On Wednesday afternoon, Bob Weir made a stop at San Rafael, California music store, Bananas At Large, to celebrate the launch of his “Real Deal” Acoustic pedal in partnership with Pigtronix. Weir was on hand from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., showing off his new pedal and performing a short acoustic set while also talking about the benefits of the Real Deal pedal.
During Weir’s performance, the Grateful Dead guitarist alternated between performing classic songs, bantering with the crowd, and explaining the benefits of the pedal. Ahead of his performance of “Loose Lucy”, for example, Weir announced, “Now, normally during a soundcheck, I’d flex with this endlessly, you know, depending on how much time they give me.” Later, to the laughter of the crowd, he added, “Now, I’m not warmed up, so you’re just gonna have to bear with that.”
You can watch Weir’s rendition of “Loose Lucy” below, courtesy of Bananas At Large.
Bob Weir (Solo Acoustic) – “Loose Lucy”
As noted on Bananas at Large’s website,
This acoustic preamp provides crystal-clear, super-loud acoustic guitar tone while faithfully maintaining the organic wooden sound of the instrument like no other pedal has ever done. Bob Weir and long-time Grateful Dead tech guru and Weir’s personal Front of House engineer, Mike McGinn, developed the principle behind the Real Deal in an effort to crank Bob’s acoustic guitar loud enough in the live mix while retaining the natural, unplugged sound of the instrument.
The technology they developed to achieve this goal involves using a pair of complimentary filters to split the acoustic guitar signal into low and high frequency bands, with independent preamp gain applied to each signal path. A mastering stage then combines the various inputs into a single mono output, resulting in a powerful world-class acoustic guitar tone. Bob Weir challenged Pigtronix to design a pedal to perform this unique type of processing using a low-noise, all-analog circuit, to deliver the ultimate live acoustic guitar sound.
For more information about the pedal and how Pigtronix rose to the challenge of developing the pedal’s technology, head here. To order a pedal, head to Pigtronix’s website here.
Bob Weir made his stop in San Rafael ahead of Dead & Company‘s highly anticipated performance at the iconic Gorge Amphitheatre tomorrow, Friday, June 29th. From there, the band will wind down the West Coast, with stops in Eugene, Oregon, and Mountain View, Chula Vista, and Los Angeles, California. Finally, Dead & Company’s summer tour will close with a two-night stand at Boulder, Colorado’s Folsom Field on July 13th and 14th.
Per an announcement by LOCKN’ yesterday, Dead & Company’s four sets at the Arrington, Virginia festival on Saturday, August 25th, and Sunday, August 26th, will mark the band’s final performances in 2018.