Grateful Dead Music Forum

OK, if he played at such a stage volume to saturate his JBLS, my question is: how did he do that? I have a Fender super-six head (essentially a 100-watt twin reverb head) and two K-120s - and, even at big outdoor gigs, if I turn the amp past '3', bandmates complain, and it is indeed ridiculously loud - so how did he function on stage at that volume?

I sat in the front row directly in front of Jerry at the Boston Garden on May 12, 1980. I stood up during a solo and the bottom JBL was aiming right at my head. I decided to sit for the rest of the show! It was quite loud indeed. lol

I had front row in front of him several times over the 70s/80s and his stage sound was very loud, buy very, very good!

I had to move back from the front at many a show after the first set, depending on the stage height. I just couldn't take the volume sometimes.
The two big factors that allowed Jerry to play so loud (except for the size of the venues) is that the rest of the band was very loud too and Jerry had his speaker cab strategically located so it didn't hit his ear directly or anyone else in the band. They were so loud that sometimes (most times), Phil had a monitor to hear Jerry and keys well.

The other factor that comes into play here when it comes to band mates, audiences and playing out etc., is if they are not into very loud playing and the audience is not into JUST listening and dancing, then you have a problem.

If we play a private party, the folks want us really loud. So loud that they have to walk pretty far away to talk. They don't mind at all.
If we do a bar (which is not my fav), we cannot play at our "very loud" volume because people want to talk in that small space as we play. The tone does suffer then, but the folks bangin back the booze can't tell
It's all about who and where.

Sha-na-na!

I was lucky enough to get front row center tickets one time to a show at the Long Beach Arena. The monitors were loud enough that a lot of the time I was hearing them and not the PA.

It was a very different experience than any other dead show I attended, as the sound was definitely different, and I believe in the tune up that led into Let It Grow they actually either muted the PA or turned the levels down quite a bit, as the band did a bit of noodling that didn't show up on the audience tapes from that show.

There are quite a few soundboard recordings of the Dead where for the first few songs Jerry's guitar isn't even in the mix. It's barely just bleeding thru the other mic's. That tells us that for those songs, he was plenty loud enough with his own rig to completely fill the venue. Then eventually he'd get blended in. The real simple proof of how loud he was is that he blew E120's, and often. That means loud.

B

"My hearing was my gift to Jerry" (or something to that effect)- Phil Lesh

He was loud up until the early 90s and at that point I think they tried quiet to stage. They went to in-ears and cabinet modeling to get the speakers off the stage. Once again the dead were ahead of their time

I try to let the pa do the heavy lifting and keep the stage as quiet as possible. In small to mid sized rooms its very easy to throw off the entire mix because of a loud stage.

I know many purists believe that driving the jbls hard to break up is the only way to get that authentic sound and I think thats true. I don't think its practical however for many musicians. The only way I would consider it would be in a large room with a high stage 4-6' with the speaker cab tipped back.

I use the earth drive set with very subtle distortion right before the pre amp. It seems to me an effective way to make the speaker sound like its "breaking up" while keeping it at a reasonable volume. My thoughts anyway. ~Bill

so out of the effects loop, or in it, but last?

I personally don't have a gig where I can get away with stressing any JBL, even a D120, well maybe a D120. But I also have to find other ways to light it up, ways other than blasting a my K120.

B

I use Beyma Liberty 8s and a MC2100. I doubt that I stress those speakers too much. I use the Earth Drive in the loop, usually on all the time. The drive is set really low to just give a bit of break up. It works great I just wish I has a second to use for higher gain too.

Earth drive out of the loop right before the preamp.

Yep... I take the earth drive out of the effects loop and literally place it on top of the rack and use a patch cable to connect to the preamp. I leave it on the entire time and by having sit on top i can make simple minute adjustments on the fly without having to show my plumbers crack to the audience.

Dose anything funky happen when you flip on the loop and run all the effects through the post loop Earth Drive?

Nothing funky at all. A transparent switch.