Dick's / Dave's picks

Not to take anything away from Charlie, but he only very very rarely does any "mastering" in the traditional sense.  He will try to clean up recording or transfer mistakes (clicks, pops, dropouts, volume irregularities, etc) but does nothing else (e.g. EQ, compression, etc)

rbbert, 
thanks so much for completing the story here! That is just what i was hoping would happen. Great news! Or at least better to hear than Healy having the May 77 shows with him, as that would continue to seem hopeless. He does have some but sounds more promising than I had suspected. 

Perhaps not so hopeful, as the owner of the first 2 Betty batches, the ones with the most desirable shows and best physical tape condition, isn't willing to part with them except for a ridiculous amount of money.  That part of your post was unfortunately quite correct.

But it makes one wonder just how long these folk are willing to sit on these tapes? I can pretty much bet that they aren't being collected for the shear love of owning them.

Ah, I see... Funny how easy it is for the 'grapevine' to get distorted. With that said --and apart from totally spacing that these particular 77 shows we were speaking about were Betty Boards (duh!)-- there are even a few good ones that Healy has or so Ive been told.

Oh well... As mentioned, the music is all still out there for us but just imagine how David Lemieux and crew must feel. You know they want to continue to give the best possible Dead music to the fans that they can. It must be so frustrating for them, trying to make a deal like this happen with a 'seller' that seemingly just doesn't care.