| Dead's Wall of Sound [message #311128] |
Thu, 10 April 2008 15:03  |
 Matt Stoody
Messages: 25
Registered: April 2004 |
Should Get Out More |
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I know this subject has been touched on a few times over the years, but I did a quick search of the archives and didn't see any reference to this link, so I'm posting these pictures which I'd never seen before. Very expensive endeavour, equally brave.
http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/730/an-insiders-look-at-the -grateful-deads-wall-of-sound
[Updated on: Thu, 10 April 2008 15:04]
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| Re: Dead's Wall of Sound [message #311141 is a reply to message #311128 ] |
Thu, 10 April 2008 16:03  |
Art Welter
Messages: 445
Registered: October 2007
Location: New Mexico |
Has No Life |
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Overall, the wall of sound was quite a feat, especially considering many arena shows at that time were using only 8 horns and 16 fifteen inch speakers or whatever the house system was.
Those Mac 2300 were a great sounding amp, but 128 pounds! The band I worked with in 1974-1975 had one, in the "rack"(some 2x4s) it was around 150 pounds. It was no fun lugging it up and down the stairs to the rehearsal basement. The stairs were too small for more than one guy to fit on, so we took turns being the mule.
As I recall, the "wall" used 23 of them, 600 watts per side. The output transistors were autoformer coupled, so like most tube amps, they couldn't actually put out a square wave.
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| Re: Dead's Wall of Sound [message #311271 is a reply to message #311181 ] |
Thu, 10 April 2008 22:39 |
Tom Heinisch...
Messages: 19
Registered: April 2005
Location: Long Island, New york |
Here Often |
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Anyone know how long the load in/set up took? With how many hands er sorry as they are often referred to back then "Roadies"?
Tom Heinisch
SK Systems, Inc.
Bohemia, New York
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| Re: Dead's Wall of Sound [message #311390 is a reply to message #311181 ] |
Fri, 11 April 2008 08:49 |
Jason Dermer
Messages: 671
Registered: January 2005
Location: Asbury Park NJ USA |
Has No Life |
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I know where 3 of the cabinets are.
Buddy Cage (NRPS) has two.
I have one.
None of these three have original drivers.
Hardtruckers (the original offshoot company that built the cabinets) is making replicas for modern use with guitars. I'm not sure how many of the old crew are affiliated with them, but I do know that they are GD licensed and approved.
www.hardtruckers.com
To loosely quote one of the old crew guys " When we broke up the wall I think half of the smaller bands on the west coast were running around with parts of it."
Regarding setup time, I don't know an exact number, but I do know that they had to have two complete systems so that they could leap frog them around, so I would imagine at least one full day.
[Updated on: Fri, 11 April 2008 08:52]
Jason Dermer
jason@asburyaudio.com
732-616-3463
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| Re: a long time... [message #311469 is a reply to message #311271 ] |
Fri, 11 April 2008 12:58 |
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Lee Brenkman
Messages: 793
Registered: April 2004
Location: Oakland CA |
Has No Life |
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| Tom Heinisch... wrote on Thu, 10 April 2008 20:39 |
Anyone know how long the load in/set up took? With how many hands er sorry as they are often referred to back then "Roadies"?
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It was pretty much a full day set up with the entire band crew, local crew and some serious scaffold building involved.
That and the associated labor cost, the trucking fuel cost (this was in the time of the first OPEC related "fuel crisis) and the "closed loop" nature of the system that eventually killed it.
By "closed loop" I mean that the system was purpose built for one band that had to learn how to sing on those differential microphone pairs, "mix" themselves from on stage etc. A "guest" artist with their own amp or say a percussionist who would have to set up in front of one of the guitar positions would have been in a bad way.
There were, as you probably know, not any support bands on "Wall of Sound" shows unless it was someone like NRPS using the same guitar setups and trying to stay right on top of those vocal mikes.
Set up and trucking costs dropped substantially when the Wall was replaced with Meyer JM3s, 650 subs and UM1s on the deck. And that put Dr. Don and Howard Danchik in the sound company business.
Cheers,
Lee
"if you can't hear Freddie Green, you're playing too loud"...Count Basie
"I'd like the monitors to sound like they've got chapped lips"...Tom Waits
"Grandescunt Aucta Labore"
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| Re: Dead's Wall of Sound [message #312009 is a reply to message #311937 ] |
Sun, 13 April 2008 10:10 |
John Schmidt
Messages: 159
Registered: March 2005
Location: Rohnert Park, CA |
Has No Life |
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| Kent Clasen wrote on Sat, 12 April 2008 19:40 |
When Ram Rod (RIP) died last year, the Grateful Dead mementos he had gathered over the years of being their roadie were auctioned off...
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These crack me up: http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r ?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo =3507451&iSaleNo=15537&iSaleSectionNo=1
$3700 for a single little "cube" cabinet, and no speaker!! I worked at Hard Truckers, and we used to build those dozens at a time. It was a way to use up all the circle "rounds" we had left over from routing speaker holes in all the cabinets we made, (we used a jig that would fit over the "rounds" allowing us to cut squares out of them). So the only material costs were the little CTS speakers we used, which I believe were about $10 each, plus getting some tie-die. Most the grilles were made of masonite, with open grille foam glued to the back, which allowed for a "press-fit". I've still got a bunch of those kicking around the house - maybe I should auction them off... 
John
[Updated on: Sun, 13 April 2008 10:12]
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