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Independent research by truerecs. Not affiliated with, endorsed or verified by Grateful Dead. Every item links to its public source.
12 items · Last checked

What guitar does Grateful Dead play?

Jerry Garcia was seen with his Doug Irwin guitars Tiger and Wolf through a McIntosh MC-2300 and a Mu-Tron III. Phil Lesh played a red paisley Gibson EB-3, a modified Guild Starfire IV called Big Brown and a Modulus 6-string, and Bob Weir had D'Angelico signatures.

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AllTop 5Phil Lesh: bassBob Weir: guitar and vocalsJerry Garcia: guitar and vocals
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What gear Grateful Dead uses: a sourced gear guide

Independent research by truerecs: every item links to the public source it comes from.

Phil Lesh: bass

3 items

Bob Weir: guitar and vocals

2 items

Jerry Garcia: guitar and vocals

7 items
Questions

About Grateful Dead's gear.

What guitar did Jerry Garcia play?

Doug Irwin's Tiger and Wolf and an Alembic-built Eagle, plus a 1939 Gibson Super 400N and an Alvarez-Yairi acoustic, through a McIntosh MC-2300 power amp, with a Mu-Tron III, MXR Phase 100 and Boss overdrives and octave.

What bass did Phil Lesh play?

A red paisley Gibson EB-3 around 1971, a much-modified Guild Starfire IV called Big Brown built with Alembic's Rick Turner, the Mission Control bass designed for the Wall of Sound, and later a Modulus Graphite 6-string.

What was the Wall of Sound?

The Dead's 604-speaker, high-power sound system. Lesh's Mission Control bass sent individual strings to dedicated speaker columns through 11 knobs and 10 push buttons.

What guitar did Bob Weir play?

D'Angelico made him two signature models: the semi-hollow Premier Bob Weir SS in 2017 and the solid-body Deluxe Bob Weir Bedford in 2019.

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Grateful Dead
About this guide · Last checked

The Grateful Dead were the San Francisco band of Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and Pigpen. This legacy guide covers the band's documented gear: Garcia's Doug Irwin guitars, McIntosh power and pedals, Lesh's basses including the Wall of Sound era Mission Control, and Weir's D'Angelico signature guitars.

truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. Grateful Dead didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.

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