Lesh's lines took on the walking flow of a jazz bassist or the right-hand counterpoint of a classical pianist, often meandering in a 'lead bass' fashion during extended improvisations. He had never played bass much before joining the Grateful Dead, though he was an extremely talented composer and musician.

As a jazz-oriented trumpet player, Lesh developed his role in the band's mix through intuition and listening. In many ways, Phil Lesh's experimentation with custom basses paralleled Jerry's pursuit of tailored hardware in the 1970s. The 1970s could be considered Jerry's Stratocaster-and-acoustic era, with regulars that included a Martin D-18, a '63 Fender Stratocaster and a natural finish '57 Fender Stratocaster (known as the 'Alligator' in reference to a sticker it wore) he got from Graham Nash. Because of his constant experimentation with custom guitars (and their custom wiring), emulating Jerry's tone isn't as simple as going out and replicating the rig he used.īefore settling on Irwin's creations, however, he played a Guild Starfire (1965-67), a couple P-90-equipped Les Pauls (1967-68), and a Bigsby-equipped Gibson SG (1969). Another Irwin custom, 'Rosebud' was Jerry's go-to during the final years before his death in 1995. custom creation that became his main axe from 1979 to 1990. His Doug Irwin 'Wolf' was a regular player until Irwin built him a guitar known as 'Tiger,' an exquisite 13.5 lbs. From 1974 onward, he almost exclusively played custom creations from Doug Irwin, with some experimentation with Travis Bean guitars (TB-1000A and TB-500) in 19. Jerry Garcia was one of the first, if not the first, major players to tour and record with custom-built guitars.

Grateful dead logo space