I picked up the Guitar World with this interview today. It gets interestinger:
Q: You have a profound awareness of what your guitar should sound like in Phish or TAB but had to figure out how it should sound in the Dead.
TA: Yes! And I took it very seriously. I wrote to John Cutler, who designed Jerry's rig, and talked to the guy who repaired his amps, and the guy who repaired his guitars. And I learned that Jerry's Tiger guitar was basically a Strat and he hung out a lot on the middle single coil, so I had one installed on my maple Languedoc and then I found that he used Seymour Duncan SH3s, and I put them in all my guitars. They can be humbuckers or split into two single coils- not just tapped, which isn't the same.
Also, discussing how he adapted his rig to fill the Jerry part:
"So Anistasio rented a New York rehearsal room and set up his stage gear. Then he began to isolate and play through every item individually to see what he thought. He played for hours a day for months on end. "The reason it took so long is to make any change I had to record and listen back, because I didn't trust the volume," Anistasio says. "I recorded each step: new cable, record; new switch, record; turn down a half a step, record. I would take a 16-foot and 12-foot cable and play for half an hour with each, then leave, wait until my ears cleared out then walk with headphones on and compare. I did that with settings too. For instance, I still have the compressor but it's way backed down.
"I changed from Vintage 30s to Tone Tubby hemp cone speakers and discovered they have a sweeter midrange. I switched pickups to Seymour Duncan SH3s and cables to George L. I switched from the Mesa Mark III head to a Bogner Shiva head. I got rid of all those Keeley foot switch things and took everything out of the signal chain, on a loop run by these old Bradshaw systems. And I love how it all sounds and how easy it is to use." "
The issue also has an excerpt from the new Jackson/Gans "This is All a Dream We Dreamed" book about the early days of the Dead, and a great 12-page story about Lennon's J160E that was recently found and auctioned off.
"Do not write so that you can be understood, write so that you cannot be misunderstood." -Epictetus
First show: 8/16/69 (Woodstock)
Last show: 3/19/95 (Unbroken Chain breakout)
Member of the Four-Decade Club
Charter Member, President & CEO of OAD (Order of the Ancient Deadheads)
