The bearhead half of Terrapin Tuesday

[jeffm725]

OK,
I said there was a Gearhead item related to this wonderful clip.

It is a simple as this. Check out how many times Jer turns on and off the effects loop on his guitar during this 5 minute segment, has to be 8-10 times! First he uses it to toggle disotrtion in and out of the passage. Then about 1/2 way though he foot pedals on the ocatve on the switcher and starts toggling that in and out.

He really was all about that direct send on his axe. That is something that every aspiring Jer can take heed of. Many of us (me included) get wrapped up in the effects side of the loop. To really knock his sound you have to get the variety of sounds he gets on the direct side of the loop, because he has some range there too, check it out, when he has the loop off there is still some bite there. obviously he can get a nice meaty clean tone with the clear snappy bottom, but what interests me is that with the loop off, direct to amp, he can still get a biting over driven sound. Then he switches in the loop with distortion on and it sends it over the top.

I have never seen any Jerry clone use the loop switch to the degree the man himself uses it here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/sQRcVBF8wQc&hl=en_US&fs=1&

[waldo041]

nice!

i think i hear/see him flip into humbucker/series at the beginning of the jam, then on/off's the obel for the distortion, then eventually the octdiv.

he does this obel "toggling" in estimated also, which i don't see much of from the jerry players.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsNn7Sm7NOk

kinda reiterates just why he had the OBEL actually ON the guitar.

peace,
waldo

[aoguitars]

Oh, the big man. You can learn soooo much from watching these two vids really closely. I agree, you don't see a lot of Jerry players implementing the OBEL quite this way.

I gotta say that that Terrapin vid is one of the hottest I've ever seen. Just to see how lively Jerry was and how in control of his tone he was...so very cool.

Thanks for posting these, guys. Gonna have to go rock an old show here in the shop to get my Jerry fix.

[jeffm725]

nice!

i think i hear/see him flip into humbucker/series at the beginning of the jam, then on/off's the obel for the distortion, then eventually the octdiv.

he does this obel "toggling" in estimated also, which i don't see much of from the jerry players.


kinda reiterates just why he had the OBEL actually ON the guitar.

peace,
waldo

Waldo, I think youre right about the series/humbucker..............that is the exact point Im trying to make on how he is overdriving and getting some clean bite out of the direct side of the loop!

[JonnyBoy]

you're right about my obel being less used as Jerry, as of now I use it in two songs maybe three times each, otherwise its on the whole time, and I switch between the GCX. It would be better to have my bite on the regular line. I was going to say a few of those switches he does seem not to be turning on any effects, but to be pushing things a notch or two higher within the same line.... I notice a boost myself with the split toggles. Between the vol and tone knob plus the switches, he pilot's that guitar it like nobody's business. I wonder where he keeps his vol knob for his clean tone about 1/2 or 3/4?

[playingdead]

LOL ... you can see me switching it on and off like a madman during Estimated. One of my favorite things and something I always look for when I see other Garcia players.

[JonnyBoy]

Love the background. You guys sound better and better and better (quality of recordings) every time I catch your vids.

[jdasa]

My personal favorite part of this video is that Jerry is so into it he almost falls over backward at 2:07.

[tcsned]

Yeah, the more I think about it the more I'm convinced that I need to get the OBEL put into my under construction guitar. i don't think I have the control cavity space on my WGD since it is already packed full with crap from the midi pickup. I have resisted it because I am not one to mess a lot with my guitar controls while playing and thought that it would be something that I wouldn't use enough to warrant the cable hassles involved but Terrapin is the perfect tune to make an argument for it. The arpeggio part really calls for some effects and different ones each time through but the chorded part is best with a cleaner sound. Since the parts a fairly short I find myself in a frantic tap dance on the pedals to turn them on and off each pass through and it never fails that a cable gets in the way of a stomp box and I wind up a little late on the draw. It starts to get laborious and a distraction from playing.

This really speaks to the genius of the OBEL which has been much discussed on this board. It is an innovation that should be more widely in use amongst professional players. I can see why it isn't something on production guitars but for touring players it makes a whole lot of sense no matter what kind of music you play.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson - them boys were smart, S-M-R-T smart.