Grateful Dead Music Forum

Saw Melvin last night---from 5 feet away and slightly behind him. I could see his hands really well while he and the band tore through some great material. Cats and Don't Let Go were pretty noteworthy, as was TWLWMYou Do and Stop That Train...

You guys might want to check out his guitar player--his sound/style was pretty serious Jerry replication. He played an SG and had 6 effects pedals and a wah.

Played some very sick solos and some of his vocals were SPOT on, especially Evangeline and Money Honey.
Sounded like Jerry singing to an almost spooky extent.

This is from their site...http://www.jgbband.com/

Stu Allen

Guitarist-singer Stu Allen, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, joined Melvin Seals & JGB in June 2004 and appears on the 'Keepers of the Flame' album. With his eagerness to improvise and his commitment to making every performance unique, Stu has made extensive contributions to the jam music scene. In the early 1990's, he co-founded the Minnesota-based acoustic-electric jam band, Blue Man Jive. The Jive only produced one studio effort: Playing God ; however, the band was prolific in original material, which they unfolded and continued to develop through their many live performances. In addition, he is a founding member of The Jones Gang , Minneapolis' premier Grateful Dead tribute band, to which he still lends his talents. A resident of San Francisco, Stu continues to explore, experiment, create, and recreate, within a variety of musical styles. He can’t wait to get out on the road so he can come and play for you folks. Despite reports by some reputable publications, Stu has never played with Dark Star Orchestra (“but that sounds like fun,” he grins).

Coolest thing for me was getting to play on Melvin's rig. Nicest B-3 I ever played with TWO leslies!!

I received 6 cds of that benefit for Jerry a couple years ago and the setlist had JGB on it. Gave it a listen and was blown away how Stu has that Garcia edge to him, musically and lyrically. It was his singing voice that really struck me how his pitch rolls just like Jerry's did. Good stuff.

Coolest thing for me was getting to play on Melvin's rig. Nicest B-3 I ever played with TWO leslies!!

Thats cool.
Did you play your gig on his rig ?

Yeah man i'm interested to know how you got to play Melvin's rig. That had to be some experience. Tell us!!!

Don't know if Tour Pro is signing back on tonight, as we have a gig in a bit...but...I know the story.

Tour Pro is not only the keyboardist for theCAUSE, he also plays here and there with the Pittsburgh bands Fungus and Left For Dead. Fungus plays the Hard Rock Cafe here fairly regularly and they were opening for JGB Band featuring Melvin Seals. Anyway, The HRC (not Hillary Rodham Clinton, of course) wanted Fungus to provide the backline. They are a band who plays regularly for about 50-100 people and was getting paid less than $100/man for this show. If that were you, would YOU provide a backline? Plus they wanted cream of the crop equipment, which Fungus ain't got (most bar bands do not...i.e., Hammond B-3, 2 Leslies, Yamaha custom kit, etc...). SOOOOOOO, the HRC rented that stuff and Melvin had no problem with Tour Pro playing on the sick rig.

Killer!! I'm jealous...I love the B-3. Wish Tour Pro would man up and buy one - AND hire a dude to bring it out to every show!!

I'm QUITE SURE that Tour Pro will chime in soon.

What he said....it was very cool playing on that rig.

When I hit the lottery I'm gonna get me one of those set ups.

How much for a brand new Hammond ?
And the Leslies ?
We had a guy come out and play some with us.It was the F'ing coolest thing I ever heard.
He had a older Hammond that he had a new shell built for it.
He had a whole system for loading and unloading - but it was still some work !

Well TJ, cost depends on numerous factors. There's several models. Some are tone-wheel generated sounds and others are not. Most people want a B-3 or C-3 which are "tone-wheel" based rather than solid state...(I think--I am no expert here BTW).

FWIW, you can generally get an M-1 (which is solid state for free-200 bucks). You can sometimes find a tonewheel model called a L-100 which I play at the Thunderbird which IS a tone-wheel (just not as fancy as a B-3) but it has no "presets" and lacks a couple other features of a real B-3. I'almost bought one for 200 bucks, but, again, how to move it??
If you go to our site, you can hear the difference bewteen the organ sounds I'm playing at the TBird vs any other gig.

They also made a model "A-100" and I think a few others which are tonewheel models. As for "new" they don't make new B-3s anymore. I think they stopped in the 70s.I think they (Hammond-Susuki) might make a BX-3 and a CX-3 as I did play a brand new one about 8 years ago. It was 10 grand at the time. The Leslie 122 was listed at over 2 grand. FWIW, there's a lot of different Leslie models as well.

Ironically, at our gig last night, someone offered to sell me a chopped B-3 and a Leslie 122 which has been reconed, etc for 800 bucks!
I "know" the board, as it belonged to someone else I know and I've played it several times in the past. It is a beater and nothing like what you'll see if you go to the links I posted below. It does work and it sounds great...I'm stongly considering buying it, but I don't know how I'd ever use it out. Ever try to put a Leslie in a minivan by yourself?? I suppose I could prolly buy it, play it at home and/or resell it as it's worth at least 1500 if not more (that's what the original owner owes the guy who wants to sell it to me as he's never paid him back and the B3 is collateral for over 7 years now).

Just for the hell of it, I went to ebay where I usually see near mint B-3s listed around 5 grand.
There's one there now with a bid of just over 2 grand. I'll see what it sells for---prolly at least 3500. And that's without a Leslie.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

As for the present, I'll be continuing to use my Roland VK-7 and Motion Sound rotory amp. Much easier to move and sounds almost as good.


Check out these links and you'll see some pretty nice stuff with some pretty rich price tags. Nice websites too.



http://www.keyboardexchange.com/inventory.html

http://www.b3sforsale.com/Organs.html

http://www.b3sforsale.com/org1964pics.html

mttourpro wrote:As for the present, I'll be continuing to use my Roland VK-7 and Motion Sound rotory amp. Much easier to move and sounds almost as good.

That's a matter of opinion.

Is that Porta-B just a B-3 with no legs?? If so, I'd rather buy THAT for $1,450 and find a cheap 122, rather than a beat up B-3 that I wouldn't be willing to take anywhere....

Just my .02.

I'almost bought one for 200 bucks, but, again, how to move it??

Duh - groupies Dude !
The guy we jammed with was cool.He knew alot about the history of the Hammond."This guy did this the other guy did that";the Doppler effect ( I thought this was an Aston Kuthcher movie );etc.
He showed me how to mic the Leslie which was cool.Showed me the motors and all that.
Such a great sound !
Filled out the sound so good ....
Heaven.