HELP ME PLEASE PLEASE!!!!! JERRY GARCIA GUITARISTS I NEED YOU!

[easywind72]

:blob7:

SO glad you opened this!!! i need your help. i just created this account to ask for it. any way... im 15 going on 16...i have been playin guitar since i could walk...literally. Now although i have playin guitar for so long im nit super good on my guitar talk so bare with me. I am a HUGE deadhead and fan of jerry garcia's tone and guitar. now because all of the garcia tiger/rosebud guitars are insanely priced im setting out to build my own. Now the wiring will be rather similar to his "tiger" guitar built by doug irwin. so n this site i found the Warmoth WGD body..i have decided to buy the basswood body stain and laquer it and buy a les paul bolt on neck.(btw i have never built a guitar,a pedal , or a amp) anyway im buying the body drilled like a strat. ok. im putting in three pick ups a DiMarzio SDS1 and two DiMarzio Super 2s just like jerry. ok jerry has those pickups with midi and preamps and other stuff. he has the humbukers which are the super 2s wired to be split. OK he also has switchs to turn on turn off or split the humbuckers. OK ANYWAY i want it to be wired like this :from the bridge, a super 2 and in the middle  a super 2 and on the neck the sds single coil. i want the neck and bridge pickup to be wired to one 500K tone pot. and the midle pickup to have its own 500K tone pot. i am having a 25 or 50k volume pot. i want to set it up so the two humbuckers can be just split. unlike jerry who could switch on switch on and split. im also including a strat like 5 pickup selector. so to sum it up i want the neck and bridge on one tone pot. the middle on its own. the humbuckers to be splitable and a 5 pick up selector. PLEASE IF YOU COULD HELP A YOUNG FELLOW OUT LIKE ME AND EMAIL ME OR REPLY TO THIS WITHA WIRING SCHEMATIC AND OTHER TIPS AND POINTERS ID NEED...PLEASE  :redflag: :help: ive included a pic of the bottom of the body... look on the warmoth WGD page to see other pics...P.S. USE LAYMANS TERMS..LIKE I SAID IM NO THE BEST AT GUITAR TERMS..ESPICALLY WHEN IT COMES TO WIRES AND GUTS..THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH

 

[AutoBat]

Welcome to the forum easywind72!

Your English is pretty rough, but if I understood half of what you typed out what you are wanting is to know how to wire up a guitar like Jerry had.
http://dozin.com/jers/guitars/tiger/info.html has a nice wiring schematic.

 

[easywind72]

Sorry sir for my poor grammar and English. I am American and quite intellectual I just was super zoned and speedin trying to go as fast as I could. Now the schematic you posted I have seen but as I said, I want the buffers and pre amps excluded. I want my three pickups 5 way switch coil splitters and that's all. But, you see Jerry Garcia's humbuckers were set up to be split and  turned on and off. I just want mine to have a split switchs. But like Garcias, I want my neck and bridge to be wired to a 500k tone pot and the middle pickup to be wired to it's own 500k pickup... Could you draw me a schematic ?

 

[line6man]

I'll draw you a diagram when I have time. Wiring diagram or schematic?

Note that you can't very well have separate tone controls without them interacting, unless you use fixed resistors in series with the signal paths to raise the impedance of the path between tone controls. This would mean less output/treble, converting your signal to thermal dissipation straight out of the pickups. You pretty much have to deal with the interactions, just like on Les Pauls.

You do not want to use 25k or 50k pots with high impedance signals. The load they place on the signal is so direct that it kills a lot of output. You need a higher value unless you plan to lower the output impedance with a buffer or preamp.

 

[easywind72]

Ok cool... But, I'm assuming that since you opended this post you are somewhat familiar with Jerry Garcias tone. I'm building this because I love the shape of his guitars built br Doug Irwin (rosebud and tiger) but more importantly because I Love his tone. Now if you would, when you get time, look at some of the websites dedicated to Jerry Garcias guitar rigs and wiring. I'm looking to somewhat replicate his tiger wiring (for tone) now Jerry had the same pick ups I'll use (SDS1 and Super 2s) he wired the bridge and neck pick up to one 500k tone pot (remember I'm not good with guitar guts and electronics) and he had the middle hooked on it's own 500k pot (that's why I planned to do that). In addition to this, Jerry's super twos humbucks had a switch each that turned it on and off and split it. I just planed to set each humbucks to just be able to be split to sigle coil. Rember I'm 15 and never built a guitar and although I've been playing guitar since I could walk I'm not good with the inner terms and workings. So help me out brother, I'm really looking to mimic his tone but, to reduce extra time Money and effort, I don't wish to include any preamps buffers or effects loops or and midi or synths. I first must learn more about them and learn more about wiring. By the way i will use a stratocaster like 5 pickup selector. As you can see in the picture I posted the controls will be set like a stratocaster. So if you could & can, look at a couple sits and read couple things and guide me through this journey I'll take. It is gonna take ass loads of time because of money and construction. Thanks brother!

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I'm not trying to dissuade you, but you are changing quite a few variables from what Jerry used.  The last few years his sound was very MIDI dependant.  Plus the effects loop and buffers you mentioned.

One suggestion, have you considered using mahogany as the base wood?  It may better approximate Jerry's sound.

I was at a lot of shows in the 80's and 90's, right up till when he died.  From my perspective in the audience there was no difference in tone between his Irwin guitars and the Cripes guitars he used at the end.  Heck, even acoustic shows with Grisman still sounded like Jerry even with your eyes closed (though the tone was of course different from his electric shows.)

In the end I think you're going to find that you might be able to approach his tone, but so much of what Jerry did was in his hands (with 9 and a half fingers to boot!)

Good luck with this build, I'm hoping you can make something you like.  Don't let your lack of luthery experience constrain you.  Steve Cripe, who built Jerry's last guitars had never made an instrument before when he crafted one out of the blue and sent it to Jerry....and Jerry was blown away!  Let this article inspire you:

http://www.vintageguitar.com/4958/holy-cripes/

 

[drewfx]

If you aren't aware of it, you will probably find more information about Jerry's tone and equipment than anywhere else at the GD equipment forum:

http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=309

You may also want to reconsider skipping the buffer, as many consider it a critical part of Jerry's tone (along with everything else  :icon_biggrin.

 

[easywind72]

Yes I know what you are saying.. I have basically dedicated this past year (2011) on getting down my Jerry licks and Jerry hands picking and scales... I'm not so much chasing his midi effects sound...I'm chasing his pure clean crisp bright crystal sparkling clean tone... Which here recently I have done to a point with one of my other guitars.. I take my tobacco burst ESP ltd viper 301 with a riogrande pickup (the other is not wired) and run it into a crate gfx120t and a crate gx20r...the gfx120 provides my bass and mids and my grate gx20 provides the crisp terrible brightness...pretty close to his tone...and a flange and you have some weir vibes...and since I don't have a mu tron or a q tron I take my hell babe hb01 and set the dial and press the wah down on every note I hit which comes really close to his mu tron enevolpe filter sound. So any way since I just want that clean crisp bright tone I though ok, subtract the midis and effects loops and due to budget cut preamps and buffers...maybe I need a new equation...enlighten me please

 

[line6man]

Ok cool... But, I'm assuming that since you opended this post you are somewhat familiar with Jerry Garcias tone. I'm building this because I love the shape of his guitars built br Doug Irwin (rosebud and tiger) but more importantly because I Love his tone. Now if you would, when you get time, look at some of the websites dedicated to Jerry Garcias guitar rigs and wiring. I'm looking to somewhat replicate his tiger wiring (for tone) now Jerry had the same pick ups I'll use (SDS1 and Super 2s) he wired the bridge and neck pick up to one 500k tone pot (remember I'm not good with guitar guts and electronics) and he had the middle hooked on it's own 500k pot (that's why I planned to do that). In addition to this, Jerry's super twos humbucks had a switch each that turned it on and off and split it. I just planed to set each humbucks to just be able to be split to sigle coil. Rember I'm 15 and never built a guitar and although I've been playing guitar since I could walk I'm not good with the inner terms and workings. So help me out brother, I'm really looking to mimic his tone but, to reduce extra time Money and effort, I don't wish to include any preamps buffers or effects loops or and midi or synths. I first must learn more about them and learn more about wiring. By the way i will use a stratocaster like 5 pickup selector. As you can see in the picture I posted the controls will be set like a stratocaster. So if you could & can, look at a couple sits and read couple things and guide me through this journey I'll take. It is gonna take ass loads of time because of money and construction. Thanks brother!

Personally, I can't stand Jerry Garcia, but I can show you how to wire a guitar any way you want.
What you've described is nothing special.

 

[Crispy]

  .Can  you show me how to wire a triple humbucker  open cavity each having it's own tone knob and dp3t 3 bucker mode activator switches series/parallel/split north setup strat style through its 5way selector the way Jerry's Rosebud and Cripes were. No other manufacture seems to know how easy it is and consists of 2 changes to keep the buckers in phase. No one produces them. It's a power house with 3 dimarzio dp104 heavy metal buckers.

 

[ponytail101]

Yes I know what you are saying.. I have basically dedicated this past year (2011) on getting down my Jerry licks and Jerry hands picking and scales... I'm not so much chasing his midi effects sound...I'm chasing his pure clean crisp bright crystal sparkling clean tone... Which here recently I have done to a point with one of my other guitars.. I take my tobacco burst ESP ltd viper 301 with a riogrande pickup (the other is not wired) and run it into a crate gfx120t and a crate gx20r...the gfx120 provides my bass and mids and my grate gx20 provides the crisp terrible brightness...pretty close to his tone...and a flange and you have some weir vibes...and since I don't have a mu tron or a q tron I take my hell babe hb01 and set the dial and press the wah down on every note I hit which comes really close to his mu tron enevolpe filter sound. So any way since I just want that clean crisp bright tone I though ok, subtract the midis and effects loops and due to budget cut preamps and buffers...maybe I need a new equation...enlighten me please

If you just want split buckers with north active like Jerry's which sounds better than any other pickup by miles especially split and the dp104's massive magnet and wiring. Hope you didnt buy the dp100's cause they are low headroom bass heavy. Must be dp104's and just tie white,green,black,and shielding to ground and your red wire is used for the ultra clean output perma split north active. If you dont plan on adding the tiger's tpc-1 buffer which keeps the signal clean and active which requires a 25k audio taper but if no active buffer use 250k audio for volume and 500k linear tone pots with 50v .22 ceramic caps.
Middle split is 99.9% jerry zone for all cleans. You miight get away with a cheap tubed preamp sector like a Traynor but a definate must is the jbl 120 series. D,E or K you gotta have at least one and a sweet reverb very low no more than 5.

 

[alterbridgefan]

haha. Dat english tho

 

[sixstringsamurai]

Jerry's tone is a much sought after and argued topic, much like EVH1 with the Marshall heads.

 

[drewfx]

It just seems appropriate to have necro posts in a Grateful Dead related thread.