Grateful Dead

arrived today. Listened to the bonus disc first then the full show.

The audio quality continues to be outstanding. The show itself is solid, but I did not find it to be extraordinary. And I don’t care one bit that the songs are not all in the correct sequence. I prefer that to a long, continuous jam being chopped up.

I am interested to hear what others think about the newspaper reviews that were included with this release. I felt it was an odd decision at first, but after listening to the show, I somewhat understand it.

Mike - the Leafs are allowed a little slack after winning round one, but they already put themselves in a tough spot. The Panthers had a much tougher task beating the Bruins, but they remain hot. Gotta win game 2.

Vguy - sorry brother, but we now part ways. Taking the Oilers in this series. Good luck though.

Wow
Oro, that history lesson has totally schooled me in the coolest way.

Thanks for sharing your Phil Bombin' knowledge droppage.

Sixtus

I knew you would know this stuff Oro. In the list his first two basses he played with the GD are the ones listed as "location unknown". Big Brown is listed as in his collection. Nothing about any theft that I saw.
Now that's a GD specific post. Oro shoots, he scores! Thanks.
Cheers

Phil’s Basses you say, I wish I had one lol.
Actually, I wish I had the Alembic I have, but a five string with a variable rotary pickup selector instead of the four position switch, but I digress…

Didn’t look at what all he may or may not have used in the early years, but in 69 they started working on a ridiculous mod to the Guild Starfire II, which upon completion, he started playing after spring of 71. In the meantime he was mostly using a modded Gibson EB 0. The Guild became known as The Godfather, or more commonly Big Brown.
By the fall of 73 Mission Control was ready, and he eventually used both, often depending on if one was in the shop.
I guess Big Brown had especially delicate circuitry.
But he went back and forth with those until fall 79 when he switched to the Red looking Irwin that was like Jerry’s.
Interestingly, JGs was fully custom, while the bass was one Doug had already. But he eventually didn’t like the sound of that and perhaps more importantly, it didn’t hang or balance right.
I heard Jer never ended up sticking with any Alembic because of the balance?
Then in 81, Phil starts using a rad 67 Fender Jazz bass briefly before switching to a G&L 2000 which he played until later 1982, at which time he switched almost exclusively to Modulus Graphite 6 strings.
In late 89 he jumped again to Ken Smith BT 66s, while using a Frankensteined Modulus for midi, until having Smith modded MIDI basses for space etc. After that I’m not so sure…

Funny 1stshow mentions Brownie Stolen?
Phil mentions the 67 Jazz disappearing, but my understanding is he’s had, or at least has Big Brown.
Mission Control was thought to be stolen, but ended up being “misplaced” in the Dead’s storage somewhere where until 1995 when they moved to new digs. But, supposedly it still was not know of, and ended up in a storage bin that the owner couldn’t afford, so went to salvage. Sounds familiar….?
Can you even image opening some mysterious roadcase and finding THAT!!
Since then a Shop picked it up and redid a few things and sold it to a collector who’s had Rick Turner, Irwin, Wickersham etc all do restorative work on it in 2020…
There’s pictures and a brief write up on it in the cool book: Historical Axes: Guitars that Rock by Lisa S Johnson, which also includes the Pretzel Guitar!

EDIT: there’s a couple cool pics of some of Phil’s basses on page 202 from 5/9/2000 in Jay Blakesberg’s Between the Dark and Light.
Big Brownie is present, but no Mission Control.

Big Brownie was the nickname given to me by a couple of pals when we were 10 or so. It comes from a Felix the Cat episode about a misunderstood bear. The name just stuck. At that time I was unaware of the Grateful Dead. On a side note, I DO make a mean batch of pot brownies.

That's where they are all hiding. Oro.. any relation to the Irsay's?

....maybe that's where Big Brownie got his username from.

Postal carrier just pulled away from the curbside mailbox, and I ran out to find 70-degree sunshine, new daffodils blooming, AND DaP46 in the mailbox. Hope you all get yours soon!

Looked them up. This is the one right before Mission Control.
Also done by Alembic though and started as his red Starfire.
Alembic stripped the red color off and modified it heavily.
Started off with 12 knobs and eventually had 13 knobs.
Called "Big Brown" and is currently in his collection.
His first two are "location unknown". (Oro has it?)
Figures that he would love messing with mods and new stuff.
The inquisitive mind!
Cheers

....I believe that's "Mission Control".
BTW, the new Dune 2 trailer dropped today if anyone here is into that.