As a founding member of The Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh has left an indelible mark on contemporary music. The band formed in 1965 and virtually wrote the book on East Coast psychedelic jam rock, fusing folk, rock, country and space-rock influences with ease.
Lesh played bass with the ‘Dead for its duration of 1965-1995, until Jerry Garcia’s death and subsequent disbanding. Lesh continued on in various incarnations of the group such as ‘The Other Ones’ and ‘The Dead’ and performed at The Grateful Dead’s 50 year reunion shows in 2015.
Phil Lesh and Friends was formed in 1994. Its ever rotating roster has featured dozens of amazing musicians such as Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Robben Ford and John Mayer to name but a few.
Lesh’s background as a classically trained trumpeter, in addition to studying composition in the incredible hotbed of the Berkley Music School in the early 1960’s, made a profound impact on his bass playing. His melodic and probing lines provided both harmonic support and exploration of the ‘Dead’s material. In many instances, Lesh’s parts intertwined with Garcia’s lead guitar as a psuedo second guitar.
Like many of his Grateful Dead band members, Lesh’s various eras of tone are revered and studied.
Lesh’s approach to bass gear follows the inquisitive nature of his playing. Lesh was an early adopter of both active electronics and extended range bass. In many ways, his gear journey mirrors the development of the electric bass guitar. In particular, Lesh is forever linked to the origins of Alembic Inc.
Phil Lesh Basses
Like many of his contemporaries, Lesh started out on a Gibson EB-0, before moving onto a Fender Precision Bass in 1968. He briefly played a Gibson EB-3 before diving headfirst into modded gear.
A crucial figure in this period was the self-taught electronic engineer Ron Wickersham. Wickersham and his wife, Susan had been enlisted by Grateful Dead sound man Owsley “Bear” Stanley to run Alembic, an electronics company set up to accommodate the growing live sound needs of the band.
Wickersham’s focus extended from the groundbreaking use of PA equipment to the instruments themselves. In the process, the iconic guitar company Alembic was formed.
In 1969, Lesh was playing a stock Guild Starfire. Wickersham radically modified the instrument to include quadraphonic pickups (allowing the signal of each string to be sent to separate outputs) and active preamp circuits.
Note that all of the hardware – bridge, tailpiece, pickups and electronics have been replaced and a new neck – judging by the narrow width and alembic style oval position markers – appears to have been retrofitted.
By the early 1970s Alembic was in full swing hand crafting guitars and basses. Lesh, alongside Stanley Clarke and Jack Cassidy, was a prominent Alembic artist. Many fans cite Lesh’s early 1970’s Alembic-era tone as a favorite.
Alembic’s use of exotic tonewoods, state of the art electronics and intricate ornamentation made them a forerunner of the custom bass market that was soon to develop. By the mid 1970s the company had pioneered the use of single coil noise reduction and produced what is considered to be the first production model 5 string bass.
Phil Lesh with The Grateful Dead live in 1974 with Custom Alembic
In the late 1970s Lesh briefly played a Fender Jazz and a handmade Doug Irwin bass (Irwin had built Jerry Garcia’s iconic Tyger and Wolf guitars amongst others).
By the early 1980s Lesh had moved to a Modulus 6 string. The Modulus story also sports some Grateful Dead / Alembic links. After attending a Grateful Dead concert in 1974 – and being impressed by Lesh’s Alembic basses – Geoff Gould started experimenting with lighter and stronger materials for guitar construction. Gould had a background in the aerospace industry and used this experience when developing hollow carbon fibre necks. In 1977 a collaborative project resulted in Alembic launching a bass model that featured one of Gould’s graphite necks. Gould went on to form Modulus guitars and now builds instruments under his own name.
In around 2009 Lesh had two Ritter Jupiter models made. These instruments feature a remarkable offset body shape, LED inlays, 6 strings and active electronics wired to Lesh’s specifications. According to Lesh, “”It was made by Jens Ritter in a little town outside of Mannheim, Germany. That’s in Hesse, which is actually the part of Germany my ancestors came from. I am not sure of the trail that led me to his website, but I was just surfing the Web – I wasn’t looking for a new instrument- and I came across some reference to his instruments. I went to his website and was stunned by the look of these instruments. I saw this and just said to myself, that is the coolest-looking instrument I’ve ever seen – I want that! At that point I was just praying that it would sound good. It’s a unified concept, and very German his detail and execution.
The work is absolutely first-class. He fixes the neck to the body with ten humongous bolts. It’s a very solid instrument that stays in tune very well, even though it’s made out of wood. That’s something I’ve been seeking for years and years. It’s amazingly easy to play.”
In 2014 Lesh commissioned Alembic to construct a lighter 6 string. It can be seen here in this fantastic version of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” by Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band.
The video also secures a good view of Lesh’s FX rack, currently sporting a laptop amongst the rack units. The computer is reportedly used for EQ analysis.
Phil Lesh Amps
Lesh’s amplification and effects use runs in concert with his ever evolving use of the bass itself.
Lesh spent his early years using Fender Dual Showman amps. As the ‘Dead’s live sound evolved, so did Lesh’s rig.
During the early 1970s Alembic helped create The Grateful Dead’s legendary wall of sound. In an unremitting search for ‘perfect sound’ dozens of speakers were employed across the stage, with each musician essentially running an individual PA in addition to the stage monitors and front of house PA.
In 1972 Lesh was running into 32 speakers, making full use of his Alembic bass quadraphonic pickups. “I had two bass speaker columns, each 30 feet high.” Lesh told Bass Player magazine in 2000, “I think there were 16 speakers in each column, so I had eight speakers for the E string, eight for the A, and so on.”
Lesh used Alembic preamps, running into McIntosh 2300 power amps and then fed to the Alembic built enclosures, typically housing JBL speakers.
The McIntosh power amps were also used by guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir as a slave stage after their Fender combos. Built between 1971 and 1980, the amps can still be found on reverb.com and similar sites, due to both their high quality construction and association with the ‘Dead.
Lesh also used Meyer cabinets and parametric eq for many years – a Meyer CP-10 still resides in his rack, alongside a Korg racktuner and Furman power conditioner.
In the late 2000s Lesh began using Eden Ampilfication, incorporating a pair of World Tour heads, 4×10 and 1×15 cabinets.
Phil Lesh Effects, Strings and Picks
Although Lesh uses effects sparingly, he often touts a small board. This Pedal Train board, powered by a Voodoo Labs power supply, was used on the Grateful Dead’s 50th Anniversary tour in 2015.
Stocked exclusively with MXR and Bearfoot effects, Lesh incorporated:
MXR Blowtorch distortion
MXR Bass Octave Deluxe
Bearfoot Mint Green Vibe
Bearfoot Model H distortion
MXR Bass Envelope
MXR Bass Compressor
Lesh has been linked with a variety of string types and guages. His Alembic modified Guild was loaded with Pyramid Gold Flatwounds in the early 1970s. According to Alembic luthier Rick Turner, “They had this amazing, supple feel and we loved the sound – very different from any other flatwound strings. Those strings were a big part of the ‘San Francisco bass sound’ “. Jack Cassidy’s Alembics were similarly equipped.
Lesh would later move onto halfwounds, with Ken Smith Slickwounds his brand of choice. Using halfwounds would certainly add some brightness and extra articulation to the tone.
The final and not-so secret weapon in Lesh’s tonal recipe is his use of a pick. He notably went pickless during his brief EB3 period, but otherwise will usually sport a 1.6 Telefunken Graphite Enhanced Pick.
Matt Wakeling is a guitarist and music educator from Sydney, Australia. Matt produces the Guitar Speak Podcast, an interview style podcast that has included guests such as Dweezil Zappa, Andy Timmons, Brian Wampler, Scott Henderson, Gretchen Menn, Brett Garsed and many more world class guitarists.
