[jefkahn]

Hey there, everyone. I love reading the forum and finally got around to registering. It's my first post, so bear with me.

I'm impressed by all of you who have constructed your own Tiger. For those of us who don't want to put in the $ for that (assuming I would know how to do make a Tiger if I had the money), what stock guitar do you think would get closest to Tiger's sound? I know--none of them would be close, but what would be closest? I assume something with single coils or at the least buckers that could be split, a heavy guitar, etc. I wouldn't look for all of Tiger's electronics, just a relatively cheap (less than $2K) guitar that wouldn't be too far off. I know my Strat doesn't have the sustain, and from what I know of Les Pauls they wouldn't have the brightness. Any other thoughts about this?

Or am I just going to be frustrated trying?

Jef

[paulinnc]

I would think maybe an old ibanez or some sort of 70's japanese neck through that you could have modded.

[mkaufman]

I would look for an Ibanez Musician MC500 or MC550. Even without modding, they are great guitars and work well as a Jerry guitar.

Michael

[billy_v]

Check out Troy Post's work. He builds entirely by hand, from raw boards, and his work is insanely affordable. He's working on my second Post guitar right now, with the body outline styled after, but not identical to, Rosebud, but neck-through. It'll be the second guitar of this style he's built; the first he made for his "own amusement," combining aspects he likes of the Irwins and the Cripes. I've had my Skyline for not quite a year, and it's one of those guitars where you can throw the pickup selector into any position and get tons of tones by using your hands, and you forget about the switch and knobs. His fret work is like glass. Order one now, before the words gets out! I don't have a pic of my Skyline on this puter, but here's a pic of his first JG guitar. http://www.postguitars.com

Post.jpg

[mkaufman]

Troy's work is very nice!!

mk

[jefkahn]

Thanks for the ideas. The Ibanez seems a just a tad more affordable than the customs.

For the Tiger tone and versatility, how important is it to have all single coils versus buckers with coil taps? The Ibanez musicians appear to have buckers.

[mkaufman]

The MC300, MC500 & MC550 have trisound switches on both neck & bridge pickups. Depending on the year, the switch settings are HB series, single coil, phase reversal or HB series, single coil, HB parallel. The MC400, MC500 & MC550 add a great pre-amp/EQ.

mk

[mijknahs]

You know, the DiMarzio Super II in the middle position is "THE SOUND" of the Tiger. And only in single coil mode too. You could get close with single coils or with other brand pickups but if you really want "THAT SOUND", the you'll need to get a DiMarzio Super II in the middle position. The other pickups don't really matter. Keep the stock ones if you like them.

Jim

[mijknahs]

You know, the DiMarzio Super II in the middle position is "THE SOUND" of the Tiger. And only in single coil mode too. You could get close with single coils or with other brand pickups but if you really want "THAT SOUND", the you'll need to get a DiMarzio Super II in the middle position. The other pickups don't really matter. Keep the stock ones if you like them.

Jim

[jefkahn]

I would think the Super II needs to be on a heavy body to have *that* sound. I gather it's the combination of the naturally dark sound that comes from a heavy-sustain guitar and the brightness of the Super II. A Super II on a bolt-on necked guitar, for example, would be too much high-end.

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

For those that find the Super II to be too crispy bright, just try the Dual Sound instead. It's the hotter wound, meatier and darker version of the same pickup. Jerry's '78 to '82 tone before he switched to Super II's.

Brad

[tapestry]

Here are my guitars for a low budget Tiger:

http://gallery.me.com/macmaster69#100115

the ibanez is a mc300 i got for about 300 bucks. the warmouth I bought on ebay for 500 bucks, but you can build your own for less than a grand.

I did all the work on them myself including the electronics and brass - that saved me a ton of money as well.

[alcorelectric]

A couple of points I would like to clarify
1. The dual Trisounds were in the 300,400,500 series(including the respective 50s couterparts)
2. The MCs are heavy git 9+lbs
3. The super 88s in the MCs are very close to SuperIIs (same mags, approx. same resistance)

I have a 300 available if interested
I am in the south burbs of Chicago

HTH
T

[keirweir]

Phiga builds decent Garcia style guitars for under $2k

http://www.philgawen.com/phigaguitars.htm

[Jon S.]

There are excellent references and suggestions in this thread, however, none answer the OP's question in quite the manner I myself had hoped.

Let me try to rephrase how I interpreted the question in this post, see if there are any responses, and if (as I suspect) there are none perhaps I'll start a separate thread on it:

What stock new (not vintage), off-the-shelf from a real or on-line music store (not a guitar that must be ordered, often with many custom choices/options, and awaited while the luthier builds it) guitars are most like Tiger?

As an example of the type of answers I'm hoping for, were the same question posted re: Wolf instead of Tiger, I'd reply "Carvin DC400A." And by most like, I mean exactly that: "most like." This gives you great creative license in responding. A taxonomist or biologist, for example, might say the animal most like a horseshoe crab is a spider which would not occur to most people given what each looks like and where you find them BUT from an evolutionary standpoint, blood components, etc. it's accurate. Be equally creative here! Don't worry if your choice doesn't look a thing like Tiger. Approach it as a musician: you need to cover Garcia's work on Tiger with a stock new guitar and sound as close to how he sounded as possible under the circumstances. What will you choose?!