Watch Dogs In A Pile Cover The Grateful Dead With Jerry Garcia's Guitar & Phil Lesh's Bass [Video]

The link between jam upstarts Dogs In A Pile and the legacy of the Grateful Dead is as inherent in the band’s musical DNA as it is in its name, which comes from a lyric in the song “He’s Gone”. That deep-rooted connection manifested on Friday during Dogs In A Pile’s sold-out debut at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA as they covered “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot” with two famous instruments played by late Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh.

Guitarists Jimmy Law and Brian Murray each got their turn to play the white Travis Bean guitar that Jerry Garcia used at what many consider to be the Grateful Dead’s greatest show ever, 5/8/77 at Cornell University. Garcia debuted the TB500 #12 guitar on December 31st, 1976 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA and played it at more than 90 shows in the late ’70s, including the Grateful Dead’s three-night stint at the Winterland Ballroom in 1977, approximately 35 Dead shows, a benefit for Greenpeace, and with the Jerry Garcia Band. During this time, the Dead also recorded Terrapin Station with Garcia playing this guitar.

According to a letter of authenticity written by longtime roadie Steve Parish when the TB500 was sold at auction in 2013, this guitar was the third-most-played by Garcia—behind “Tiger” and “Wolf.” A sticker affixed to the body reads, “Ass, Grass or Gas/Nobody Rides Free,” which was placed over an earlier sticker that read, “The Enemy is Listening.” Garcia would effectively retire the TB500 when he picked up his new “Tiger” axe from Doug Irwin in the late ’70s.

DIAP bassist Sam Lucid also wielded a special axe, namely, Phil Lesh’s famous “Mission Control” bass, a.k.a. Osiris, a custom Alembic bass hand-built by luthier Rick Turner and played by Lesh with the Grateful Dead from June 16th, 1974 until July 1st, 1979, including at the Cornell show. The instrument helped set the standard for boutique basses with its many cutting-edge features, among them ten small push-button switches that gave Lesh the ability to send the signal from each string to four separate stacks of nine 15” speaker cabinets in the Grateful Dead’s Wall Of Sound PA system.

Both instruments now belong to Jason Scheuner, who has collected a number of iconic guitars and graciously shares them with the community by putting them back on stage in the hands of exceptional players. He lent them to Dogs In A Pile again in San Diego on Saturday after the band relocated its show from The Troubadour in Hollywood and turned it into a relief benefit for victims of the wildfires near L.A.

Watch Dogs In A Pile play “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Unfocused” with Jerry Garcia’s guitar and Phil Lesh’s bass below.

The band’s West Coast tour continues with additional stops in California and Seattle before concluding with two nights in Portland, OR. The band also recently announced spring tour dates. Click here for tour details and visit the band’s website for tickets.

Dogs In A Pile – “Help On The Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Unfocused” – 1/10/25

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dogs In A Pile (@dogsinapileband)