LeftyBassist.com

Have some recordings of Phil Lesh with The Grateful Dead as well as Further and PL&F. I was wondering if anyone knows how he is able to drop those thunderous bass bombs and what kind of rig he uses. I am pretty sure the trapped miners in Chile were able to hear and feel those concerts. Would that be an 18'' or larger? I have never heard anyone else do that.

Phil is currently playing a Jens Ritter Jupiter “Eye of Hours” 6 string bass and Eden amplification. I’m sure the killer Ritter active preamp and large body and hand wound pickups is a big start. The kind of bass you feel and hear at a medium to large venue is almost always 100% the house system or outdoor PA system. Huge amounts of power and huge cabinets. The stuff on stage is for his tone shaping and stage monitoring. I live in Lancaster right outside of Lititz Pa where the largest pro sound company in North America and Canada is. Clair Brothers and I have a good friend who worked there for a couple years and for say a leg of a North American tour for a band like Yes he would have to modify the power section of say 20 top of the line Crest amps for just the subs. There were also 2 or 3 of everything so while they are playing in one town they are setting up in another. Now I don’t know who Phil uses for live stuff but there is so much beyond Phil his basses, his amps that go into what you feel and hear its mind blowing. I think having the guy working the board on your own payroll when you’re the bass player is key. I love Phil by the way he is an incredible musician and composer and a hell of a nice guy.

+1 on P.A. support, humungeous amounts of wattage, really good subwoofer cabs and X-overs, and most of all the soundguy that knows how to put it all together for Phil.