Hi guys,
Big thanks for Tim Marcus at Milkman, Brian at IO and Brad Sarno over the years for helping me in my quest for great Garcia tone, you guys really keep it alive. i have been chasing the dragon for a number of years because it’s just so much damn fun. And, yeah, full on GAS with gear. And of course, Davey on YouTube, he’s great and hilarious.
Brad gave me some great advice on building a Jerry Tiger clone from an old Mexican Strat. It’s a real player now, Wald buffer, OBEL, Dimarzios etc and it just a wonderful instrument. I’ve always been one to utilize reasonably priced gear and I thought I would share some recent finds.
So as a big jerry fan who has no shortage of “toys”, I thought I would shout out a couple of really awesome amp finds. My main performing rig is a Milkman the Amp 100 into Tim’s new Milkman Alnico (his take on the JBL), just a 1x12 cabinet. With the OBEL, it’s wonderful. BUT…always got to have other toys.
SO…
Yamaha G100 112: I bought a yamaha g100 112 for $175 a few weeks ago. It needed some TLC but nothing some deoxit couldn’t fix. It’s a 100 watt solid state amp with beautiful clean vintage headroom. Great amp for jerry on a budget, plus an optional extension cab out and direct out - plus parametric eq. For a 40 year old amp - co designed by Paul Rivera, it’s a keeper. Apparently jerry actually messed around with these amps as well, per Big Steve, as practice amps (maybe he had the G5??). Robben Ford & Mike Stern were big fans of these amps. This morning, I took it apart and replaced the Yamaha stock speaker with a Weber California, aluminum dome. Instant Jerry. The Yamaha speaker is actually a nice speaker, but I wanted to as close to Jerry as possible on a budget. The Yamaha amp is 100w, and the Weber Cali is only rated at 80w, so I can’t crank it to 10, but as is it’s plenty loud. So for under $300, that’s a find.
Fender Mustang I V2: I also bought a fender mustang I v2 amp for $50. I believe this was Fender’s first foray into DSP modeling, but the Fender Twin Reverb preset/setting is superb on this little beast. It’s a small amp - just 20 watts and an 8” speaker - but, change out the cheap speaker to a WGS G8C and you have a beautiful little portable jerry style amp that really kicks ass. Pair that with fender fuse software via usb and ask chat gpt for a Cornell 77 preset settings and you have absolute magic. Use the aux input with a Fiio Bluetooth DAC receiver and some Sony md7601 headphones for quiet jamming along and you have a real winner for less than $100. Using ChatGPT and Fuse, I built out settings for ‘77, ‘78, ‘80,’89/90 and bobby settings in fuse (need an older computer as that software is discontinued) but just wow for a fun, small little amp. If anyone wants these .fuse files, I’m happy to share. Incidentally, I bought another one of these for my son, who is new to guitar and a Beatlemaniac. I ordered him a Jensen Mod 8 speaker which we will install this week - less Jerry and more a “all purpose”. FYI, when you replace the speakers in the Mustang, you will notice a 3rd ground wire soldered to the old speaker. Just put a U fitting on that and ground it to a speaker screw when you reinstall the speaker (IE - speaker, then u fitting, then install the screw (so the U fitting is against the speaker metal).
Bugera V22 Head (Infinium - orange light on top): This is an other wonderful amp head (or cabinet). The key to getting Jerry is to replace the V1 tube with a 5751. That pulls back the gain into nice Jerry territory. i also tried a 12AY7 and 12AT7, but the 5751 is the magic in that amp. You can change out the stock speaker in the actual amp (to Tone Tubby, Cannibis Rex or Weber Cali); although in mine I used a separate 1x12 with an Eminence Legend which sound really nice (i have the amp head version)
But these above options are really great on a budget.
Again, thanks to all who have helped me on my journey!
Big thanks for Tim Marcus at Milkman, Brian at IO and Brad Sarno over the years for helping me in my quest for great Garcia tone, you guys really keep it alive. i have been chasing the dragon for a number of years because it’s just so much damn fun. And, yeah, full on GAS with gear. And of course, Davey on YouTube, he’s great and hilarious.
Brad gave me some great advice on building a Jerry Tiger clone from an old Mexican Strat. It’s a real player now, Wald buffer, OBEL, Dimarzios etc and it just a wonderful instrument. I’ve always been one to utilize reasonably priced gear and I thought I would share some recent finds.
So as a big jerry fan who has no shortage of “toys”, I thought I would shout out a couple of really awesome amp finds. My main performing rig is a Milkman the Amp 100 into Tim’s new Milkman Alnico (his take on the JBL), just a 1x12 cabinet. With the OBEL, it’s wonderful. BUT…always got to have other toys.
SO…
Yamaha G100 112: I bought a yamaha g100 112 for $175 a few weeks ago. It needed some TLC but nothing some deoxit couldn’t fix. It’s a 100 watt solid state amp with beautiful clean vintage headroom. Great amp for jerry on a budget, plus an optional extension cab out and direct out - plus parametric eq. For a 40 year old amp - co designed by Paul Rivera, it’s a keeper. Apparently jerry actually messed around with these amps as well, per Big Steve, as practice amps (maybe he had the G5??). Robben Ford & Mike Stern were big fans of these amps. This morning, I took it apart and replaced the Yamaha stock speaker with a Weber California, aluminum dome. Instant Jerry. The Yamaha speaker is actually a nice speaker, but I wanted to as close to Jerry as possible on a budget. The Yamaha amp is 100w, and the Weber Cali is only rated at 80w, so I can’t crank it to 10, but as is it’s plenty loud. So for under $300, that’s a find.
Fender Mustang I V2: I also bought a fender mustang I v2 amp for $50. I believe this was Fender’s first foray into DSP modeling, but the Fender Twin Reverb preset/setting is superb on this little beast. It’s a small amp - just 20 watts and an 8” speaker - but, change out the cheap speaker to a WGS G8C and you have a beautiful little portable jerry style amp that really kicks ass. Pair that with fender fuse software via usb and ask chat gpt for a Cornell 77 preset settings and you have absolute magic. Use the aux input with a Fiio Bluetooth DAC receiver and some Sony md7601 headphones for quiet jamming along and you have a real winner for less than $100. Using ChatGPT and Fuse, I built out settings for ‘77, ‘78, ‘80,’89/90 and bobby settings in fuse (need an older computer as that software is discontinued) but just wow for a fun, small little amp. If anyone wants these .fuse files, I’m happy to share. Incidentally, I bought another one of these for my son, who is new to guitar and a Beatlemaniac. I ordered him a Jensen Mod 8 speaker which we will install this week - less Jerry and more a “all purpose”. FYI, when you replace the speakers in the Mustang, you will notice a 3rd ground wire soldered to the old speaker. Just put a U fitting on that and ground it to a speaker screw when you reinstall the speaker (IE - speaker, then u fitting, then install the screw (so the U fitting is against the speaker metal).
Bugera V22 Head (Infinium - orange light on top): This is an other wonderful amp head (or cabinet). The key to getting Jerry is to replace the V1 tube with a 5751. That pulls back the gain into nice Jerry territory. i also tried a 12AY7 and 12AT7, but the 5751 is the magic in that amp. You can change out the stock speaker in the actual amp (to Tone Tubby, Cannibis Rex or Weber Cali); although in mine I used a separate 1x12 with an Eminence Legend which sound really nice (i have the amp head version)
But these above options are really great on a budget.
Again, thanks to all who have helped me on my journey!
