Grateful Dead Gear: this book is just breaking all the rules

[caspersvapors]

Lightning Bolt didnt have a Piezo pickup?!

Jerry DID use Mesas live in 75?!



oh noes my world is crashing down in front of me!!!

[strumminsix]

Never knew LB was famed to have had a piezo pickup.

Yup, the boys did play with Mesas for periods.

I know Bobby did for a good while and JG did as well.
However, IIRC, his Mesa use spilled over from JGB/LOM.
I don't think it started with the GD.
But then again I'm not that far into the book yet

I'm at the point where Mickey leaves.

[tigerstrat]

For all of 1975 (possibly some of late 74) and ending exactly on 10-3-76(for GD shows anyway), Garcia was using the Mesa Mark I preamp rather than the ubiquitous Twin Reverb.
Blair didn't use very much of the hard-date info I provided him... a bit over-the-top in geeking I suppose, but imho its nice to be able to compare sounds from neighboring shows and know what gear differences you are hearing... ah well.

Although GD 10-9-76 and all subsequent GD shows through 1992 feature the Twin Reverb duos, its quite likely he continued using the Mk I's for side projects and studio stuff for several years. A Reconstruction photo (1979) shows the Mk I's onstage.

For February-March 1980 JGB shows it was a Mesa Mark IIA preamp

Always into MC2300 solidstate power.

Now, the piezolessness of Bolt was a bit of a surprise to me, because it certainly did sound as crappy and thin as a piezo for the last couple of years at GD shows. Oddly enough, during the JGB 1993 East tour, Bolt sounds like an amazingly toneful and warm electric guitar.

[caspersvapors]

yeah that guitar could sound really fantastic when Garcia wasnt using that acoustic like tone

even in Dozins Garcia guitar history it says LB had a piezo

[Crazy 9.5 Fingers]

Tiger,

I caught the JGB run from Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester (where I was in college) and those were some of the best shows I have ever seen. Cats Under The Stars from Buffalo still ranks as maybe the best Jerry solo I have ever seen live. He was ripping it up in 93!!

[caspersvapors]

link to said performance?

[Crazy 9.5 Fingers]

Yes please?? ANyone?

[tigerstrat]

Sorry, can't link to a DVDR.

Does JGB even stream anywhere online? It might be one of the last things for which you still actually have to go out and trade. And I got out of that a few years ago- however I still receive discs in my mailbox from a generous benefactor from time to time...

[hawk900]

Cripe's had a piezo embedded under the bridge and blended with bridge HB via tone knob to give that acoustic edge.

[waldo041]

Cripe's had a piezo embedded under the bridge and blended with bridge HB via tone knob to give that acoustic edge.

like your Wolf and Tiger parallel/single coil wiring theory in the other thread, you are absolutely wrong in this theory as well! i have actually held Jerry's Cripes, both Bolt and Tophat, and neither one of them have piezo pickups in them!





~waldo

[tcsned]

I never got to hold them but they were sitting in the RnR Hall of Fame and unless they hid them really well, there's no piezo pickup under the bridge. I've got some pretty close up pics of them, I'll see if one is demonstrative. I can see from the tone he had in that era why one would suspect a piezo was in the mix but I think it was just the combination of guitar, amp, and signal processing that got that tone. I liked the Irwin tone better and thought the Cripes were a little harsh sounding to me. It may have been how Jerry was setting his tone, if his hearing was going that can really affect the way you set the controls.

[gr8fulbluz]

I never got to hold them but they were sitting in the RnR Hall of Fame and unless they hid them really well, there's no piezo pickup under the bridge.

Indeed, That was my impression.
FWIW.>
However i got the piezo in my Carvin cause i figured i need all the help i could get. But no help. The piezo is great but by a long shot my results are very limited i never use it like i should. My tone target is jazz clean huge overhead, the piezo for me is just for fun variation.
Meh. i sux.

[hawk900]

Cripe's had a piezo embedded under the bridge and blended with bridge HB via tone knob to give that acoustic edge.

like your Wolf and Tiger parallel/single coil wiring theory in the other thread, you are absolutely wrong in this theory as well! i have actually held Jerry's Cripes, both Bolt and Tophat, and neither one of them have piezo pickups in them!





~waldo

I read about the piezo in an interview with Cripe. I have a scan of it from a guitar mag....will post image. Here's the BOLT description from http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitar/history.htm
"Garcia's next guitar arrived in the mail at the Grateful Dead office in 1993. Stephen Cripe, a 39-year-old Florida woodworker who spent years building custom interiors for Caribbean yachts, decided to try his hand at making a guitar. Using a few photos and a well worn "Dead Ahead" video., he knocked off Irwin's design of Tiger with a few flourishes of his own, like carving the body out of a piece of East Indian rosewood recycled from a 19th century Asian opium bed. It had an acoustic piezo pickup built in. Built "totally by feel", the cocobola through-body neck has a recycled Brazilian rosewood fingerboard (note: Jerry's interest in the rain forest) with an unusual accuracy in the higher end allowing him to play where he usually avoided."
Also my parallel theory was quoted from Steve Parish. Will dig up link from FB message.
Awesome pictures by the way.

[Dozin]

http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitar/Bolt.html

If you read this article Cripe says that the electronics were later replaced by Garcia's staff

[waldo041]

http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitar/Bolt.html

If you read this article Cripe says that the electronics were later replaced by Garcia's staff

Dozin,

This statement insinuates that Bolt was delivered with a piezo bridge which is false. Yes the electronics were replaced but, that consisted of putting in his standard guitar wiring with OBEL and preamp as well as installing a midi system. Bolt NEVER had a piezo system. It starts life with the same roller bridge that Tophat was delivered with and has today, but Bolts bridge gets replaced to a chromed alembic/stars guitars type of bridge it has today.

~waldo