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Lot Essay
This McIntosh MC2300 amplifier, affectionately known as 'Budman' after its Budweiser mascot sticker, served not only as Jerry Garcia’s favourite amp, but also his most recognizable and enduring piece of gear. Perhaps most famously used in The Grateful Dead’s legendary ‘Wall of Sound’, this amplifier stands as a symbol not only of the band’s identity, but also of their pursuit for the best, cleanest and loudest live sound.
Garcia began using a McIntosh MC2300 in 1973. A year later, crew member Ram Rod added the Budweiser Budman sticker to its front, rendering the amp instantly recognisable as Jerry’s, according to road manager “Big” Steve Parish. Parish went on to remark that although Garcia’s Fender Twins packed plenty of volume, outdoor shows were demanding even more: Jerry played through Fender Twins and they were loud, but everyone always wanted to be louder for the big gig, especially outdoors. Sound engineer Dan Healy sought to solve this by taking a line out of Jerry’s amp into increasingly powerful McIntosh units: When the 2300 power amp came out we bought 70 of them and put them throughout the system, but this is the one that Jerry liked the best and he played through it for years. It really made that Twin sound huge made that Twin sound huge and became part of his signature tone. It is therefore unsurprising that 'Budman' would become one of the only ‘Wall of Sound’ components that Garcia continued to use up until its retirement in 1993.
Garcia’s evolving setup reflected a broader rethink of the band’s live sound - a shift towards greater sonic clarity – and it was in this context that sound engineer Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley developed the ‘Wall of Sound’ in 1973. Stanley moved the band beyond typical touring equipment toward a ground-breaking, fully integrated sound system, shaped in part by his unconventional spatial understanding of audio; recalling an LSD trip in 1966, he said he actually saw sound coming out of the speakers, a moment of total synaesthesia that became the foundation for all the sound work that followed.
Stanley described the Wall in his words as an integrated system where every instrument has its own amplification, all set up behind the band without any separate onstage monitors. It’s a single, big system, like a band playing in a club, only large, and the musicians can all adjust everything, including their vocal level, by having a single source, by using this point-source thing. In essence, it was multiple individual sound systems combined into one - each dedicated to a single musical ‘voice’ to achieve an undisturbed, undistorted sound for each.
The Wall was designed to deliver distortion-free live performances through high-end audio equipment, for which the McIntosh MC2300 was the perfect match; able to deliver an exceptionally high-power output, up to 300 watts per channel or 600 watts per monoblock, without breaking up. In Garcia’s stage rig, the signal from his Fender Twin Reverb was fed into an MC2300, which then powered three vertically stacked Alembic B‑12 cabinets. Bob Weir similarly used MC2300s to power his extension speakers, while half of Keith Godchaux’s acoustic piano signal was sent into the PA system powered by a pair of McIntosh 3500 amplifiers, the other half being routed to the monitor system.
In the broader PA, additional McIntosh MC2300 amplifiers provided the muscle for the vocal system. The signal from each vocal microphone was first processed by a differential summing amplifier to keep the signals in phase and preserve clarity. This combined vocal signal was then split by a four‑way crossover - into high, upper‑mid, lower‑mid, and low bands - with each band sent to its own bank of MC2300s so the frequency ranges would remain clean at scale.
In total, according to The “Dead Heads” newsletter’s analysis of the Grateful Dead’s Hollywood Bowl rig, the configuration delivered about 26,400 watts (RMS) of continuous power, producing in the open air quite an acceptable sound at a quarter-mile, and fine sound up to five or six hundred feet. Such reach was only possible through the extensive use of MC2300s, which kept the system loud and low‑distortion from the stage all the way to the back. Each source was placed behind and above the performers so that the band heard the same sound as the audience. When the Wall was unveiled at Cow Palace in March 1974, the 12,000 crowd were dwarfed by a towering structure of around 500 speakers, anchored by 48 McIntosh MC2300 amplifiers supplying immense yet crucially low‑distortion power.
The MC2300’s role in achieving this new, clear live sound was firmly cemented at the historic 1973 Watkins Glen concert where an unprecedented crowd of 600,000 people demanded an equally unprecedented amplification output. As amp technician Janet Furman recounted they insisted on using only McIntosh 2300 power amps, so when they suddenly needed five more, she was dispatched by helicopter with $6,000 in cash to locate them: the sight of that enormous crowd from the air was unforgettable. In the moment I landed, delivering the goods, I became an instant hero. Although a momentous occasion, it underscored a simple reality - that the Wall of Sound was a practical response to the band playing increasingly larger venues in the 1970s. The system was so complex that the crew had to maintain two complete Walls of Sound, allowing one to be installed in the next city while the other was still being used on stage.
However, its huge, labor‑intensive set‑up rendered the system financially and logistically unsustainable. Combined with external factors like the 1974 oil crisis, this ultimately led the band to cancel the proposed autumn 1974 tour, to play five ‘final’ Winterland shows in October, and then enter an 18‑month hiatus from touring. The Wall, and the MC2300’s role within it, had pushed the limits not just of sound, but of what the Grateful Dead could, and wished to achieve. As Dan Healy reflected a decade later, It was an experiment… magnificent in its glory, and I loved every second of it - though at the same time I’m so damn glad it’s gone! Even so, he insisted, I still consider it the best large‑venue live sound performance system that has ever existed.
Garcia began using a McIntosh MC2300 in 1973. A year later, crew member Ram Rod added the Budweiser Budman sticker to its front, rendering the amp instantly recognisable as Jerry’s, according to road manager “Big” Steve Parish. Parish went on to remark that although Garcia’s Fender Twins packed plenty of volume, outdoor shows were demanding even more: Jerry played through Fender Twins and they were loud, but everyone always wanted to be louder for the big gig, especially outdoors. Sound engineer Dan Healy sought to solve this by taking a line out of Jerry’s amp into increasingly powerful McIntosh units: When the 2300 power amp came out we bought 70 of them and put them throughout the system, but this is the one that Jerry liked the best and he played through it for years. It really made that Twin sound huge made that Twin sound huge and became part of his signature tone. It is therefore unsurprising that 'Budman' would become one of the only ‘Wall of Sound’ components that Garcia continued to use up until its retirement in 1993.
Garcia’s evolving setup reflected a broader rethink of the band’s live sound - a shift towards greater sonic clarity – and it was in this context that sound engineer Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley developed the ‘Wall of Sound’ in 1973. Stanley moved the band beyond typical touring equipment toward a ground-breaking, fully integrated sound system, shaped in part by his unconventional spatial understanding of audio; recalling an LSD trip in 1966, he said he actually saw sound coming out of the speakers, a moment of total synaesthesia that became the foundation for all the sound work that followed.
Stanley described the Wall in his words as an integrated system where every instrument has its own amplification, all set up behind the band without any separate onstage monitors. It’s a single, big system, like a band playing in a club, only large, and the musicians can all adjust everything, including their vocal level, by having a single source, by using this point-source thing. In essence, it was multiple individual sound systems combined into one - each dedicated to a single musical ‘voice’ to achieve an undisturbed, undistorted sound for each.
The Wall was designed to deliver distortion-free live performances through high-end audio equipment, for which the McIntosh MC2300 was the perfect match; able to deliver an exceptionally high-power output, up to 300 watts per channel or 600 watts per monoblock, without breaking up. In Garcia’s stage rig, the signal from his Fender Twin Reverb was fed into an MC2300, which then powered three vertically stacked Alembic B‑12 cabinets. Bob Weir similarly used MC2300s to power his extension speakers, while half of Keith Godchaux’s acoustic piano signal was sent into the PA system powered by a pair of McIntosh 3500 amplifiers, the other half being routed to the monitor system.
In the broader PA, additional McIntosh MC2300 amplifiers provided the muscle for the vocal system. The signal from each vocal microphone was first processed by a differential summing amplifier to keep the signals in phase and preserve clarity. This combined vocal signal was then split by a four‑way crossover - into high, upper‑mid, lower‑mid, and low bands - with each band sent to its own bank of MC2300s so the frequency ranges would remain clean at scale.
In total, according to The “Dead Heads” newsletter’s analysis of the Grateful Dead’s Hollywood Bowl rig, the configuration delivered about 26,400 watts (RMS) of continuous power, producing in the open air quite an acceptable sound at a quarter-mile, and fine sound up to five or six hundred feet. Such reach was only possible through the extensive use of MC2300s, which kept the system loud and low‑distortion from the stage all the way to the back. Each source was placed behind and above the performers so that the band heard the same sound as the audience. When the Wall was unveiled at Cow Palace in March 1974, the 12,000 crowd were dwarfed by a towering structure of around 500 speakers, anchored by 48 McIntosh MC2300 amplifiers supplying immense yet crucially low‑distortion power.
The MC2300’s role in achieving this new, clear live sound was firmly cemented at the historic 1973 Watkins Glen concert where an unprecedented crowd of 600,000 people demanded an equally unprecedented amplification output. As amp technician Janet Furman recounted they insisted on using only McIntosh 2300 power amps, so when they suddenly needed five more, she was dispatched by helicopter with $6,000 in cash to locate them: the sight of that enormous crowd from the air was unforgettable. In the moment I landed, delivering the goods, I became an instant hero. Although a momentous occasion, it underscored a simple reality - that the Wall of Sound was a practical response to the band playing increasingly larger venues in the 1970s. The system was so complex that the crew had to maintain two complete Walls of Sound, allowing one to be installed in the next city while the other was still being used on stage.
However, its huge, labor‑intensive set‑up rendered the system financially and logistically unsustainable. Combined with external factors like the 1974 oil crisis, this ultimately led the band to cancel the proposed autumn 1974 tour, to play five ‘final’ Winterland shows in October, and then enter an 18‑month hiatus from touring. The Wall, and the MC2300’s role within it, had pushed the limits not just of sound, but of what the Grateful Dead could, and wished to achieve. As Dan Healy reflected a decade later, It was an experiment… magnificent in its glory, and I loved every second of it - though at the same time I’m so damn glad it’s gone! Even so, he insisted, I still consider it the best large‑venue live sound performance system that has ever existed.