Hey Now from Portland Oregon!

[JustinJohn]

Greetings everyone! =)

I'm Justin - I play the Jerry guitar stuff for Portland's "Garcia Birthday Band" - Goin' on a year now for me with GBB, but the band has been around for 6+ years. Before that back in the late 90's - mid 2000's I played in Los Angeles' "Cubensis" for about 8 years. I've been a Deadhead since 92, been playin guitar since 1987. Still learnin' as much as I can as often as I can.

Currently I play a Conn C-series neck-through-body Strat (all brass hardware) through a 1971 Fender TwinReverb with a JBL e120-8. I run the amp at 50watts (I get a way way better tone at lower volume at 50watts), and as such I only run 1 speaker - which is plenty! As for pedals I use: an Analogman "Silver" modded Ts9 with the drive set to "off" to give my clean tone a very slight edginess > an EH Qtron envelope filter > EH small stone Phaser > an Analogman "silver" modded Boss SD-1 for my main distortion sound > Line 6 DL4 Delay modeler pedal for 3 different delays > A Divided by 13 "Switchazel" A/B/Y tuner-out and "Lift" pedal (everyone needs one of these!)... and the whole thing is wired with George L's cable.


I get some really good Jerry tone with this setup - check it out:

Playin in the Band (Jam) - the outro (pre-reprise) jam of playin' ...I think I use just about every combination of sound and effect during this 4min jam.

I came to R U Kind originally because I'm doing some Frankenstein-ization to my rig. My twin, as it stands with 1 speaker is just too damn heavy - nearly 80 lbs - and I've sustained 2 injuries (knee, shoulder) while lugging it around. So I'm splitting it up into head / speaker cab - Which looks cooler anyway! =P ...I bought a Mojotone Twin Reverb Head Cab (black tolex, black grill), and a SSP 2x12 enclosure which I'm waiting for (gonna load both my JBLs =). All in all they add up to more weight than my current amp (LOL), but should be more negligible to move around as a pair. I've also been seriously considering goin' all the way with the fx loop/preamp that waldo makes... just need to save some dough. =)

Anyway - I'm glad to join you folks here. You're all pretty damn knowledgeable and this seems like a kind place!

~Cheers!

Justin

[jkstraw]

Welcome Justin......your clip just made my morning! Great sounding setup and your playing is killer! Looking forward to hearing and seeing how your mods go.

[tigerstrat]

So glad you made it, Justin! (It's Tom from Ramblin'/ Cats Under). Been waiting to hear whether you still want me to wire your strat up, but I was starting to figure you'd decided (understandably) to do the whole thing with a pro who can also do your body routing.

Waldo's pre can be a very cost-effective first step prior to doing the loop and H-H-H mods. If you are hard up as to where to put the 9V, flip your output jack plate over (and reverse the jack) so it's concave! Voila- perfect battery cavity, and 100% undoable.

We'll have to play together at some point.. in this scene it's darn near unavoidable!

[strumminsix]

Yo! Welcome!

[NWPines]

Howdy, from just down the road. You've certainly come to the right place for equipment ideas/information. Welcome aboard.

Nice playing by the way. A really good friend of mine just moved up there, so I'm hoping to drag my lazy arse up there more often and finally see some of you Portland guys play live.

[JustinJohn]

Thanks for the kind words folks! =) It's nice to be amongst gear heads, Deadheads, and players with similar interests!

Heya Tom!! Haha - fancy seein' you here! I'm gonna get to doin' that mod one of these days... and I will definitely come callin' when I get er' all ready to go. =) Just need to get everything in my hands, the guitar routed for humbuckers (gonna do the S,H,H rout), and all the cables and such (I'd like to do the Loop/preamp all at once). Gotta save up for it all - the amp stuff has put my budget back quite a bit, and I'm still waiting on stuff to finish it. Steely Pete mentioned he has a way to mark and drill the holes for the chassis once I get ready to do the transplant - I'm so excited to get this whole thing rollin! LOL I'll definitely make a post in the appropriate forum once all this stuff starts goin down.

That's an interesting idea there about flipping the guitar's input jack housing inside out.... There may even be enough room there for both the jacks! What I was planning on doing was routing a battery slot in the back of the guitar somewhere and then have a 2-hole brass plate (Similar to Jerry's) custom fabricated for the inputs. My pal Craig from LA (Cubensis guy) mentioned that the preamp/loop can be sketchy when the battery gets low, and can crap out on you at the worst moments. Seems like a wise idea to have that batter-slot easily accessible, and a spare battery ready to go at a moments notice - just in case.

=)

[JamminJommy]

Welcome aboard! I'm from San Francisco/LA (depending on the time of year) and have been looking for a reason to go to Portland. Reason found.

+1 on having that battery cavity easily accessible.

You're an excellent player! The condensed, more manageable size of a cab/head should make it easier to carry besides the weight reduction, so I can't wait to see the finished product.

I started following QB this past year and the whole scene has been very kind (and very lively!)

YAY!

Peace,

Jommy