#166312  by nuthatchwinters
 
have a very dumb question here, but here goes. early 70s Garcia had multiple twins onstage. curious how it works when playing through multiple amps. does he plug into one and then they just "daisy chain" off that? and if so, how did they do it? thanks MK
 #166452  by BoxOfRain
 
Hmmm, well, in the 67-71 wish period Jerry indeed daisy chained his amps. This did a few things sonically, because he ran his amps pretty much wide open, feeding the second input into another input actually added drive and harmonics to what is normally considered to be a relatively high headroom front end and power section....translation,,, very clean and loud. Secondly, I'm not sure how much consideration was actually given in those days to proper load and impedance. There were additional 2 and 4 12 boxes under those twins on any given night. This yielded in some cases large impedance mismatches which again added to harmonics, drive and overdrive characteristics of his sound at that time, might have been purposeful but more likely happy accident at first. Somewhere 71-72 the tube Mac's came into play with ( at least one ) Twin pre amped out.
By mid 73 ( Wall of Sound time ) gone were the Fender power sections and the Twins were used as pre amps only feeding tube, then solid state Mac's.
Curiously the speaker mismatch element survived, thrived and was utilized purposefully in Jerry's late 70's to 90's rigs with solid state McIntosh amps run at 2 ohms, something that again added harmonic complexity and tinkle ( almost like a gritty ghosting ) to all of Jerry's clean and distorted tones.
BTW, Brad Sarno hipped me to many of the McIntosh impedance variances that Jerry used, thanks Brad!
I play in the band Box Of Rain which is all about Good Ol' Grateful Dead 68-74.
In this video I'm running my rig ( two Blackface heads, Showman and Bandmaster, one Dripn Edge Bandmaster Reverb feeding 4/ D120's ) daisy chained ala 1971 with said speaker impedance mismatch.
https://youtu.be/Xuk_78qUAcY
Hope that this helps!
Pointclear, NikTheTrip, tcsned and 1 others liked this
 #166453  by smd1973
 
BoxOfRain your tone for Playing in the Band is totally sick. What are you using there?
 #166454  by BoxOfRain
 
Hi and thanks!
Bob Stirner here, I was using the fore mentioned amp rig plus a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Was set for Colorsound . The original Colorsound's were a huge part of his tone 71-72 ish. They have a particular sound and vocal quality but also a growl and output bump that pushes the amp harder. I believe I was also using a Strymon Brigadier for some delay and along with ( at that time ) a Boss CS2 compressor set at minimum squash.
I recently was turned on to the Wilson Tunable Colorful Clone Wah, clearly the finest and most thought out Colorsound Wah type I've ever used. It has adjustable growl, sweep, resonance etc, it IS the 70's Jerry was sound done more than right and is highly recommended to anyone seeking that particular tone.
Bob
Pointclear, milobender liked this
 #166489  by franklins_timmy
 
Not trying to throw the thread off topic but @BoxOfRain if you haven't gotten a Wilson yet take a look at Joe Gagan's Joe Sonic Wah. It's a Colorsound clone, I love mine.
 #166491  by BoxOfRain
 
Yes I do own a Wilson but I'm all ears and will check out the Joe Gagan!
Thanks!
B
 #166521  by nuthatchwinters
 
thanks for very detailed explanation Bob. thats an impressive set up you got there on stage. sounds great. playing is terrific. great stuff. thank you MK
 #166561  by BoxOfRain
 
Thank you brother, much appreciated!

Box Of Rain soundboard, Sherman Theater Summerstage 2017
Slightly different amp rig, Strat w/ Alembic blaster> Fender Bandmaster Reverb, Bluetron Bluedrive ( extremely massaged and tweak able Blackface circuit ), 2, 1-12 K120 cabs.
Here she is, warts and all:)

https://archive.org/details/box2017-08- ... d1t01.flac
 #166562  by BoxOfRain
 
I also played a Scott Walker Electro w/ lipsticks that show....shout out to Scott!
 #166568  by Alobar
 
Box of Rain I had never heard of your band. You guys sound incredible!!!!! Great vocals too.

Also congrats on that Revelator in your sig. That thing is unreal!