Grateful Dead Music Forum

Really love 72 & 73-74 tone... Alligator, early Wolf. Have a Strat with Bootstrap 54 Vintage Sparkle pickups that does a good job. Would like to have a guitar that can still get those eras but also get some later Wolf, early Tiger tones. Have any of you done this with a guitar, if so what did you do?

Was thinkin' maybe a Stat style pickup in the middle to cover the 72 & 73-74 tones and then Humbuckers in the neck & bridge with coil splitting for the later stuff. Thoughts, suggestions?

I think you would still need a Super 2 pickup in the middle with a coil tap to achieve that. Then neck and bridge what ever you prefer. ,Paul

My Alembic Series 1 guitar does a pretty good job I think, as does my Turner Electroline guitar.

My Bean sounds right for nearly ALL of the Dead, as long as ya learn the art of adjusting your volume and tone controls right . My Wolf copy can cover about the same, only tone it really doesnt get is the 65-69 tone. From 70 on both the Bean and Wolf cover A LOT. Use the right pickups and im sure you can get a guitar that would do all of their stuff. I was shocked to hear the Bean be so close to Jerrys in the 80s. It naturally has that tone.

Darkstar860 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 4:43 am My Bean sounds right for nearly ALL of the Dead, as long as ya learn the art of adjusting your volume and tone controls right . My Wolf copy can cover about the same, only tone it really doesnt get is the 65-69 tone. From 70 on both the Bean and Wolf cover A LOT. Use the right pickups and im sure you can get a guitar that would do all of their stuff. I was shocked to hear the Bean be so close to Jerrys in the 80s. It naturally has that tone.

Nice to hear, as I've been thinking about getting a TB-like axe. Is yours original or a newer remake/tribute?

I recently got a Bean reissue. I adore it. But it doesn't cover all the eras to my ear. Two hum buckers. No middle pickup. I have a wolf replica and a strat. I think one of those is more versatile for covering the range of Jerry. just my opinion

My Bean is a newer built one. Set your volumes on both pickups at 5 and the tone pots at 5-7. There are SOOOO many hidden tones in this guitar and it really plays off your picking attack/dynamics. Once ya get comfortable with a Bean and get to know it, for me i can cover sooooo much ground. I dont need the middle pickup. Which sounds crazy but im telling ya that tone is hidden in that guitar for sure. I noticed i can get a 72 Jerry tone to a T if my volume and tone is set to 5 and 5. Use the bridge position with the switch and pick near the bridge. Its wild. Gotta remember the high out put the pickups are, i only turn my volume up to maybe 7 max during a solo or this or that. Different strokes for different folks i guess

I will try this!
Thanks!

I'm slowly modding my start to become a strat\wolf, however, I think most of the jerry sound is in the amp\pedals interaction. Yesterday I was jamming with a friend of mine and he was achieving early 70s jerry with a telecaster and a cheap practice amp

Put Super Distortions in the bridge and middle positions in a Strat, and a Super II in the neck. Coil split , and you will be happy.

Thanks everybody for dropping in. My Strat does a really good job on the early stuff, but is just a bit lacking when playing stuff like Althea, West LA, etc. Looking to get a different guitar and play around with pickup configurations, hopefully come up with something that's a nice compromise.

Put a Dimarzio in the middle position of your strat. I know i know... ya need a new pickguard but the HHS setup is what ya want to get those tones w/ coil tap

I play everything on an SG.

Just did a gig all on my Travis Bean and i was able to nail every Jerry tone from old to later. Im telling ya its all in the volume and tone knobs. Im using a SMS CTP into ART SLA-1 with a 2x12 cab with E-120s. I cant explain how good this setup sounds.