stuff and the Mobile Sound 1/2 speed albums too?

I saw Kenny G one of several times at the Universal Amp Theater and they had MC gear, I no I was looking down on it. This was pre-digital cameras and cell days.

Great stuff, funny yet neat to look back.

Are there any really decent books that talk about all the names from the hey day like Bob Carver, all the companies, devorces etc he had, the Altec and more JBL history etc....

Quote:

Originally Posted by djwhog (Post 161910)

John Curl designed some of the early and most legendary of Mark Levinson gear including the JC2 Preamp. The ML2 mono amplifier began as a Curl design but was completed after Curl left MLAS

Quote:

Originally Posted by two dot (Post 161906)

Wow.. cool photo...what bands set up was that?

That particular one was Ted Nugent. I toured for about 15 years, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Santana, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Who, George Duke and Stanley Clarke, The Talking Heads and about a dozen more. After touring I went to work for Westlake Audio.

This particluar rig is a 5 way all JBL speaker system powered by bridged mono JBL 6233 power amps. The one in the picture is the stage left side of the "small" rig.

Greetings-
I have been reading this thread with interest- I am a big Dead fan, as well as JBL, and of course McIntosh.
My fav year of Dead music is 1974, when the WOS was in use. The music and the sound are unmatched.
Those of you who are Deadheads know that "Bear" Owsley Stanley passed away recently, and there is a fascinating interview with him online:
Remembering Owsley "Bear" Stanley | Grateful Dead
and more of the interview is avalable here:
20110330-Wed2000.m3u
Bear was really the vision behind the WOS even though he was not an engineer. He started with the Dead in the 60's, supplying them with the PA system they started with, which was his Macintosh home system at the time. In the interview he explains the whole story, as well as how he realized that the music scene was behind the times technologicly in those days and what he did to change that.
Joe

Joe...thanks for the link. Much appreciated.

Dave

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Before the Wall of Sound, their gear was transported in this famous Studebaker truck, which has recently been discovered. I thought this article from Hemmings Motor News might be of interest. I thought it was interesting.

A long, strange trip: Grateful Dead Studebaker truck found | Hemmings Blog: Classic and collectible cars and parts