Grateful Dead Music Forum

I came across this video on YouTube and I was pretty shocked to see jerry playing wolf for an entire show in '89.

I knew that he busted out wolf again in '89 to test out his midi rig but I always just assumed that he only used it during space, which is when he would usually bust out his midi.

But he actually played wolf for the whole snow, and it sounded awesome!

The whole show is kick ass, the boys were on fire that night.

It's really interesting to see Jerry experimenting with the midi and playing a guitar he's not exactly used to anymore.
It's also very interesting to see how he used the midi and blended it with his regular tone.
It seems like he used the midi in a lot more places than he ended up using it later on, and it's really cool to compare the tone of wolf through his late 80's rig compared to how tiger sounded and how wolf sounded in the 70's.

I'm sure many of you already know all about this but I had never seen this at all and found it highly interesting, and it is a really great show. Im a 70's guy all the way, it's been like 2 years since I've actually listened to an 80's show start to finish. This one just kicks ass, Jerry's tone is unreal and the whole band is just on, it has that feel that the 70's shows had where it just looks like they're having a blast.

I'm really wondering a couple things. First im wondering if they changed the pups in wolf to new super 2's or if they kept the dual sounds from the 70's in there. They look to me like a set of white super 2's but I really have no clue. I wonder If they reworked wolf for these shows or if they jus slappeMd on the Roland and some new strings.

I also wonder what he was using to amp the Roland. Is this what the crest 8001 was used for in 89? Anybody have any idea if the crest was here for fall of 89?
Did he play wolf the whole tour, or run of shows or was it a one off deal?

I can't figure out how to link youtubes from my iPhone but if you search grateful dead 10-12-89 on YouTube you'll find it.
They have the entire show but if you don't have time to watch a whole show check out the wharf rat that'll come up under the same search, it's totally epic and jerry is really experimenting with the midi in it. He's fucking with the Roland for a lot of the song and it sounds awesome.
Around the 6 Minute mark is interesting, it's right at the end of the solo before they go back to the singing and you actually see him fumble around for a second trying to find the switch for his OBEL, cuz he's obviously used to playing tiger at that point. It's funny, I've never seen him fumble around on his guitar like that and actually have to look down, but he still pulls it off with no fuck ups.

Lot of interesting shit going on in this show. Toward the end, when they're coming out of space Jerry gets some sick midi tones and switches back and forth between midi and distortion. He actually goes back to his rack and fucks with his pedals a few times, which I don't think I've ever seen him do. He's totally adjusting his distortion. That whole part is interesting bc you can see him almost having problems with his volume and it seems like he was actually louder without the OBEL turned on bc he hits his toggle and bam, bright loud jerry tone.

He must use two rigs right?
it looks like His guitar volume and his midi volume are completely independent of each other. I always just assumed he had some sort of special blender but I don't think so, looks like he just had two volumes.
There's one part of wharf rat where you can clearly see him turn down the midi and turn up his guitar. He also does some nice blending of both tones.

At any rate, it is a sick show and a very interesting show to hear if for nothing else but to compare the tone of tiger and wolf, it's wolf through his 80's rig....how freekin cool is that?!

Highly recommended.

Cool! For some reason I thought that Jerry had only used Wolf at the Hampton at the Warlocks shows from that Fall. Here's the link to the Meadowlands show:


**edited to fix YouTube link**

The inspiration for my guitar ..... someday I want to explore MIDI sounds ....

Tennessee Jedi wrote: someday I want to explore MIDI sounds ....

It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys playing nude twister. I just gave my GR-30 to our rhythm guitarist to play with. She's still getting used to it, hopefully she'll break it out Saturday at our gig. You can find the 30s and 33s (the one I use) pretty cheaply. The 33 sounds seem much more convincing to me. I haven't tried the GR-55 yet to see how those sound.

caspersvapors wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sts6I101jpo

Those were two awesome shows, the five hour drive home and arriving an hour before having to go to work and swing a sledge hammer for 8 hours was not so awesome. Anyone know how many shows Jerry used Wolf on that tour?

tcsned wrote:

Tennessee Jedi wrote: someday I want to explore MIDI sounds ....

It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys playing nude twister. I just gave my GR-30 to our rhythm guitarist to play with. She's still getting used to it, hopefully she'll break it out Saturday at our gig. You can find the 30s and 33s (the one I use) pretty cheaply. The 33 sounds seem much more convincing to me. I haven't tried the GR-55 yet to see how those sound.

Hahaha, that's some funny shit, more fun than a barrel of monkeys playing nude twister. LOL, that's great.

Thanks a lot for posting the links, I couldn't do that on my iPhone.

Does anyone know when he busted tiger back out? I really wanna hear a comparison of tiger and wolf;it's gotta be one of the only times we can compare tiger n wolf on the same rig, I'm very interested in the tonal differences.

On Waldo's page, which is the sickest rundown of Jerry's amps ever btw, he said the crest 8001 was on top of the 2300 for late 89-spring 90. I think it's safe to assume this was his midi amp?. I wonder what cab he ran it into; was it mic'd or ran direct? Is there a reason he didn't just use the other channel of his mc2300? Did he start doing that when he lost the crest or was the other Mac channel already being used? Whole thing is highly interesting to me. I love seeing him adjusting the volume on both to blend his tones, sick!! It's so cool how this guy had such incredible tone yet was still always searching for the sound; he never stopped trying to bring it to another level which is just so cool IMO.

I totally forgot about fall 89, awesome time for the band, the boys were just on fire and totally raging it, a definite peak in their career.

Ive never got to play with one too much but the gk-33 is definitely legit. My buddy who was in the Band 'electric mayhem' out of CT used one for a while and the thing was fkn sick. This kid got some of the best jerry tones I've ever heard and he got it out of a Roland jc-120 with jbls in it. Then for some tunes he would play organ on the gk-33 and you woulda swore there was a Hammond with a Leslie hiding on stage somewhere, it was sick. He also got an incredibly real sounding sax sound which was kick ass as well. This dude even used it in place of a mutron and it sounded simply awesome, very close to a real mutron, the avg head wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

When money isnt a concern anymore a gk-33 is definitely gonna be part of my rig no doubt. The things that can be done with it are just awesome.

jenkins wrote:Does anyone know when he busted tiger back out? I really wanna hear a comparison of tiger and wolf;it's gotta be one of the only times we can compare tiger n wolf on the same rig, I'm very interested in the tonal differences.

Tiger did not return until the final show of 1995, afaik. Jerry used Wolf as his main guitar from September '89 clear up to New Year's Eve. The first show of 1990, he began playing Rosebud. So 8/19/89 Greek Theater (awesome! show!) is Tiger's farewell show as the main axe ... best as I can tell.

You CAN compare Wolf vs Tiger in the same show, beginning with Deer Creek 7/15/89 and the Alpine shows. But these are mostly using Wolf just for Space. Best comparison probably comes during Alpine 7/19/89 (Downhill From Here) where he actually plays the first half of "Other One" on Wolf and then switches back to Tiger.

jenkins wrote:
When money isnt a concern anymore a gk-33 is definitely gonna be part of my rig no doubt. The things that can be done with it are just awesome.

I'd recommend getting the GK-3 pickup I just started using one after using the GK2 and it seems to track much better.

tigerstrat wrote:

jenkins wrote:Does anyone know when he busted tiger back out? I really wanna hear a comparison of tiger and wolf;it's gotta be one of the only times we can compare tiger n wolf on the same rig, I'm very interested in the tonal differences.

Tiger did not return until the final show of 1995, afaik. Jerry used Wolf as his main guitar from September '89 clear up to New Year's Eve. The first show of 1990, he began playing Rosebud. So 8/19/89 Greek Theater (awesome! show!) is Tiger's farewell show as the main axe ... best as I can tell.

You CAN compare Wolf vs Tiger in the same show, beginning with Deer Creek 7/15/89 and the Alpine shows. But these are mostly using Wolf just for Space. Best comparison probably comes during Alpine 7/19/89 (Downhill From Here) where he actually plays the first half of "Other One" on Wolf and then switches back to Tiger.

Awesome info tigerstrat, exactly what I was looking for.
This is the kinda shit that just amazes me about rukind.
Pretty much any question you have somebody on here will have an answer for.

So he did use wolf for the whole fall tour? That's awesome.
Must've been so cool to be at those shows and see him bust out his ax from the 70's!
It's got a killer killer tone too!

I totally forgot that he retired tiger in 89, for some reason I was thinkin more like 90-91.

That makes me wonder why he didn't put the Roland onto tiger, did he think it was too nice an ax?
Did he consider wolf to be his "beater" guitar at that point? LOL
Or was there some other reason, like tiger not having enough room for the Roland?

So when rosebud came out during the first show of 90 did it have the gutted gk-3 pup built into it?
Now that is an insane guitar, the pups, all the options for single/humbucker etc, the OBEL and a Roland gk-3 gutted and installed onto the guitar?! That's gotta be one of the most technically advanced guitar ever as far as electronics go.
You can see him fumbling for the up/down buttons etc in the 10/12/89 vid; that must've been so awesome to then have all of it wired right into the ax so the buttons and knob is right there and super ergonomical. Simply awesome.
Jerry was a genius at coming up with ways to set up his ax; didn't he personally invent the concept for the OBEL?
. There's nothing like an OBEL, simply genius guitar engineering

I'm gonna have to go check out the downhill from here video, I've never seen it and didn't realize wolf is in it.
But his rig from summer 89 to fall 89 is pretty much identical except for the addition of midi right?
So I gotta go back to compare it to the wolf, not forward.
But that's awesome he played em both in the same song!! I need to see that.


Side note: the fact that he finished his last show ever with tiger is just mindblowing to me, that's some serious synchronicity right there holy shit. Almost as if he knew it was the end & he got out his old buddy for one last rip. Bolt had a problem right? Makes me wonder why he didn't bust out rosebud instead. He never played tophat right?, I wonder why he didn't wanna try that one out.
Now I gotta go listen to the final show too so I can compare the tone of bolt to tiger lol. He was playing lightning bolt at the beginning of the show right?

In the interest of accuracy - I think a previous thread vetted the info from the dozin site and the gearbook and came to the conclusion that Tiger was not in fact used at the last show

I'll try and find the link to the thread. Maybe waldo will chime in as well as I seem to remember he did some research around it. Happy to be wrong though!

edit - link to thread and discussion (incl. video proof): forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=7685&hilit= ... 120#p90905 (pg 9/11)

jkstraw wrote:In the interest of accuracy - I think a previous thread vetted the info from the dozin site and the gearbook and came to the conclusion that Tiger was not in fact used at the last show

I'll try and find the link to the thread. Maybe waldo will chime in as well as I seem to remember he did some research around it. Happy to be wrong though!

edit - link to thread and discussion (incl. video proof): forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=7685&hilit= ... 120#p90905 (pg 9/11)

Ha, thanks jkstrw, I was just mindlessly repeating old misinformation which I never checked out for myself. I stand corrected. I actually missed the Soldier shows because I contracted the mumps earlier in the tour.

LOL, you actually caught the mumps on tour? Damn
The mumps ain't fun I've heard, although it has a funny name.

But hold up, tiger wasnt used at all for the last show?
I thought that he had played lightning bolt for most of the show and then it developed some sort of problem & he broke out tiger for just the last couple songs.
That's not true?

jenkins wrote:LOL, you actually caught the mumps on tour? Damn
The mumps ain't fun I've heard, although it has a funny name.

But hold up, tiger wasnt used at all for the last show?
I thought that he had played lightning bolt for most of the show and then it developed some sort of problem & he broke out tiger for just the last couple songs.
That's not true?

Bolt was in the shop (I forget why) And Rosie was the main axe for the night. It has been said that it developed problems and he finished with Tiger, but I guess that may not be true. It would be nice if it was though

Ok I just realized something. If you wan to compare wolf to Rosie, the cd without a net is perfect.

The first 5 songs of without a net are all recorded in fall of 89 when he was playin wolf.

The rest of the album is all spring of 1990, which I believe was all played on rosie with her internally wired gk-2.
I love that without a net though it always pissed me off they cut it out in the middle of the jam, but SICK!
The part towards the end where Jerry switches his tone to be a flute is fuckin so sick, u hear him hit two notes to get a feel for the tone & then he jus let's it rip, it's an awesome jam.

But that album is probably the best way to compare wolf to rosebud, cant really get better than that especially considering the sound quality. Honestly they both sound very similar and awesome. His tone on feel like a stranger is fuckin nuts!

According to Waldo's page Jerry broke out rosebud on 12-31-89 and it was his main ax until lightning bolt was given to him.

Always wondered what Irwin thought about Jerry replacing Rosie with a guitar that was essentially a clone of his tiger and rosebud design. Seems like Jerry though the cripes played better, there's a quote from him where he talks about the ergonomics of the guitar being perfect. I wonder how insulted Irwin was by that. Bet he wasnt insulted when he won the court case and got to sell tiger for 800 G's though!!