Secret to the spring tour 1971 Jerry tone

[Rick Turner]

The Peanut had '61 or '62 Gibson humbuckers, and it originally had three of them. I did not rewind them; no, they're not P-90s; they did not have what became the Alembic "Hot Rod" kit...ceramic replacement magnets for humbuckers. They were what they were.

Wish I had that guitar back, though! I'm back in my old band from '67 when I used that guitar... Might have to reissue it...

We're playing South by South West in March...

Autosalvage...

RT

[strumminsix]

The Peanut had '61 or '62 Gibson humbuckers, and it originally had three of them. I did not rewind them; no, they're not P-90s; they did not have what became the Alembic "Hot Rod" kit...ceramic replacement magnets for humbuckers. They were what they were.

Wish I had that guitar back, though! I'm back in my old band from '67 when I used that guitar... Might have to reissue it...

We're playing South by South West in March...

Autosalvage...

RT

Wow, thanks for the great info!

[Smolder]

The Peanut had '61 or '62 Gibson humbuckers, and it originally had three of them. I did not rewind them; no, they're not P-90s; they did not have what became the Alembic "Hot Rod" kit...ceramic replacement magnets for humbuckers. They were what they were.

Wish I had that guitar back, though! I'm back in my old band from '67 when I used that guitar... Might have to reissue it...

We're playing South by South West in March...

Autosalvage...

RT

Wow, so late PAF's... any idea what the resistance on them read?

[waldo041]

The Peanut had '61 or '62 Gibson humbuckers, and it originally had three of them. I did not rewind them; no, they're not P-90s; they did not have what became the Alembic "Hot Rod" kit...ceramic replacement magnets for humbuckers. They were what they were.

Wish I had that guitar back, though! I'm back in my old band from '67 when I used that guitar... Might have to reissue it...

We're playing South by South West in March...

Autosalvage...

RT

thanks Rick! by the way, you should contact Healy i believe he may have an idea on where your guitar may be.

~waldo

[James-T]

Hey Rick,

Thanks for weighing in! It’s fun to speculate but way more fun to hear it from the source. This thread just gets better and better.

I've got to ask, what was the inspiration for the peanut? Was this a Garcia project or a Turner project passed onto Garcia. In my books this guitar is really quite historic and I’d love to see it resurface. No doubt its worth more than most houses on the market today, but looks like you've got a lead now.

Besides from being featured on Shull and Roses and Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a bridge between the old and new Garcia tones, first custom rig and a bridge between the SG/ Strat and the first Irwin guitar which I've read travelled to Europe. I'm sure there was a reason that the strat was used instead. Perhaps they liked the sound better in the mobile studio. I certainly dig the Crosby strat over the first incarnation of the Irwin which I thought really opened up in early 78 with the Dual sounds. In fact that is one of my favorite tones.

…..back onto the 71 tone. I emailed Marc Muller from Live on Dead, which is an awesome music project I discovered today from this thread. I asked him what rig he used to nail the Europe 72 ton and about is lp with the P90's to get the 71 tone.


Here's his reply and please pass on the facebook endorsements. If you are like me, these guys will blow you away.

Here is Marc's reply:

It’s my old super six reverb, which is the same as a twin, through JBL E 120’s. Actually had the amp since I was a kid. I do tweak the tone a little with a boss GT-6. Strats I use are just regular and pick up is usually the middle as Jerry used. I use my Les Paul Special w/p90’s because I don’t have the SG standard he used back then. It gets pretty close but looking to get an SG down the road.

A lot of the tone is in how and where he picked the strings. It really makes the difference.

Thanks for reaching out and maybe see you out there. Tell some friends! http://www.facebook.com/deadonlive

Peace,

James

[Rick Turner]

I put that guitar together in '67 at my loft in the Village. I'd gotten the neck, pickups, hardware, and wiring harness from a guy who managed an apartment building; he was a fan of my band's. Someone had moved out of an apartment in the building and left behind an SG custom with smashed body. I had a local cabinet shop cut out a body in mahogany based on an antique guitar that I had from about 1825 or so; it may have been a Stauffer...the guy who taught C. F. Martin how to build guitars. I then veneered the back and sides in walnut, bound it in maple, and put the neck on it and rattle can lacquered it in my hallway. I wired it with all three pickups but in "stereo"...really just two channels with the neck and bridge pickup on one channel and the middle pickup on the other. I used it with a two channel pedal board, then running the output of that into two inputs or channels of first, my Standel Imperial amp and then finally my Acoustic 260. I could use different effects...mostly fuzz, some wah, some EQ (the dreaded Vox treble booster...) on the two channels in a kind of crude "side chain" system. I also had a volume pedal for each channel. Bear in mind that this was in 1967-'68...pretty early on for a pedal board.

It also originally had that really fucked up sideways operating vibrato system that they only used for a couple of years. Worked for me...kinda...

I guess I added the extra frets since there had been a plastic label there at the end of the fingerboard. I really don't remember that.

Those maple pickguards were not originally on it when I played it, either.

I sold the guitar to Garcia in '71 when Alembic was on Judah St. in San Francisco...before we took over Pacific High Recording on Brady St. At some point, Garcia decided he didn't need three pickups, and so it went to two.

Yeah, love to have it back, but I'm not going to pay Garcia relic prices! I'll just make a new one...with a fully carbon fiber loaded neck, a Bigsby, the three humbuckers/"stereo" wiring deal, and maybe a couple of Stratoblaster circuits in there. Have some ideas for tweaking the whole humbucker design, too. Might have some real fun with it... If it turns out right, I'll do 'em as a reissue series. Maybe do some the way I had the guitar in '67 and some "a la" Garcia, circa '71-'72.

[James-T]

Rick,

That's an amazing story and thanks for sharing it with us! It blows my mind you created the instrument in the village, it found itself in SF, sold to Garcia and then made he made one of the iconic recordings of the Dead, in my opinion, that show stopping NFA nearby in the Manhattan Centre. Full circle.

Also 3 pick-ups, Garcia removes one, only to go back to three pick-ups in 73. My luthier, one of the best in Vancouver thought I was crazy to take a perfectly good PRS CU22 and router in a third pickup and I just told him to trust me and the ground Garcia covered, and he said alright after recalling three pick-up LP's and SG's, but when the project was complete he was so happy with it, one of his best mods to date. With 22 frets there is just enough wood left to have all three PU's float in the nice PRS maple grain.

I'm sure you can find a boutique market for a 2013/ 1967/ 1971 peanut. I'm amazed at some of the guys collections just on this forum. Go for it, I might just be your first customer!

BTW being totally inspired by this thread, I think I located a 63 tweener PAF/ T top pick-up locally this evening for $250, the ones with the orange copper colored wire.

Thanks again for the amazing story!

Cheers,

James