What are these?

[mijknahs]

What I'm saying is it's often times your "perception" of reality which is influenced by what's in your head (mood, etc.). Not necesarlily what's really going on (in reality).

I think the classic example is when Jerry was so upset with Phil's playing that he threw him down some stairs after the gig. Jerry was nutty at that time. He thought the music sounded like crap and was a struggle, etc. But when he listened to the tapes later, they sounded amazing. What changed?

[strumminsix]

Jerry was nutty about the pickups. I'll bet there is nothing wrong with those pickups that were replaced.

However, I do know that my guitar and rig sound a bit different (to me) depending on the day. Some days it sounds amazing. Some days I don't like the sound even though I didn't change anything. I guess I could just blame the "spirits" or the "energy". But maybe it's just my mood and setting?

Let's not forget other things like: temperature, humidity, voltage, your diet, your dental health, your colon health, your sleep, etc...

Soooo many non gear factors go into tone & perception.

[mijknahs]

Yes, your diet - including stimulants and depressants.

[tigerstrat]

I don't know.... Jerry had more than sweat coming off his hands. There was some seriously metaphysical chi energy stuff happening, and if you look into the work of Leedskalnin and how he was able to counter gravity with magnetism and harmonic relationships, maybe Jerry really was de-magnetizing those things.

He wasn't your ordinary guitar player. We're talking about channeling and stuff. I've felt for years that a major underlying force behind their jams and their musical might and boundless stream of creative ideas had something to do with the dead, I mean the spirits of dead people, ex musicians and muses and the like. The dead musical spirits that were grateful to find a channel thru which they could express themselves into this physical world. The music played the band. The Grateful Dead set up a real deal ceremony that invited that kind of light and energy to come forth, and thru them, thru their hands. Weird and obviously magical and powerful stuff happened at shows. Maybe I'm showing my colors here, but my experiences have forced me to be wide open to these kinds of possibilities.

Ever hear Bear's account of what happens to audio amplifiers when people high on DMT are in close proximity to those amps? The amps change, they perform differently, louder, cleaner, more efficiently, and this is detectable to the straight, scientific observer.

And don't forget that magnetic forces are still yet to be truly explained and understood. Science can explain the "what" in great detail, but not the "how" or "why".

Amplified music is some serious quantum shit... Food for thought....

Anyone who doesn't get this doesn't "Get It"! Cheers Brad! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my nomination for the Post Of The Year.

[mgbills]

3.9.81 ~ MSG. 18 yo kid hitchhikes with whackjob from Long Island down Route 17 in southern NY. Both whackjobs have cars (at the time I had a '69 Mach I). Didn't like the Dead. Wondering why I was hitchin'. Picked up by freaks in a barfy green Westfalia. Yikes. Freak show. Got in ...no tickets. Damn, just looked it up...a Monday night!

2nd Set China>Rider Samson, SOF, - Somewhere in there...it was all over. LSD taught me that Magic filled the air.

Jerry taught me it was real.

Brad knows. Thirty years upon my head (since that night)...and nobody could tell me different. And I've got a degree in Organic Chemistry & Physics. Go figure.

I wish I had to change my pickups! Maybe if I practice harder....

[mijknahs]

That's fine if you believe there was "magic" at shows when the band was "on" and that Jerry was channelling spirits of dead people or whatever... That deserves it's own topic but I think it's unrelated to equipment failures.

To blame equipment failures (or bad tone) to some elusive thing called "magic" or "channelled spirts" is what I take issue with. All we'd need to do is to simply test or measure one of Garcia's old pickups. I think David Fontaine still has one he got from Irwin. One thing I heard about about his old pickups is that they were very corroded (in a short amount of time).

I wonder if Jerry's pickups "demagnetized" as often in the real psychedelic era of the early 70's? Certainly the "magic" was there in spades! I never heard about him having to change pickups until we get to Tiger though...

Maybe it was the effect of the "new" spirits that started hanging around when the freebase and persian were in full swing?