Property of Grateful Dead Productions

Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia’s Ludwig Phase II Synthesizer Guitar Pedal, ca. 1970

Guitar pedal housed in a metal flip-top box (12 x 11 x 6’’). With “Good Old Grateful Dead” decal on top and two Skull and Stars decals, one on main panel, one on the underside of control panel fliptop.

An unusual pedal from an unlikely source

The Ludwig drum company designed the Phase II in 1969 and introduced it in 1970. It was, of course, not a guitar synthesizer, but a combination of several effects—producing fuzz, voltage-controlled filters, and gating.

Housed in an unusual flip-top box design that, once the main unit is opened, reveals a rocker pedal and footswitches. A second flip-top contains the device’s control panel, with sliders and switches for blending tones labeled: Fuzz, Animation, and Formant Frequencies. 

It didn’t prove particularly popular at the time, but today it is sought after as one of the rarest vintage guitar effects. Some accounts have a mere 150 or less being produced. 

“Big” Steve Parish: “Owned by Jerry and played on at rehearsal hall jam sessions in early ‘71 and ‘72.”