Jerry Garcia clean tone...

bcreid2

New member
Anyone have any ideas what pickup would get you a full clean jerry garcia tone? I am looking at the seth lover in neck position. How bout the pearly gates humbucker in the bridge position? Any ideas anyone?

p.s. I am playing through a fender deluxe modified tube amp and the pickups are going in an sg...

thanks
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

Get a Seth Lover set and put an A5 magnet in the neck position and an A8 in the bridge position. The Deluxe just LOVES that combo.
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

Doesn't the seth lovers come with an a2 magnet? Can you get it with an a5 or a8 magnet?

thanks for the reply...
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

Alembic!

That's what he used through a hifi Macintosh 2300 amp.
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

the key thing to finding a great clean tone IMO is to have a clean boost. you will never cop jerrys exact tone because he used a very "out there" set up with the alembic and what not. get yourself something like a MXR line driver or MI Audio boostnBuff or a KOT and have the clean boost on all the time.

after that just tweak your amp to approximate the sound as best you can.
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

he also made more use of his volume knob than any other guitarist i know about. part of his clean sound was def rolling off the volume a little
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

super 2's and sds1

but his rig was a spaceship so go after the tone if you want it but dont try and do it like he did
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

everytime that wheel goes'round, bound to cover justa little more ground["the wheel"..first garcia solo lp.the first thing to recognize is that jerry hadn't used and sg or guild sglike axe since the very earliest dead days so the platform is not right for the bulk of the garcia dead years. but this can be rectified .When i turned on to garcia and the dead via the europe '72 3 disk live set he was then using an ash stratocaster and that's all i knew his sound to be until the much later alembic dire wolf and "tiger" axe years.and there yer talking specialy made alembic pickups. so i would always say in lieu of not being filthy rich always go with regular old classic early 70s strat pickups for jerry's clean tones.until my stroke i was nailing"china cat sunflower and i know you rider" with the emg dg20 pickup set in my strat. but then, to be fair i've got to qualify my view by saying i'm stratman all the way from garcia to gilmour to montrose,yes nontrose. the emg dg20 pickup set has a positively gnarly bark with the inbetween middle and back pickup position and the spc control full up does a nice satriani "summer song
sound too as a matter of fact in 76 when i was but a youngin of 22 i bought my first ash strat going through my first jeff beck phase.and played the shiite out of all dead songs with it. but i can't vouch for 70s strat style pickups in the mahogany bod of an sg. methinks it would be a bit flatter in tone maybe put lace sensors in there. or better yet
stacked seymour satratbuckers with 4 conducor wiring to move seemlessly between all worlds. best of luck and may god always bless!!
plimsoulbilly
i should apologize and be chastised for hawking other pickup manufacturers here than duncan.i believe seymour everywhgere that a humbucker is reqwuired. other than that i'll go to my grave with th emg dg20 prewired pickguard active set unless duncan makes a similar unit.
 
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Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

My favor Jerry "Clean tone" was from his "Alligator" Strat he used on the Europe 72' tour/Album. It was a 57' strat given to him by Graham Nash. The bridge was modded by Jerry & featured a prototype alembic active preamp. Not being a fan of production guitars, He use a Travis Bean until the mid 70's when he got his custom built tiger,And Rosebud from Doug Irwin. Then finally "lighting" from Stephen Cripe.I 'm not sure of the models, But I know he had Dimarzio's in his custom builds. I read he would have them replaced often when he felt the magnets where degaussing ? I would say Jerry was a Alnico V guy.
 
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Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

the dimarzios in the irwins and cripe (after swaps) were dimarzio super II's
when there was a single coil in the neck it was a sds1
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

Hey

If you wan that tone you need to build a strat!

1) ash body hardtail strat nitro clear with maple vintage neck
2) alembic brass bridge with brass sustainer block press fit
3) rosewood spacer under bridge and brass tail piece
4) antiquity strat pickups vintage no RWRP
5) 1-2 deg shim in neck pocket to account for new bridge height
6) STANDARD STRAT WIRING! 3 knob 50's
7) Clarostat Mil Audio pots
8) Fender twin Preamped into a Mac Intosh Power amp.
9) 3 x 12 cab with JBL's Birch ply

Done

:-)
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

My SG with an Antiquity neck reminded me of Greatful Dead instantly, playing through my tonelab in what is supposed to be a 4x10 blackface emulation. But I'm a very casual GD listener.
 
Re: Jerry Garcia clean tone...

My SG with an Antiquity neck reminded me of Greatful Dead instantly, playing through my tonelab in what is supposed to be a 4x10 blackface emulation. But I'm a very casual GD listener.

It would if you are listening to the 'live dead' Record. Jerry used a sg les paul...

but for the clean tone they were talking about above.. 1971-73 its the strat I described above
 
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