Upcoming Concerts

Moonalice News

  • Moonalice offers free admission to holders of Skull & Roses tickets!
  • Poster Artist Feature: Dennis Larkins Interview
  • Let's Rock The World One Tree At A Time!
  • Acoustic Guitar reviews Full Moonalice, Volume 2!!
  • Moonalice plays a set on Jam In The Van
  • Glide Magazine interviews Pete Sears!
  • Acoustic Guitar Magazine: Barry, Roger and T’s play Nick and Woo Woo
  • Commemorating the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival!!!
  • PopMatters: Bottlerock Napa review … featuring Moonalice
  • Moonalice Will Not Play Indoors Until Further Notice
Moonalice offers free admission to holders of Skull & Roses tickets!
Poster Artist Feature: Dennis Larkins Interview
Let's Rock The World One Tree At A Time!
Acoustic Guitar reviews Full Moonalice, Volume 2!!
Moonalice plays a set on Jam In The Van
Glide Magazine interviews Pete Sears!
Acoustic Guitar Magazine: Barry, Roger and T’s play Nick and Woo Woo
Commemorating the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival!!!
PopMatters: Bottlerock Napa review … featuring Moonalice
Moonalice Will Not Play Indoors Until Further Notice

What To Watch (Archive)

  • Sep 15, 2024 / Haight Ashbury Street Fair (San Francisco)
  • Jul 27, 2024 / Petaluma Music Festival - Acoustic Set (Petaluma Stage) (Petaluma)
  • Sep 14, 2024 / Ain't Necessarily Dead Fest (Auburn)
  • Oct 19, 2024 / HopMonk Sebastopol Garden (Sebastopol)
  • Jul 27, 2024 / Petaluma Music Festival - Electric Set (Festival Stage) (Petaluma)
  • Aug 12, 2024 / Jerry Garcia Tribute Night @ SF Giants - Triples Alley Set (San Francisco)
  • Oct 5, 2024 / Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - Towers of Gold Stage (San Francisco)
  • Jun 13, 2024 / Club Fox (Redwood City)
    According to Moonalice legend, Redwood City is the burrito capital of the San Francisco peninsula. There ...
  • Aug 12, 2024 / Jerry Garcia Tribute Night @ SF Giants - Dugout Set (San Francisco)
    Note that the dugout set is at the end of the video archive just around the 1 hour mark.
  • Jun 14, 2024 / Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley)
    According to Moonalice legend, the world appears to be suffering the effects of an Asshole Apocalypse. Ba...
Sep 15, 2024 / Haight Ashbury Street Fair (San Francisco)
Jul 27, 2024 / Petaluma Music Festival - Acoustic Set (Petaluma Stage) (Petaluma)
Sep 14, 2024 / Ain't Necessarily Dead Fest (Auburn)
Oct 19, 2024 / HopMonk Sebastopol Garden (Sebastopol)
Jul 27, 2024 / Petaluma Music Festival - Electric Set (Festival Stage) (Petaluma)
Aug 12, 2024 / Jerry Garcia Tribute Night @ SF Giants - Triples Alley Set (San Francisco)
Oct 5, 2024 / Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - Towers of Gold Stage (San Francisco)
Jun 13, 2024 / Club Fox (Redwood City)
According to Moonalice legend, Redwood City is the burrito capital of the San Francisco peninsula. There ...
Aug 12, 2024 / Jerry Garcia Tribute Night @ SF Giants - Dugout Set (San Francisco)
Note that the dugout set is at the end of the video archive just around the 1 hour mark.
Jun 14, 2024 / Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley)
According to Moonalice legend, the world appears to be suffering the effects of an Asshole Apocalypse. Ba...

Tom Lieber, luthier who fashioned Pete Sears "Dragon" bass, describes how Grateful Dead forum RUKIND.com was instrumental in its recovery!!!

It was cut from the same tree as Jerry Garcia's "Tiger!" Now, 35 years after it was stolen during a riot at a festival in Germany, Moonalice's Pete Sears has his bass back!

Here is the back story of how this came about in the words of Tom Lieber, the luthier at the Doug Irwin Custom Shop who fashioned the beautiful “Dragon” in 1976-77 under the Doug Irwin Shop name. While he was designing and building the Dragon bass, Tom also worked with Doug on the early designs of Jerry Garcia's “Tiger.”

In an exclusive interview with Moonalice News today, Tom said, “It was December 8, 2009, after Pete and I had a familiar (35 year) conversation about the possible fate that had befallen “Dragon.” We thought that now with the existence of the internet our chances were greater in reaching out and finding her. So, we created a post on the Grateful Dead forum “http://www.RUKIND.com.”

Tom continued, "This forum was instrumental in the recovery of the bass! Though it took over 4 years before any information erupted, as it turned out German musician Klaus Wilms had possession of the bass for 20 of the 35 years that it was missing. When he conducted an internet search on the bass he came across our post on www.RUKIND.Com!"

"Pete and I always held out hope that the bass hadn't been burned in the barn fire created by the riot in Germany. And for 35 years it was Pete who insisted he felt the bass was in Germany just sitting in someone’s closet. His intuition turned out to be prophetic; the bass was indeed just sitting in Klaus Wilms’ closet. We were very fortunate that Klaus’s stewardship of “Dragon” was remarkable!"

"Thank you to Klaus! Thank you to www.RUKIND.Com…!!!”

The www.RUKIND.com forum is an amazing community of musicians and store of knowledge. The messages that led to the recovery of Pete’s base can be found in the thread "everything else." The original thread is entitled "76 Irwin Bass."

Tom Lieber (www.LieberGuitars.com) shared two never-before-seen photos of Pete Sears' beautiful "Dragon" bass, one of which shows the hardware removed for restoration.

0 comments | Login or Register to post comments