Grateful Dead MC2300 WOS

CountD

Super Member
Just was wondering if anyone out there has or has seen in person a MC2300 that was used in the Wall Of Sound. I am doing research on how the MC2300 was modded with certain input/output jacks for the Wall.

The internet is full of speculation on how the inputs were (1/4) and the outputs as banana connectors - but never any real sources or photos. I have contacted Dark Star Palace on the web and the owner of the site has two MC2300s that were used on the WOS and he is getting around to doing short blurbs on these but this will not happen until after his new baby is born.

Someone out there must own a MC2300 (1YXXX) serial number (yes, I finally found out that most, if not all, the WOS Mc2300s were 1YXXXs) that can confirm what was going on with these. I have even contacted the legendary Bear from the Grateful Dead and am in contact with him. There are no modern photos on ANY of the 48 MC2300s used in the wall, and there must be someone out there with one in their collection or in use.

Thanks for all your help.
 
:lurk:
Please post whatever you find about the Wall Of Sound! It's a fascinating topic.

Thanks, and welcome to AK!
 
I don't have the answers but I subscribed to this thread as that is an interesting question and someone here will have the answer.
 
Thanks for all the support and responses - in just minutes! Yes, the Alembic connection is a good one, and that is where I am working The Bear angle - currently he lives in Australia and I wrote to him on a whim. He rarely gives interviews and imagine my surprise when he responded to me. He did a short interview in the McIntosh book - 'For The Love Of Music' if you guys saw that one and it was good but without many technical details. Yes, the UC Santa Cruz is (and will be) a huge help when it gets up and going but I have had short contact with them and it will be early 2011. The guy at Dark Star palace sent me there and he also tried to get some info on the Mc2300s from them. He strongly believes that the UC Santa Cruz archive will yield some purchase orders - but nothing yet. McIntosh has nothing on them as far as what exact serial numbers went where, but Dark Star's serial numbers are 1YXXX, so it would be safe to assume that most of, if not all, the Deads Mc2300s were in that first batch of 1Y001-1Y999 from 1971-1973/4. I just need to get some photos of the back of them so we can all nail this down. I think this is pretty important info on the Wall. Thanks again.
 
Hmmm, SOMEwhere in the mess of my home office I've got an Alembic flyer that has some pics of the WoS. I'll *try* to see about digging it out of wherever it's gone and hidden.
 
Slight aside: I was there when UCSC did the public announcement of the Dead memorabilia being donated. A couple of the Dead members showed up for the event, too.

One of the press asked Mickey Hart if he had any words of insight for the UCSC curator. To which he repled after a moment and in a matter-of-fact tone: "Yes. Don't lick the envelopes."

The place went up. Out on the lawn there was quite the smell of weed, too. Classic place to store classic stuff.

More useless party trivia: Did you know that Angela Davis (ex-Black Panthers) is a professor at UCSC and has an endowed chair?

Cheers,

David
 
Here is some interesting info on the Wall of Sound if you don't already have it. I loves me some dead!!!! note my avatar that's Phil's bass circa late 70's love all the nobs on it.

Image & Schematics

Not neccesarily about the Wall of Sound but cool none the less, this was one of the guys putting together these types of systems.

Bob Heil article

Article w/ pic of MC2300

Good music

Weir & his gear

Here is an article of Phil Lesh's bass from the Wall of Sound period and pic below.

Article on Phil's bass pic below is anothe of his bass's I think it's same era
 
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I feel as though I hijacked this thread earlier rambling on about Phil and his bass's when the original intent by the original poster was to find out more about the MC 2300. If so I apologize as I get exited when it comes to sharing what info I know about the Dead. Here is a Pic of the amp not sure if it was one of the originals
 
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Thanks for all the enthusiasm and keeping this thread alive. Anyway, I have been in contact with Bear and he can be a little cantankerous but he has given me some useful info. Right now I am trying to contact Steve Parish (Hard Truckers) to see what he thinks. This was the guy that put it all together, took it all apart, then put it all together again. Will keep you posted and hopefully I can come up with some real info as to how the MC2300 was tied in and some real photos of the rear of one of these. Can't believe that there are not any photos of the rear of these units or any of the 30 or so they used backstage or pics of these either. The mystery continues...
 
Most of the MC2300s used on the road get beat up fast and also are mounted in racks. When you find one with the stock rails attached that pretty much means it was not used by a band. Also means it is better condition!

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
Would John Curl know?

He used to be fairly active at AA though I've never seen him here at AK.
He's probably not too hard to track down.
 
I have one per the "House of Music" San Francisco, that has been restored to Mint Condition.

:banana::banana::banana:

I can take some pictures when I get home.

I am using it in my Home Theater/ 2-Channel Audio powering a pair of Bower & Wilkins 801 Series 80s. :music:

Shady :beatnik:
 
Ron-c - yes, you are right. It seems most of the ones, if not all that are claimed by their owners that they were used in the WOS do not have the rails, and this would be a serious clue. Also, being beat up is second and I have seen two that are claimed to have been in the WOS that are pretty beat. I have only seen one or two WOS Mc2300s that were used by the Dead that still had the rails - and these were in early period photos of the band.

Any Mc2300 that has a serial number later than a 1YXXX (ie, a 2Y, 3Y, 4Y, or last serial numbered 5Y) are too late to be in the WOS, and all four that I have tracked down have a 1YXXX serial number, and two that are confirmed to be of the Deads are 1YXXX. Most of the Mc2300s for the wall were purchased before May, 1974, and by this time the Dead had lots of Mc2300s, some from previous years that they just dumped on the stage with no racks, etc.

I kind of had a breakthrough yesterday when I got a mail from Richard Pechner who almost lost his life and hurt his back pretty seriously when a rack of MC2300s from the Wall almost ran him over in 1974. So if anyone is to have some real comments on them, this is the man. I am going to call him next week. He is famous for all the great photos of the Wall and if it weren't for him, we probably would not have any documentary evidence. If you have seen a photo of it, it is probably his. Good thing he was serious and took the time.

Anyway, if ANYONE has ANY Mc2300 that has a 1YXXX serial number and has some unusual plugs and/or mods to the back this would be of serious help. Also, if anyone wants to post a pic of their MC2300 on this thread, that would be great too.
 
Are you sure there were only 48 MC-2300s used? One of the articles says the system was 26,400 watts and used all identical 300 wpc stereo amps except 2 which were 350 wpc. Doing the simple math yields around 85 MC-2300s.

How did you arrive at 48? I guess you just have to ask Bear.

I have been a huge Deadhead since I was 16 (34 years), and I think this is a great and very interesting thread.

I can't believe you have been communicating with Bear. That is awesome!!

I have spent many years trying to duplicate the live Dead sound from the 70s in my home system. Spent thousands and am still at it.

I would LOVE to own one of those original Dead WOS MC-2300s. I'd drive it to DeWick's myself.
 
My guess is that all the amps were running MONO, which would yield 600watts each, instead of just 300watts.
 
In the liner notes FROM the CD "Road Trips" Vol.2 No.3 "Wall of Sound" this is what Dennis McNally had to say.

"In its largest incarnation, it had 641 speakers - 88 JBL 15", 174 JBL 12", 288 JBL 5", 54 Electro-Voice tweeters - which required 26,400 watts of power coming from 55 600 watt McIntosh 2300 power amps"

However if you read the notes on the Deads website about this release it says 650 speakers & 50 McIntosh's.

Road Trips
 
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