Grateful Dead Music Forum

Phil's been answering some questions on the Phil Zone board today, mostly about Jay Lane leaving Furthur to play with Primus, and their decision to go it with just Russo on drums, where he commented that both him and Bob remember "fondly" the days when it was just Billy with the Dead, but later clarifying that it was not a slam on Mickey to say that.

Someone asked why he started playing the Modulus at the Radio City shows and then stuck with it; his response:

"I discovered that the Ritter wasn't getting out front as well as I'd like; it sounded great on stage but not in the PA. I'm thankful I had the Modulus to go back to."

Interesting. I thought the Ritter was inconsistent to some degree, but that's the nature of bass. Overall I liked it, sounded great at 2 out of the 3 Ritter shows I've seen.

I believe he played the ritter @ barton hall, I had heard it before and liked it!
But @ Barton hall, the Bass was muddy not loud enough, I figured it was just playin in the barn(barton hall , sang playin in the barn either 80-81) although I heard it sounded great on Sirius

I will say that the Modulus-clone EMG pickups and preamp that I put into my new cheapo ESP backup sound balls-out awesome. Still waiting for last week's recordings to do some listening and further tweaking...

This thread needs this

I was at the Rochester show when he first started using the Ritter. It sounded OK, but it sure was the uglist instrument I ever saw any of the Dead use- and that includes Bob's Pepto-Bismo.

Any Modulus Bass is going to sound better than the Ritter. That is all!

The Ritter did have a nice mid-range punch to it. I was able to get close enough to hear it through Phil's speakers vs. the PA.

It just lacked the massive low-end of the Modulus.

Ritter = no bass bombs