[playingdead]

I was at this show, at Madison Square Garden on 3-10-81 ... they opened with Miss. Half Step, and right after the first verse, there was a tremendous reverb crash ... I was in the orchestra but couldn't see well enough to say what happened, but it sounds like his Twin heads just fell over. The band kind of stops ... then gets going again, he's sort of soloing over the whole next verse ... they fumble back into the tune, Jerry's distracted and forgetting the chords, but it's pretty clear that he's blown a speaker, possibly because of the reverb crashes, because during the A-D jam, you can hear it making this distorted crackling noise at certain frequencies, and he solos forever, fascinated with it, playing around with the high notes that makes it distort until Parish changes it out. Funny how it would interest him sonically like that, but very characteristic.

Audience recording:

http://www.playingdead.net/miss.mp3

[Tennessee Jedi]

Whoa
that was nuts.
Wonder why they just didnt stop and fix it ?
Would have scared the crap out of me - you know it was loud on stage ....

[Pete B.]

See the thread in the Mississippi Halfstep song forum titled, "'Verb Crash..."

[Pete B.]

...it's pretty clear that he's blown a speaker...

From "A Long Strange Trip" pp.539:
"The sound seems a little ragged, and Parish, a slight smile of satisfied comprehension on his lips, calls over Ram Rod, picks up a power drill and a new speaker for Garcia's rack, and with Ram Rod behind and himself in front, replaces the speaker in about forty-five seconds. The sound is now pure and sweet, and he swaggers slightly as he returns to his cave."

[jenkins]

Im not so sure that it is a blown speaker.
The last time I blew a speaker it sounded WAY worse than that. It sounded like playing thrugha broken garbage can or something.
It certainly didn't give me just a little extra distortion whn I went to the high notes. But when that happened to me I was playing on a amp with one speaker. I dont know what it woudl have soudned like if I had 3.

Im thinking maybe something is loose on his speaker? maybe a dustcap or something like that. Maybe even one of his speaker clamps that hold his speakers in place??

couple other things I noticed.
1. The reverb crash is way louder than everyone else in the band. The whole band sounds like they are behind the reverb. That leads me to belive that it was actally some sort of reverb unit they had for the PA which fell over, as opposed to Garcias twin reverb head. If it was Garcia's heads making the crash we should hear the rest of the band sounding the same and the crash covering up Garcia's guitar. But instead we hear it louder than every instrument.
2. Garcia didn't even use the reverb on his twin reverb heads. He plugged into the normal input on hiw twin, which is the side that has no reverb. His heads were heavily modded so itis possible he was usig it. From the mid 70's on he used outboard reverb units. He used a lexicon pcm 90 until the eary 90's when he swithced to the real tube reverb unit.
In 81 I am fairly certain he was using digital reverb with a pan pedal that would bring the amount of reverb he wanted in and out of his signal.
He was doing this but I am not sure if he was also using the reverb on his twin heads. I really don't think he was using it.

Why didn't they stop after miss.1/2 step to fix the blown speaker? They went straigh into franklins and than stop and go into me and my uncle. On the intro of me and my uncle you can still hear the distortion when he is hittingthe high notes.

Very interesting playing dead. That sounds like an awesome show to have been at.

[strumminsix]

Blowing a speaker can sound anywhere from nothing to awful. And depending on which speakers were mic'd could have a huge effect on what the audience heres.

Without video I cannot say for sure..

However knowing Parish & Ramrod replaced it I can only assume it was shot...

[jenkins]

hey strummin, how do we know that he changed the speaker? IS that quote form a long strange trip describing this song on this show? I dont know.


Do you still hear the distortion on the intro of me and my uncle?

[strumminsix]

hey strummin, how do we know that he changed the speaker? IS that quote form a long strange trip describing this song on this show? I dont know.


Do you still hear the distortion on the intro of me and my uncle?

oh I made a BIG assumption that the quote was from the show.

Plus per advisement they used those clips to allow quick changes.

All I can listen to is thru cheap speakers so I don't hear any of the crispness others may be hearing.

But I do definatley hear the loss clarity, decreased headroom and some clipping. All can be attributed to a speaking going or rubbing badly.

[tigerstrat]

2. Garcia didn't even use the reverb on his twin reverb heads. He plugged into the normal input on hiw twin, which is the side that has no reverb. His heads were heavily modded so itis possible he was usig it. From the mid 70's on he used outboard reverb units. He used a lexicon pcm 90 until the eary 90's when he swithced to the real tube reverb unit.
In 81 I am fairly certain he was using digital reverb with a pan pedal that would bring the amount of reverb he wanted in and out of his signal.
He was doing this but I am not sure if he was also using the reverb on his twin heads. I really don't think he was using it.

Another odd notion. Didn't use the reverb? A Lexicon PCM 90 in the 70's??? What is the source of your information? Can you link to a pic? ...Possibly a late 80's development, but I am still very doubtful.And finally, JG is plugged into the reverb channel of his Twins in every photo I've ever referenced, 70's/80's/early 90's. Rarely, it is the BF head instead of the SF, but its always the reverb channel (2nd from the left, when facing the amp)

[Pete B.]

Guys, I wanted to share that quote (as it's kinda on topic to this thread), but 'didn't mean to mislead... That is a direct quote from the book, but it was a generic observation of the crews prowess, and not exclusively from that night (I think the quote was dated to a specific year/tour, but not exclusive to a specific night).
Still... I kinda picture Big Steve blowing the smoke off the bid'niss end o' that power driver as they returned to their cave.

I was also there at MSG that night!

[Jerry1996x]

WHOLY SHIT. My cab has been making that annoying crackling noise for months! Are one of the speakers blown?????????