An Insider's Look at the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound

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I recently had the privilege of speaking with Richard Pechner about the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound and his role in creating what is considered to be one of the largest sound systems of all time. The Wall of Sound was built exclusively for the Grateful Dead and it was used on their tours from 1974 to 1976.

Click below for the interview and pictures.

Grateful Dead Wall of Sound Specs
26,400 watts of continuous power via 44 amplifiers
586 JBL loudspeakers (15", 12" and 5")
54 Electrovoice tweeters
75 tons in weight (approximately)

- McIntosh 2300 Power Amplifier and JBL D130 driver


Richard Pechner was a roadie and photographer for the Grateful Dead during the design and implementation of the Wall of Sound. Below is the Audio Junkies interview with Richard Pechner followed by an assortment of his photographs. Enjoy.




AJ: What is your background in pro-audio and how did you get involved with the design and creation of the Wall of Sound?

Richard Pechner:
I had no formal training in pro-audio. I learned from Dan Healy, Bear and Ron Wickersham. I had toured with the Band in the late '60's & early 70's as a roadie. As the Band became more popular we were playing in bigger venues and always having to deal with the inadequacies of house pa systems or lack of. Necessity being the mother of invention the Wall of Sound was born to serve the Band and it's desire to provide the best, consistent, mind blowing concert sound experience money and genius could buy. My carpentry background steered me into setting up and running the cabinet shop which prototyped and then manufactured all the cabinets in the Wall.

AJ: Was there any inspiration for the original idea or was it something that you guys wanted to do that was completely awe inspiring for the crowd?
How long did it take to assemble and what sort of problems did you guys encounter in the assembly process at venues?

Richard Pechner:
The design/build took months to complete. (I am not quite sure the exact time frame.) The problems we faced were numerous. One of the biggest issues was "stacking" the speaker columns and positioning of the center cluster. As the speaker columns grew in height the logistics of hand stacking them become dangerous. Those 15" bass cabinets of Phil's were no picnic to move around let alone lift and stack. We quickly figured out we needed a mechanical system. We wound up flying 1/2 ton electrical Coffing Winches (9 from Graingers) above each bay and employed a steel platform to raise the columns in place. We adapted 3 winches to lift the much heavier Center Cluster into place. The first time Billy saw the Center Cluster in place he refused to play under it so we had to move his drum platform stage front a bit for him. We also reinforced the Cluster once it was rotated to the proper angle. (We did this by attaching 2 winches to the back and one to the front.)

AJ: I saw a driver on eBay not too long ago and the seller claimed it was from the Wall of Sound. What happened to all of the equipment in the Wall after it was no longer being used for the Grateful Dead shows?

Richard Pechner:
I think the Wall had a great after life. The Grateful Dead have always recycled what they could and spread the rest around. It is quite possible that parts have wound up on E Bay and at other auctions. I am sure other components are still providing quality sound for other musicians and home hi-fis.

AJ: Any idea on the cost and amount of man-hours that went into building the wall?

Richard Pechner:
The whole process of design, experiment, test on the road and then produce multiple enclosures went on for over a year. I do remember someone in the Office stating at a Band meeting that we had spent over $275,000 on the system. I'm sure it cost much more.

AJ: Were there any sound issues with the crowd being eye level with the stage and below the actual Wall of Sound?

Richard Pechner:
The system sounded best if you were far enough in front to "see" all the speakers. Any one up close was probably more interested in seeing the Band then hearing them. Healy had the best seat in the house.

AJ: I've heard that the wall also acted as its own monitoring system. How was the feedback issue addressed since the band and microphones were directly in front of the wall?

Richard Pechner:
I believe this issue was solved with the introduction of 2 B&K caps used in out of phase pairs as differential noise canceling mics. Here is Jerry at UC Santa Barbara, 5/25/74, in front of one of the mics. (see below for image -LG)

AJ: What was it like hearing the Grateful Dead and Wall of Sound in person?

Richard Pechner:
We loved the sound checks, taking turns running out front to hear what we & many other's felt was the best sound system at the time. We all felt great pride in "owning" the Wall. These sound checks were intense. This was really the Band's only opportunity to tweak the system to their needs, and the crew's only time to get it put together correctly amongst all the constant changes. Isolating the instruments during the check was pretty cool. Hearing just Garcia or Phil's quadraphonic bass was incredible as they pushed the limits of the system. The shows themselves usually had a life of their own. Most of the time it went great and then once in a while it felt like a train wreck.

AJ: When did you stop working for the Grateful Dead and what have you done since then?

Richard Pechner:
I went off the payroll in '75 & moved to Elk in Mendocino County. I did some photography for the Band in the 70's/early 80's. Did general/electrical contracting and have been working in the film business for the last 30 years. Currently posting my photography images on the web (www.pechner.smugmug.com), and occasionally "Ballduding" for the San Francisco Giants.


- A huge thanks to Richard Pechner for giving us a bit of his time. All of the pictures below are available for purchase as prints from Richard Pechner's website. He also has a limited number of the 30th Anniversary signed prints left (pictured below).