[NJARC] Vintage audio ain't just 2A3s any more!

[Dave Sica]

To any vintage audio fans and aging Deadheads in the audience. This is a
little off-topic, but I found it interesting and figured it might be
worth sharing.

--Dave Sica


(From prosound news, June 2007 edition)
 
Dead's Wall of Sound Hits Auction Block
by Clive Young
 
Lots Of tour personnel like to keep a souvenir or two from a tour, but
the late Lawrence "Ram Rod" Shurtliff, road manager and president of the
Grateful Dead's corporation, held on to a few more things than most, OK,
he kept a lot more things, from Jerry Garcia's stage-played guitars to
unreleased artwork to tapestries to boxes of unused guitar strings to
even speaker cabinets from the band's legendary 1970s PA, the Wall of
Sound. In early May, however, much of it was sold off at Bonham and
Butterfield's auction house in San Francisco, netting a figure to the
tune of $1.1 million for the family Shurtliff left behind after dying of
lung cancer last year at 61.
 
While the two biggest ticket items were guitars belonging to Jerry
Garcia, which fetched $260,000 and $155,000 respectively, there were
plenty of finds for sound engineers who happened to be Dead Heads. Among
the most notable were three speaker cabinets from the legendary Wall of
Sound PA-reputedly, the last surviving boxes from the system built by
Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who went to jail in 1970 for manufacturing LSD.
Only one still had its speakers in it and all were described as
"distressed," with graffiti, sketches and conversations written on them.
They were all variously expected to garner between $ 1,000 - $1,500 a
piece, but two boxes sans speakers went for $1,000 and $1,400, while the
third, which retained its four damaged speakers, sold for $3,000.
 
Another popular PA item auctioned off was a small, wooden speaker box
(speaker not included) covered with tan-colored suede on the outside and
a grille cloth made of silk fabric in an "Italian marble" pattern, likely
custom-made by Hard Truckers (though it could actually predate the ones
made by HT), the same company that constructed components for Wall of
Sound. It was estimated at $600-$800 - but sold for a whopping $4,750.
 
Also on the block was a switching station described as "a personal
monitor mixer used on stage, 1970s. A small metal mixer painted a tan
color with three dials (one is missing) on the front and nine sockets in
the back; used on stage during many performances, there are black
felt-tip ink notations handwritten above the dials reading 'Jer' [Jerry],
'Phil' [Lesh] and 'K' [Bill Kreutzmann]. (Please note this piece has
scratches, rust marks, chips and dents as it was frequently used.)" It,
too, was expected to run for between $1,000-$1,500, but sold for $900.
 
Other surprising sales included a rubber mat that triggered vocal mic
gates during the band's shows - still muddy from the band stomping on it
back in the day - which went for $360, while a set of unused JBL
loudspeakers, still in their original boxes but intended for Garcia,
netted $1,200. Oddly, a red flight case landed $11,000 while a lengthy
black one nabbed only $800.