#159414  by Erbacher
 
Ok this is a pipe dream but in many ways is the final frontier for all us in GD land who never saw a show with the WOS...I keep coming back to the idea of crowdsourcing the materials and technical knowhow thru those still alive like Healy who could put together a reasonable working replica of the wall of sound...the idea being that there are enough carpenters and people who would buy sheets of 13 ply Baltic birch and help build the cabinets needed or even donate extra speakers or McIntosh power amps in order to create a monster system...I know I'm probably going to be laughed at for even raising the idea and posting it here but the possibilities for having one of these in a permanent location where it's tuned to the room and never has to be trucked around the country is pretty sweet... every Dead cover band in the country could book a gig there and have a spin on it...the Rex Foundation could offer hour long sessions playing Wolf thru it all donated to charity...it is one of the only things as deadheads we don't have available to us currently...it would be a great legacy of the deadhead community and to the power of the music and how many lives it has changed...I know this is a pipe dream but I keep having this thought and this is the place that I know if there is an ear to hear what I'm getting at, it will be here...my forte in life is not the organization of all this but I'm willing to give it a go if there is enough interest in doing the impossible haha...ok go easy on me with your replies...if deadheads donated items (posters, pictures etc) in addition to the materials there could be a pretty cool display area also if it did get built and a music hall found to house the thing...
 #159425  by kurt eye
 
Recreating the "voice of god" as Phil Lesh described it? What would be a more noble cause? If I win powerball consider it done.
 #159445  by TI4-1009
 
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 #159448  by Erbacher
 
Well that's why I titled it as a "crowdfunded" wall of sound...so the idea is to all chip in and by purchasing something affordable like a sheet of plywood or donating speakers and such, creating it doesn't take winning the lottery...we could call the theatre that houses it the "Voice of God Theatre" haha
 #159507  by mgbills
 
I'm in!
Although consider the Gear Hunt hours I've put in to get a sweet deal on an Mc2300...it may take some momentum.

But here's the first question...Are you on the East or Left Coast? The is really a metaphysical question. I found the Bus Stop on the East Coast and I find that Eastern followers have most of the personal attributes of religious fanatics. West Coast Heads (where I've resided for 30 years) are typically more GoWithTheFlow Heads, who still get to the shows...but aren't gripped with a near-death rage-a-hol stress blossom that is more typical of our Eastern Brethren.

I've blended out nicely (for me)...but we should know where you stand on the Fanatic scale.

:smile: :smile: :smile:

This post has no bearing on anything important or real in the world. Please check with your doctor if you are taking medication that may interfere with... Certain restrictions may apply....Force Majeure blah blah....this party may not hold that party at a party or otherwise accountable to said party ...in the event of a party all parties may or may not be...
 #159512  by Trecia
 
I’ve Had this same thought, I had two jbls and an mc50 kicking around at one point... and realistically that’s really all you would need :lol: But I let those components find new lives,, and my current gig wouldn’t permit the extra responsibility to do it right.

It would be a great seed for a festival, it’d be interesting to see what modern touring groups make of it. My guess is that only the most tye-dyed-in-the-wool heads would be up for playing it publicly. I would imagine there’s a band and tech-crew learning curve to a rig like that, which a lot of top acts might not have the time to invest. Maintenance would be a bear too. But if it sounds as good as they say it did in person who knows? If you build it....

I also joked about Mayer playing with the dead on this forum a few years before that happened... I wouldn’t take credit (or blame) persè, but you never know what’s possible... or be careful what you wish for... whatever lesson you want to take from that ; )
 #159513  by Trecia
 
Maybe one could start it small and grow it out as the festival or whatever it was grew. Maybe one day even surpass the original in size and inovations. Maybe we could all learn something cool from the process. Kind of like going back to the moon, we’re getting to the point where we’d have to re-learn some things.
 #159517  by Jon S.
 
Jeez, brahs, even the Grateful Dead moved on from this one!

Nice to reminisce, though.
 #159521  by Erbacher
 
I am serious to the extent that I can be...I don't have the funds to do it myself but really think this is the final frontier in the deadhead community...but there are still enough people alive with the knowledge that I think for the community (one of the best "communities" there is if you ask me), it's a way to really cap off an epic run...I don't really know how to organize such a thing though with all the parts and facets needed to actually realize this and see it happen...to tell you a bit about me I am a deadhead and a musician bc of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead...I started on banjo bc of Old and In The Way and then started on a ZB Custom Pedal steel and I also play acoustic and electric guitar...I own Brad Sarno's old pedal steel btw which was cool
to find out...my rig is a jerrified vibrolux reverb with most of the Jerry mods done by me and it could still maybe use a tweak or two but I would want someone like Waldo to do it but I can't afford it haha...from the vibrolux my signal goes into an MC50 then into a hard trucker style cab that i built with 13 ply birch plywood and it's got a 3/4" baffle that has been dadoed in and is housing an e120...hopefully a k120 will be in there soon...I have a bare bones single 12" cab ready for a speaker if anyone wants one I will make a deal on as it's just sitting around...it has two coats of a product called Nanoshield on it and is ready to gig with some clips and a speaker...I know the dead moved on from the WOS but my understanding is that it was due to cost and not sound fidelity...although the monitoring I think was an issue...my idea is to keep the basic look of the wall intact and most of the way it gets powered (bc of the McIntosh amps adding a certain sound quality and clairity)...and then to use modern advancements to tweak the things that could be improved upon (by using the remaining GD members input)...in my mind it would be as much of a museum and "temple of GD land" if you wanted to call it that...an experiential place where people could go and dance and hear a show and have it look like and sound as close to or better than the original...so there is some place that is an actual 3D physical form of a place that gives people an authentic GD experience...this is my pipe dream and with enough small donations it would be relatively easy to achieve and hopefully have around for a long time...I live right now in Cincinnati but I'm not totally tied down here...I have lived in other places and would be willing to move if the right opportunity came up...I do have a few friends in CA who are friends with the band and I may be able to call upon for connections if there is enough steam behind this to make it a reality...I might pass out if I could see a show with the band and their choice of guitarist for a show on a replica of the wall of sound...and to see this thing happen and done in such a way that it is a legacy project done by deadheads would be the icing on the cake...our love is real not fade away! Catch me?
 #159563  by Trecia
 
Location would be key. The original threw sound a couple miles they say, so you’re looking for some rural acreage and chill neighbors. Also you’d need storage/housing, some electrical repair wizardry, lots of spare parts etc. If you scale it up you’ll get all the bugs and feedback issues as it grows. You could prob play for a thousand people or so with just a few hundred watts and three or four speakers per line.

I would think you would need some sort of an angle on one of the key issues before you could get a funding pitch going very far, location, gear, know how, or a tie-in with a recognizable name.

It’s a different approach to live sound than is typically practiced today. As far as I can tell, each player had direct access to the mix in the “mains” and what you heard on stage was analogous to what the audience heard. And to do it right you basically ask the band to let the pa be their power amp and monitor, which might not fly with a lot of bands.

Maybe Phil could do a small version at Terrapin Crossroads, or I’m sure Mayer could do whatever the hell he wanted out in Montana. But I like your crowd sourced vision, defintely in the spirit of the Community.

Dream big. It will happen.
Just don’t spend your own money.
Last edited by Trecia on Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #159565  by ac4468
 
Ok let's start small with a club sized WOS. Who wants to donate the speakers Mac's an 3 miles of cable? :-) :smile:
In all seriousness this would make a great permanent installation at the Capitol Theater! They spent millions on their sound and lighting, what's another half million or so. Happy Holidays to all!!!
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