And here I thought that the world was at peace when you finally gave your respects to John Mayer. Only, it turned out to be a different Mayer... Meyer Schmayer
Anyone have any add’l info re: Phil Lesh‘s short-lived use of his G&L L2000e bass in 1982? Which dates did he use it?
Earlier today I listened to 6/4/70 (Fillmore West). What a great show. Highlights includes Hard To Handle, Me And My Uncle, Casey Jones, Attics Of My Life, It’s A Sin, In The Midnight Hour, China > Rider and New Minglewood Blues. The latter in particular is a very interesting version. Bobby just goes off on it. His voice is fantastic and he carries the song in a way he hasn’t done before or since. If this isn’t proof of how great of a singer he was then I don’t know. It's also played very uniquely. There is quite a lot of bounciness to it. Overall a fantastic show with lots of energy. Currently I’m finishing up 12/10/79 (Soldiers' And Sailors' Memorial Hall). This show has been quite spectacular so far, the second set in particular is a treat. An amazing Scarlet > Fire opens it up and then comes Easy To Love You, a fun little Brent tune. The Let It Grow > He's Gone is amazing and the Drums > Space that follows is like porn in sonic form. The band sounds great and they deliver on some quality musicianship.
Agreed! Is this better? I dream of a future bootleg series release focused on these rehearsals and a couple of the better Dylan/dead shows, or a collection of the best of performances Side note; the 6 cd fat boy was no small accomplishment in the day, until I discovered “books on cd” cases and began scouring yard sales for them!
Yes, and I think that the Dylan fans might actually like the rehearsals. They are something special and should easily fit within the bootleg series style. If their pride can handle Garcia teaching ol Bob his own songs that is...
I felt the difference John Meyer's subwoofers made in the main PA at MSG: 4 - 6 September 1979. No kidding, the Garden was vibrating mightily during drums on the 5th in particular, what a great night!
Phil used a Fender Jazz in December 1981 (see DaP 20, for example) and there's a photo online (google Phil Lesh G&L 2000; should be your first hit) of him playing the G&L on May 22, 1982. There's also a photo of Phil playing what appears to be the same bass in Jamaica in November 1982 in David Gans' and Peter Simon's Playing in the Band. I don't know if he played it every show during that period, but this should give you some rough idea. While the G&L is essentially a Fender product (I say that only half in jest) but with soap-bar pickups instead of single coils and overall, generally better craftmanship than most Fenders (certainly of that era), it does have a beefier tone than does a Fender Jazz. My first show was in April 1982, but I couldn't tell you what bass he used. I was more interested in the sound it was making than anything else. My guess is that Phil became interested in 6-stringers in '82 or '83 and moved away from four-stringers as a result.
"more notes" Edit - I came across that quote trying to find out exactly when he got the six string; it seems he first played a 6 string on 12-26-82. Per the GD gear book, he saw a picture of Modulus founder Bob Gould in Guitar Player and called him, and the resulting instrument was first played on that date. Grateful Dead Gear
That's one potential outcome. Actually, I believe that Phil's use of six-string basses resulted in a change to his playing style and, by my reasoning, not necessarily for the better. One of the trademarks of his playing in the late '60s and through the early '80s was this sort of loping with large intervallic leaps and bounds. On a four-string bass, the only way to do this is to shift positions by fairly large amounts. However, on a six-string bass, these widely-spaced intervals can be achieved by relatively minor position changes or even within a single position by simply crossing more strings than one has available on a four-string bass. Once one begins to understand this mentality, it's almost inevitable for one's playing to become somewhat more linear/scalar than intervallic. And not only did his lines change, but the disparity of tone on a six-string bass becomes more pronounced. The "thickness" of a note played on a low B string can overwhelm notes played on the high G or C strings due to the tension balance of most six-string sets.
See my edit, the link has an expanded version of what purported to be why Phil made the switch: "Mostly it enables me to extend my thoughts in both high and low registers."
Keith is my favorite, so I'm biased, but in some ways I like that he often just sits out. Sometimes the band needed some sparseness in the music (particularly any time Mickey was with them). I like Brent too but sometimes it seems like he overplayed, and that's not really something Keith could be accused of.
I don't doubt that one of the primary things he liked about the 6-stringer was his ability to do just that. But I stand by what I hear as the reality in that his playing style in the 4-string range of the 6-string bass changed due to his ability to expand his tonal range within a single position or small position changes.
That's fair. I just like that Brent added a more varied keyboard palette, and he played a killer B-3.
1976-06-10 This hadn't occurred to me before, but the Dead in this period, especially this month, really sounded just like the JGB circa 1975-78. It's as if Jerry took nearly full control, or the band just assumed the beatific, laid-back aspect of his personality, more than at any other time in their history. And is it any wonder that Keith seems to be in his element here? He's loving the vibe and all that space to play in. Special mention of the Playin' chamber jam... that's what this is, Grateful Dead chamber music. Note how Donna modifies her part to suit the mood (which also goes to show that her Howl always was part of the grand plan). Nice transition into the new arrangement of Dancin', as well. I also like how this shows up at the end of the set. Particular songs or jams might happen at any time in the concert? What an idea! The Betty board is beautiful, but the Tobin matrix effectively blends it with just enough room echo and audience reaction--although sometimes you may not want to hear some yahoos shouting at your chamber orchestra. Where did they think they were, anyway?
Please forgive my ignorance here but I'm not sure I follow you (and I'm commenting because I WANT to follow what you're saying). It seems like you're saying he could play the same intervals on the six as the four, just without having to shift his hand position much or at all, and that necessarily leads to playing more linear/scalar. Right? If that's what you're saying, why do you think it necessarily leads to that? If it's easier to play those intervals with a six, why would he necessarily move away from them? Wouldn't he be more inclined to play that way now that it's easier to do on the six?
5.4.77 - The Palladium - New York, NY - matrix recording It's borderline unbelievable how good these shows are.
The SBD used in the matrix of 10 June 1976 is a single-channel mono board, which is all that circulated of this show from the Betty tapes.
You make a valid point that I considered in my initial post, so I can only offer my thoughts; nothing solidly rooted in what Phil may have thought: The disparity in tone from the low strings relative to the high strings on a 6-string bass that I mentioned in my post that you quoted makes those large intervals when played in close position/with no position shifts makes those riffs sound very unnatural. Speaking from experience, when I got a 6-string bass in ~2005, after playing 4-string bass for some 25 years, one of the things that surprised me was my ability to play almost 2 1/2 octaves in basically a single position. I began to think of the bass differently. While I didn't care for the tonal disparity between the low B and the high G and C strings, the ability to do more things (other than large inervallic leaps) all in one position was very new to me. It wouldn't surprise me if Phil had a similar experience. The difference being that he more or less adopted the 6-string bass while I played mine for about 4-6 months and then went back to 4-string. So, you could then ask: why didn't he just play those wide intervallic riffs the same way he used to? Well, I'm not suggesting that he didn't do some of that, I just hear his playing getting more linear/scalar on the 6-string. Nothing absolute, but with this new-found approach to playing, there were other ideas to check out and develop.
So what did he mean by "sounds 'flat'"? Lifeless? The quality of the recording is just lacking in some way? I'm assuming he's not talking about pitch.
1. That part I totally get and wasn't questioning. I think multiscale basses (particularly the more extreme multiscale used by Dingwall) do a LOT to alleviate this problem. To me that's the big advantage of a Dingwall, not just the 37" B string. But I digress... 2. I moved to five-string almost immediately after I started playing and have stayed with it. Maybe someday I'll go to six, but I think five does everything I want for the foreseeable future. (As an aside and sorta' going back to #1, I wonder if Phil has ever given any thought to multiscale basses?) 3. Understood. I think I better understand where you're coming from now. Thanks for taking the time to lay it out there.
