Grateful Dead Music Forum

I'm not all in on the Jerry rig... though I do have the SMS/Mc/JBL rig, I just can't get down with the OBEL or the look of tiger or wolfe. My band isn't a dead band (I wish) but I really dig the tone and Jerry has been a huge influence for years. I've built two guitars to see how close I can get and yet not appear totally deadhead-ish. These started with bare wood and it took a great deal of the summer for me to figure out the woodworking and finish parts. Here's what's there...

Strat... generic neck and Warmoth body... has a battery compartment in case I decide to imbed the waldo board (it's now on my pedal board). Two Dimarzios with the mid split. The neck is a lollar blackface.

SG - rebuilt wood structure to avoid the batwing pick guard. Dual low wind loller imperials. A dimarzio split coil in the middle.

Both middle pickups are 22.25 inches from the nut to the far end of the pickup.

I've only played the SG for a couple of hours this evening. The strat still needs intonation... so maybe tomorrow. I'll post thoughts as I explore... but would love your thoughts, suggestions, and even criticism.

Both guitars are sweet! Great job on the finishing. Nice pick guard on the SG. That looks real nice!
The only thing else I can say (and I'm sure you've heard me say it before) is that the combination of the buffer in the guitar along with the OBEL is definitely the ultimate set up.
Enjoy and have fun!

Nice work, I have Lollars in my Jerry strat for the the bridge and neck and the super 2 in middle. Love the Lollars. Had trouble with the obel and almost gave up on it but got it re wired and I have to admit its handy to have.

Looks really cool, especially the SG. If you're happy with the result then I wouldn't worry so much about the OBEL/buffer. To me, those are more for functionality than tone. If you is a bunch of stop boxes, especially if you sing, the loop is a really nice thing to have. The post FX master volume is nice too. It does seem to balance out the MUIII as well. Post some clips

I really like the way the SG looks, and the strat looks gorgeous as well. The pickups you chose for each look super snazzy.

You did great man! Go ahead and trick 'em out with the OBEL and the pre. Why not? Real nice.

Chris

Thanks guys. I doubt I'll keep both... but I'm gonna give it a few months to really get to know them. I've never been totally comfortable with Strats... but that scale seems key to the tone. I'm starting to not be annoyed by the middle pickup, especially on the SG. It should be interesting. I'm also not accustom to pickups as hot as the dimarzios... I'll try to work up some clips once I get acclimated to them.

Part of the goal was to figure out how to paint and set up these guitars. The paint portion was frustrating and interesting... I think I got close to competent with nitro rattle cans. The set up learning continues with refining the fret work, action, and the neck adjustments.

Tasteful, very clean work. I'd love to see more closeups. Nice layout on the SG. How many years of Garcia Tone does the SG's tonal palette extend?

I'm curious about the placement of the middle pickup on the Gibson scale length. I would think that it would be less than 22.25" since you're trying to get it to be proportionately at the same position relative to its placement on a Fender scale guitar.

That said, when I added a middle Super 2 to my ES336, I just put it between the neck and bridge pickups since there were no other options. But I am curious if there is an actual sweet spot as it relates to the vibration of the string, which would obviously be different on a Gibson.

jackevorkian wrote:I'm curious about the placement of the middle pickup on the Gibson scale length. I would think that it would be less than 22.25" since you're trying to get it to be proportionately at the same position relative to its placement on a Fender scale guitar.

That said, when I added a middle Super 2 to my ES336, I just put it between the neck and bridge pickups since there were no other options. But I am curious if there is an actual sweet spot as it relates to the vibration of the string, which would obviously be different on a Gibson.

On both, it's 22.25" from the nut to the bridge side of the middle pickup. Not precisely JG... but it's as close as I felt like I needed.

Looks great. Interesting SG body....maybe I just havent looked at one recently but the jack seems in a different spot than I remember. How do you like the rotary? Its a 5-way?

I would give a thumbs up for a Stratoblaster or Waldo for a gain increase. I have found them helpful with my lower output p'ups anyway.

tatittle wrote:Looks great. Interesting SG body....maybe I just havent looked at one recently but the jack seems in a different spot than I remember. How do you like the rotary? Its a 5-way?

I would give a thumbs up for a Stratoblaster or Waldo for a gain increase. I have found them helpful with my lower output p'ups anyway.

in 2007/8 they made a series of three pickup SG's... this is the faded, but altered to avoid the batwing... similar to the SG3. The jack is in that position for all.

The rotary works well and is actually a 6 position... neck, neck + mid, mid, mid + bridge, bridge, and then neck and bridge. The toggle is for the middle pickup and puts in in single coil. I have waldos buffer in a pedal on my board.

I'd love to hear some clips of the SG with the mid p/u. I Jerry'd a strat and I'm completely happy with it and that will probably be the only guitar I'll play dead tunes on. But I do have an SG and in the back of my mind I'm always thinking..."why don't I just put in a mid p/u, obel and buffer" it won't change what's already on there (which I really dig and don't want to change). One thing that always bothers me is how neck heavy it is. Has anybody ever put any extra weight in a SG body to fix that with good results? Aside from loose fishing weights like #13... And the other thing that has held me back was the scale length. I don't know how much of an issue that really is (and no, I'm not gonna use 3 cables )

The hard part of a traditional three pickup SG is the switch. What you see there is a six position rotary... I like it, but many don't. I just don't like the limitations of the three position toggle with three pickups... and definitely didn't want to put a start slider on it.

I bid on an SG that where the guy had pulled the middle pickup and filled an empty cover with lead. I don't find any of them neck heavy, but I use a suede strap (friction) and it just none of mine have had the dive issue.

I dig the late sixties, early seventies tone that Jerry got (live dead - scull and roses I think) with his SG and the SG shaped Les Paul he had.