Grateful Dead Music Forum

Our Jerry player is ready to Jerrify!

He is not necessarily savy regarding electronics and asked me to figure it out.

Here are my thoughts, feel free to set me straight! All work will be done by a professional luthier.

1. Super 2's including routing for the middle pickup.
2. Change to five way switch.
3. Utilize the existing switches for coil split on the neck and bridge pickups. Make sure the north pickup is on for the bridge when the split is engaged.
4. Waldo buffer.

Not sure we will do the OBEL. Because doesn't that require a special box to connect to the effects to the stereo jack?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Jon

No special box needed. You may be thinking of the wheel from AO Guitars. He would need the stereo jack and a Y cable is all. Add the switch to the guitar, or use existing for the on/off for the OBEL. It's simple really. Check out wald electronics for all the info. The tech should know how to do it? Search this site for info. He may not need it, but it is nice to have!

If he's going to use an envelope filter the OBEL really helps- with either the Y cable or a junction box. The AO-style box is useful if you ever need to switch to a non-OBEL guitar.

I that a mahogany neck through? I've had difficulty trying to achieve a post-Gibson era Garcia tone with a mahogany neck guitar. I would probably go with three super 2's or maybe three Super Distortions. I'd install a buffer. OBEL if using a envelope filter. Personal preference should dictate the location of the controls but to avoid changing the current control locations he could keep one volume, one tone, three mini switches for split/humbucker. If he wants to keep the Gibson style pickup switch In the same location he could consider a Freeway switch which will give him all the options of a 5 way switch, plus bridge and neck together.

Personally, I would not Jerry that guitar. The bridge is going to be too far away from the pickups and the mahogany neck is too warm sounding. What's the scale length?
Has he tried a strat? If not he might want to try one with an ash body/maple neck/blocked tremolo/David Allen voodoo69 pickups/buffer and OBEL. It will sound a lot more Jerry than the mahogany neck on that guitar will.

If he is dead set on splitting super 2's, he can get a custom two piece pickguard (so only the section with the knobs/selector switch has to be taken off to do any future electronic work etc.) for the strat with the proper pickup locations.

Won't need a Luthier (unless routing is necessary), just a good tech to do the electronics.

forum/viewtopic.php?f=426&t=13405&p=129 ... rd#p129340
forum/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=14249&p=127 ... rd#p127919

Just another option to think about.

hippieguy1954 wrote:Personally, I would not Jerry that guitar. The bridge is going to be too far away from the pickups and the mahogany neck is too warm sounding. What's the scale length?
Has he tried a strat? If not he might want to try one with an ash body/maple neck/blocked tremolo/David Allen voodoo69 pickups/buffer and OBEL. It will sound a lot more Jerry than the mahogany neck on that guitar will.

If he is dead set on splitting super 2's, he can get a custom two piece pickguard (so only the section with the knobs/selector switch has to be taken off to do any future electronic work etc.) for the strat with the proper pickup locations.

Won't need a Luthier (unless routing is necessary), just a good tech to do the electronics.

forum/viewtopic.php?f=426&t=13405&p=129 ... rd#p129340
forum/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=14249&p=127 ... rd#p127919

Just another option to think about.

I would tend to agree with this. Troy Post had a beautiful Wolf tribute on here not long ago for around 6 bills I believe. Super II's, splits, obel and buffer puts it around a grand. Tough to beat that. Plus his work is so undervalued IMO.

Ok, this all makes sense to me. I will need to go and do some more research on this guitar to see what it is actiually made of. I'll be back with more info. I ppreciate all of your help so far!

Jon

Ok, I have done more research. It looks like alder with mahogany neck through the body. It is the 28" scale length. Not sure that will change opinions. If so let me know.

Thanks everyone.

Jon

Are you sure on the scale length? That seems awfully long for a guitar.

What is the measurement from the fretboard side of the nut to the 12th fret? Double that and there is your scale length.

The mahogany neck will not be as crisp as a maple neck.

Will go back to him again. I don't have the guitar in hand.

Sorry, 25 inches, 24 frets.

Jon