[Rick Turner]

My big project for 2013 which happens to be my 50th year as a pro luthier. I apprenticed in '63 at the Stringed Instrument Workshop in Boston, Mass.

OK, I'm going to do it...reissue a limited series of Autosalvage/Garcia Peanut guitars.

Neck: Mahogany with 1/8" x 1/2" carbon fiber dadoed into ebony fingerboard and neck,
Ebony fingerboard with block inlays, bound in white, 24 frets
Peghead like original but with no dove wing notch...must evade Nashville lawyers
Double acting "Blanchard" truss rod

Body: Mahogany with walnut veneered back and sides,
body 1 1/2" thick (slightly thicker than SG)
White binding

Pickups: The first one, mine, will have three Duncan Zephyr silver wound pickups. Neck
and bridge will be on one "stereo" channel on the tip; middle pickup on ring.

Controls: Probably a 3 way switch for the neck and bridge with volume and tone, volume
and tone for middle pickup. Tone controls will be push/pull for coil cut.

Hardware: Gotoh Delta 510 tuners, Schaller roller tunamatic bridge, Bigsby on mine, all
hardware gold plated as per original

Options down the road: No vibrato...solid tailpiece; two pickups (as per Garcia), choice of various humbuckers, buffer preamp, buffered OBEL system, bird's eye pickguard plates as per Garcia.

So the first one is going to be closer to what I played in '67 and '68. Future instrument can be more like Jerry's. All will have some improvements...the carbon fiber in the necks, better hardware, full shielding, EVO gold fret wire, better finishes.

[jeffm725]

That's awesome Rick!

[strumminsix]

Fantastic!

[tcsned]

Right on! Post some pics as you get going.

[Smolder]

very cool project.

[Free Jazz]

Inspiration!

"Autosalvage/Garcia" finally back on the radar.

[tigerstrat]

ALRIGHT!

[jkstraw]

Wow - what an awesome project! Great way to celebrate this milestone! Really looking forward to seeing and hearing more!

[TI4-1009]

!!!

[mijknahs]

Very cool project Rick. And thank for taking your time to frequently post your memories and ideas on this Rukind forum. I feel honored to be able to interact with you.

The "Model 1" always reminded me of the Peanut. At least in the body shape.

[SNWRS]

Very cool!

[proshy]

Rick,

That's gonna be pretty awesome! I can't wait to see it!

Pretty inspiring stuff, that 50 years...congrats

Random question: Did you ever hear Garcia's preference for neck shape/profile? What shape/profile will the 'peanut' get?

proshy

[Rick Turner]

The Peanut had a '61 or '62 Les Paul (SG shape) neck...best analogy might be a 335 neck..."C" shape, nice feel, ebony with block inlays. That's what I'll recreate.

I'm doing the first one for myself, and I'm going with the over-the-top Duncan Zephyr pickups...silver magnet wire. I'll get working on it in a couple of weeks, and I'll post pictures as I get going on it. I'll probably set up to make half a dozen as a first run. Some with 3 pickups, some with two and the bird's eye plates that were on it when Jerry had it.

[tcsned]

Awesome! Can't wait to see them.

[jenkins]

That's really cool that you're making a reissue of the peanut, great idea for your 50th year.

The wiring configuration you're talking about for the first one, which is to be yours sounds very interesting.
THe original peanut just has standard wiring or was it wired like that/

I'm wondering what your theory/reasoning for wiring it like that, having the middle pup seperate from the bridge and neck pups is a very interesting concept IMO.
In a setup like that would you be running it into multiple amps? Would you be using a seperate amp for the middle pup or wouuld it all run into the same amp?
Having one amp for the middle pup and another for the bridge and neck sounds like it could be really ccool.

Have you wired and//or played a guitar that's wired like that before? What kind of addvantages/disadvantages do you see to having a setup like that?
To me it looks like it could be a little difficult to get set up right and dialed in but once everything's set up right it could be totally sick..
Any thoughts/theories on that setup would be greatly appreciated.

How exactly did jerry have peanutt wired, if you can remember, was his basically like a LP/SG setup or was it fullly custom?
Was there any sort of blaster/buffer in the original peanut?

Thanks Rick, it's totally unbelievable that we actually get to interact with one of the guys who helped make the Grateful Dead's sound possible.