Where does Jerry use distortion?

[Pigpen]

Well the title about says it. Im gunna build Mxr Distortion + of B.Y.O.C so i can get Jerrys distortion. Well in what instances does he use it in? I can hear the differences between his guitars easy but this escapes me, any specific song instances? Thanks

[BlobWeird]

There are tons of songs. Jack Straw, St Stephen, Truckin, Not Fade Away, Throwing Stones, Comes A Time, The Other One, Playin', Loser, Minglewood are a bunch of the top of my head. And theres plenty where he used it subtly also. Ill use it on songs where he doesnt sometimes though. Its fun when you just wanna come in and thrash lol

[Pigpen]

So this would be a good buy? Im looking to fatten up my tone and sound more Jerry like so i though this would be perfect. thanks Blob btw

[BlobWeird]

Yeah sure if you want some distortion. I own a MXR+ and I like it. I was going to buy a BYOC 250+ but they were out of stock. But yeah id go for it.

[lostsailor8782]

So this would be a good buy? Im looking to fatten up my tone and sound more Jerry like so i though this would be perfect. thanks Blob btw

If you wana sound more like Jerry ... fat tone whatever .... yea the mxr distortion but try big fat juicy fender preamp then big fat juicy mac amps ... oh yea and he could play a little, alot of that tone was in his hands .. bottom line ... you have a shitty amp regardless of your effects you have shitty tone ... next guy that tells me about this great tone his Peavey Bandit has......... oh God kill him and put him out of his misery !!!

[BlobWeird]

lostsailor. The way it seems from his talking, he is not the most experienced and probably does not wanna spend a fortune to get closer to Garcia's tone so he should get the mxr+ or BYOC pedal.

[strumminsix]

Similar to LS's point every single component in your chain is significant to your tone: strings, pickups, guitarwood, cables, preamp circuitry, preamp tubes, phase invertor tube, poweramp tubes, speaker cables, speakers, speaker cabinet (rectifier tube ) .... Said more concisely, your tone is only as good as your worst component.

[lostsailor8782]

Similar to LS's point every single component in your chain is significant to your tone: strings, pickups, guitarwood, cables, preamp circuitry, preamp tubes, phase invertor tube, poweramp tubes, speaker cables, speakers, speaker cabinet (rectifier tube ) .... Said more concisely, your tone is only as good as your worst component.

and then there was sound .... Amen Brother Preach Son !!!!

[BlobWeird]

strummin of course this is true, BUT I mean if he is starting out with nothing and whats some distortion all those things wont help him get distortion. Only a distortion pedal will lol. Of course there is gain on some amps but if he has it on his amp he must not be pleased since he is asking for this pedal.

[Pigpen]

thanks for the replies and ya i know like nothing about gear. My amps not shitty, im not looking for professional grade stuff here just see if that effect would work out for me.

[tigerstrat]

I see the Fender pre as being pretty crucial for the overall tonal charcteristics and of course the lush natural reverb, but I really don't understand why the power amp would have to be an mucho-expensive and big-and-heavy antique McIntosh. AFAIC, it can be any decent solidstate amp with a good amount of headroom that doesn't color your sound at all. The newer ones like QSC's, Mackies, Crests, whatever are SO much more portable and generally more reasonably priced and I seriously doubt you'd be able to tell the difference in sound. But damn those faceplates look cool. I use a Yorkville Beta 800, an 80's model (so kinda heavy an big still) that pushes 250w>8ohm/400w>4ohm from each channel

Distortion on Jack Straw? I... guess so, on some later ones. I tend to play the first solo dirty and the other one mostly clean(ish).

Minglewood! Samson! Passenger, Far From Me, ... I NEED A MIRACLE.

solos on Comes A Time, Fire On The Mountain, Slipknot, Stranger, Other One, Wharf Rat, Believe It Or Not, NFA, outro jam of Deal ...

[BlobWeird]

TS I cannot for the life of me remember any dates for Jack Straw but Ive heard him throw some serious distortion in the jams before.

[strumminsix]

FTR - I think Jerry did a disservice to his tone by running through a SS poweramp. I understand why he did it but I think his tone was sweeter running through 6L6s in the power sector.

[tigerstrat]

FTR - I think Jerry did a disservice to his tone by running through a SS poweramp. I understand why he did it but I think his tone was sweeter running through 6L6s in the power sector.

For 6L6's, you'd have to go all the way back to 1968 with the straight Twins rig. From 69-72, JG was rockin his preamp signal into MC275's, with KT88 or 6550 output tubes. Then for the last part of 72, it was MC3500's (Phil leading the way) with some bizarre style of tube, possibly very similar to a 6550 but maybe a different pin layout... then the very dawn of 1973 is the beginning of the solidstate era. And he never really looked back.

I'll tell you, a highly maintained tube amp in its sweet spot is hard to beat; the great thing I find about my SS rig is its stability under almost any conditions.[/i]

[strumminsix]

FTR - I think Jerry did a disservice to his tone by running through a SS poweramp. I understand why he did it but I think his tone was sweeter running through 6L6s in the power sector.

For 6L6's, you'd have to go all the way back to 1968 with the straight Twins rig. From 69-72, JG was rockin his preamp signal into MC275's, with KT88 or 6550 output tubes. Then for the last part of 72, it was MC3500's (Phil leading the way) with some bizarre style of tube, possibly very similar to a 6550 but maybe a different pin layout... then the very dawn of 1973 is the beginning of the solidstate era. And he never really looked back.

I'll tell you, a highly maintained tube amp in its sweet spot is hard to beat; the great thing I find about my SS rig is its stability under almost any conditions.

Bingo! His 68 tone is probably my favorite! His 69-72 comes second.

Totally agree with the amount of maintenance that tube amps require for a gigging musician. Some days I wonder if the "sound crew" wasn't so overwhelmed with the "WoS" and other massive amplification projects if JG would have stayed with tube poweramps?