Grateful Dead Music Forum

Going for a jerry tone much like in a '74-'77 dark star. Also like a jazz tone sometimes as well...what do yall think?

I'll preface by saying I don't see why you wouldn't put those pups on a Paul- probably sound great- however the handful of Dark Stars from that time span all occurred in 1974, and all were played on the Wolf when it had three strat pickups. The next Dark Star after 10/18/74 was 12/31/78- that one was on Wolf with 2 Supers(not 2's)/1 SDS-1.

I'd have to agree, I have a '78 Les Paul that someone had put Super IIs in before I got it in the early 80s. I was never happy with the bridge pickup sound and pretty much gigged for 5 years or so with the neck pickup only. I replaced them with Classic 57s and was much happier with the tone. Not that I am a big freak for recreating a Jerry tone but it gets a pretty decent Jerry '68-71 LP era stuff. Though I believe he had P-90s on his early LPs. I have a Cocobolo/Maple custom Tele with P-94s (P-90s that fit a humbucker rout). They might be a good option - not really clean sounding but a good gritty edge to them and sounds great in the middle position.

Of course, had I know at the time that Jerry used Super IIs I might have had a different impression of them