"He slept with these instruments," said equipment manager Steve Parish, who handled Garcia's guitars for more than 25 years. " You could lose amps. You could break things, and sometimes we did. But I could never look Jerry in the eye and say, 'I don't have your guitar."
Jerry had about 25 guitars, but 70% of his time in the spotlight he played just 3, all custom built by the same luthier.
His first was a Danelectro (age 15). His acoustic in the days with Robert Hunter prior to his switch to the banjo is uncertain.
With the Warlocks
in '65 age 23 he played a red Guild Starfire,
also used on the 1st Dead albumn.
1966- same guitar
1967-Guild and then
in the summer he switched to a black
1957 Gibsons Les Pauls
with P90's with covers removed and Bigsby tremolo
1968 - Gold-top Les Paul with P-90 single coil
p/u's. 3 Twin Reverbs, 2 Fender 4x12 cabinets, JBL D120 speakers
1968 Summer- switches to
another
Black Gibson
1969- Gibson SG with a Vox Crybaby wah-wah pedal.
Played on Live Dead
1970- 1963
Sunburst Strat with Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard
Martin D-18 and a ZB pedal steel on Wokingman's
Dead, American Beauty
By May 1970 he's back on the Gibson SG like
above
1971- Sunburst Les Paul
March and April Jer switches
to a custom built guitar. Said to be a Alembic project
May Jer breaks out the Natural 57 Fender Strat
that Graham Nash gave him
Summer switches to a Gibson Les
Paul TV
1972 -Alligator -the
Graham Nash guitar
June switches back to Sunburst Strat no American
Flag sticker
‘56/’57 Sunburst all mapleneck Strat
and switches back to the Strat that Graham Nash
gave him, with Alligator sticker.
72- cont. Garcia bought the first guitar Doug Irwin ever made for $850
(known as 001) and ordered another one custom-made.
By this point, his silverface Fender Twin amp was already a central part of his sound. He continued to use the preamp from the Fender amp through 1993. From the late '70's to about 1993 he didn't use the power amp & speakers of the Fender, instead using three JBL D120/E120 speakers in a vertical box powered by a McIntosh solid state amp (note that this probably made the power amp Class A, which is not the Class AB power amp that the Fender normally has). It was miked with a Sennheiser 421 mic.
1973- Jerry continues using Alligator
In
May '73 he received the his first custom Doug Irwin (Sonoma, CA)--the "Wolf" he
paid $1,500.
(Garcia gave Irwin's 001 to original Dead road crew member Ramrod.
Garcia gave away a lot of guitars.)
-
Description: 25.5 in maple neck,
24 fret ebony fingerboard, blonde
Western
"quilted" maple body with at purpleheart (amaranth) core. Guts like a
Strat with
an Alembic Stratoblaster installed.
1974- Wolf
*1972-1974 the wah pedal is a ColorSound "Vol + Wah"
1975- Travis Beam TB 1000A
Jerry, "I
don't like any guitars that are available. I'm trying to have a guitar
built." Hence, the Travis Bean. He laughed upon first seeing it, but
quickly changed his mind when he tried the custom aluminum-neck guitar
made in San Francisco.
1976- Travis Bean TB500 w/single-coil
pickups and fx loop.
10/3/76 last Boogie Mark I show; 10/9/76 first appearance of dual Twins
Effects- Mu-Tron III +Mu-Tron Octave Divider +MXR
analog delay
1977- Travis Beam TB500 get's the Unity Gain Buffer built by John Cutler
77- Fall Jerry get's his modified Wolf back from
Doug Irwin. Complete with single coils and effects loop.
Irwin removes the Wolf sticker
and Inlays the Wolf into the guitar. He also removes the Peacock on
the headstock and adds his signature Eagle logo.
1978- Wolf
1979
-Reconstruction- Keystone -Ibanez Musician
1979 through 1990- TIGER
August 4th 1979 at The Oakland Auditorium Tiger
debuts
"Tiger" (pearl
coverplate) Description: Seven years to make, ebony fingerboard on
maple neck, an arched cocobola top and back, vermilion neck and body
striping, and W. flamed-maple body core. Meticulous scrolled inlay
finger position markers and hand-crafted brass hardware; Strat approach,
but with one DiMarzio SDS-1 single coil and two DiMarzio Super 2
humbuckers that were easily removed 'cause Jerry thought their ouput
weakened after a year or two. Also had Jerry's effects bypass loop
(he knew his electronics!), as well as an op-amp buffer/amp to maintain
the high end during effects "on". Result: Garcia's favorite guitar
for the next ll years & most played. Jerry
strapped this
heavy 13 1/2-pound guitar for 11 years.
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1988-89 Jerry started playing a Black Strat w/
Midi during space,... Here comes digital Jer
1989- Fall tour (notiably the Hampton Warlocks show) Wolf briefly came out of retirement as a guinea pig for MIDI synthesizer experiments. In the 1989 Jerry mounted a GK-7 synth interface on the Wolf. Mated to the GK-50 controller. After a Roland synthesizer was successfully attached to Wolf, San Francisco repair expert Gary Brawer later retrofitted it internally. Tiger went back to the shop for retrofitting. Garcia used the synthesizer attachment to make his guitar sound like a trumpet or other instruments.
1990- Rosebud Irwin delivered his
$11,000 masterpiece, Rosebud, with MIDI controls built in. "Everything
he had
learned about guitars went into Rosebud
Jerry played Tiger for another year for Garcia Band Shows.
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1993- The
Stephen Cripe guitar "Lighting Bolt"
Garcia's next guitar arrived in the mail at the
Grateful Dead office in 1993. Stephen Cripe, a 39-year-old Florida woodworker
who spent years
building custom interiors for Caribbean yachts, decided to try his hand
at making a guitar. Using a few photos and a well worn "Dead Ahead" video.,
he knocked off Irwin's design of Tiger with a few flourishes of his own,
like carving
the body out of a piece of East Indian rosewood recycled from a 19th
century Asian opium bed. It had an acoustic piezo pickup built in. Built "totally
by feel", the cocobola through-body neck has a recycled Brazilian rosewood
fingerboard (note: Jerry's interest in the rain forest) with an unusual
accuracy in the higher end allowing him to play where he usually avoided.
"
Garcia was amazed when it came around," said band mate Bob
Weir, "at the guesswork he had to make -- and got right -- to give
that guitar Irwin's look and feel. It was astounding." Garcia gave
the piece to San Francisco repairman Gary Brawer to fix the electronic
guts,
but it was a miracle guitar.
He pronounced the piece "the guitar I've always been waiting for" and
began playing the instrument exclusively. It came to be called Lightning
Bolt. Garcia met with Cripe briefly backstage at a Florida concert and
commissioned a second guitar for $6,500, known as Top Hat, although Garcia
almost never played it. Cripe, whose hobby was making fireworks, died
in May 1996 when his work shed blew up. He used an exploding firecracker
as the insignia on his guitars' headstocks.
In
April of '95 Jerry ordered the backup "Top Hat".
1994- Summer Tour Jerry brings back out Rosebud but in the fall back to Lightning Bolt.
1995- Lightning Bolt was in the shop on the last tour. In his final show at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995, Garcia started out playing Rosebud, but midway through the show, the guitar developed problems. Garcia strapped on the tour's spare guitar -- Tiger, out of mothballs for the occasion -- and finished his final concert on his old trusty ax.
Others:
Martin D-18 "American
Beauty", "Wokingman's Dead"
ZB pedal steel 70-74
Takamine acoustics 1980 acoustic shows & benefits
Alvarez-Yairi "Garcia/Grisman" + live shows
Jerry used "Rosebud" at the last Grateful Dead show in Chicago. On Aug
4, 1995.
Jerry recorded "Blue Yodel # 9" using a mint condition 1939 Gibson Super
400N acoustic that seen in the video for the movie "Smoke". Its likely
the last guitar Jerry ever graced...
Effects:
Effects used during the early '70's were limited mostly to the Vox wah-wah
pedal being occasionally used.
By the late '70's, he was using the Mutron envelope filter (which was
used for Estimated, Shakedown, etc.), and he continued to use it until
the very end. A Mutron Octive Divider, MXR Distortion +, Phase 100
and Analog Delay.
By the late '80's, his effects consisted of mostly Boss effects: Octave
Divider, Turbo Overdrive, Super Overdrive, EQ's, etc. in two effects loops.
He also used some extremely expensive Lexicons a PCM-42 or PCM-60, with
a PCM-70) reverb/delay units in the rack behind him; these are studio
units.
By 1993, he was using these effects, but used a Groove Tube TRIO preamp
as well as a Real Tube Reverb unit to go direct to the soundboard, when
all of the power amps & speakers were removed from the stage. They used
in-the-ear monitors instead of floor monitor wedges.
Chandler Stereo Digital
Echo
Korg O1R/W
Korg M1R
Emu Proteus/1
ADA MicroCab
Alesis Midiverb
Boss OD2
Turbo Overdrive Boss OD1
Overdrive 2
Boss GE7 Equalizers
Boss OC2 Octave
Mutron III
MXR Phase 100
Groove Tubes
Trio
Tube Works Real Tube Reverb
some ADA rack mount FX box
More guitar info:
65,66 - Guild -
cherry red
6/21/67 - black 1956 Les Paul w/p-90's p/u covers removed
8/4/67 - ditto,but this guitar has a Bigsby tailpiece/tremelo bar. It
could've been installed,or could be a different
axe.
3/3/68 - gold-top Les Paul with single coil p/u's (aka soap-bars,aka
P-90's)
three Twin Reverbs w/two ext. Fender 4x12 cabinets, JBL speakers
3/1/69 - cherry Gibson SG. I associate this gtr with the "Live Dead" sound.
Vox Crybaby wah-wah pedal
10/24/69 - sunburst Strat. He's pictured playing this one on several
1970 dates,but he's back on an SG on 5/6/70 and pics captioned "1970"
on p.257 in the Compendium. The SG gets some studio use w/Crosby,12/70.
3/24/71 - page 310. Looks like a Les Paul neck on a handmade body. I'll
take a guess that it was an early effort from
the Alembic guys, because the raised pickguard appears to be made of hand-cast
metal,and they were
into that.
4/71 - page 313. Same guitar or a Les Paul? I can't tell.
8/71 - sunburst
Les Paul
4/72 - natural finish Strat.As heard on Europe '72.
5/20/73 - same guitar,it now has an extra knob and a custom-made plate
covering the electronics. ....in a GP
interview he sez the plate broke (when tweaking electronics?) and they
fixed it such that it looked like 03/23/75.
Mesa/Boogie MkI as pre-amp > MC2300 > 3 2x12's
06/17/75. mxr distortion+, mxr phase100
09/28/75. Travis Bean MC1000 w/humbuckers
76 Travis Bean MC500 w/single-coil pickups and fx loop +Mu-Tron
III +Mu-Tron Octave Divider +MXR analog
delay
early '77 Travis Bean MC500 recieves Jerry's first unity-gain buffer/fx
loop jack combo, placing all effects in front of Jerry's gtr vol. knob.
05/77. 1 (silverface)Twin Reverb as pre-amp > McIntosh MC2300 power
amp > 3 JBL 2x12's; BF Twin as reserve backup head
09/28/77. return of "Wolf", w/added buffer/fx loop, still with
3 single-coil p/u's... Bean returns for select JGB shows through '78
mid '78 "Wolf" gets new Dimarzio pickups:(b,m)Dual Sound;(n)SDS-1
fall '79 "Tiger" Irwin custom:(b,m)Dual Sound,(n)SDS-1
Feb. to Mar. '80 JGB tour Mesa Boogie MkIIa head> MC2300> Hard
Trucker JBL 3x12
'82 "Tiger" gets pickup change:(b,m)Dimarzio Super 2,(n)SDS-1... that.
More info on guitars
Garcia began playing electric guitar with the Warlocks, before the band changed its name to the Grateful Dead. He used an inexpensive cherry-red Guild Starfire. He played that instrument for several years and used it on the band's early recordings.
But as early as 1971, Garcia expressed dissatisfaction with factory-made guitars, even though he played models favored by other rock guitarists -- the Gibson Les Paul and the Gibson SG. Until he walked into Irwin's Sonoma studio in early 1972, he had been playing a vintage '57 Fender Stratocaster, a classic rock 'n' roll guitar given to him by Graham Nash, with an alligator decal on the body that gave the guitar its name, Alligator.
Garcia bought the first guitar Irwin ever made for $850 (known as 001) and ordered another one custom-made. Irwin delivered Wolf, named after its distinctive inlay of a wolf, in May 1973 for $1,500. (Garcia gave Irwin's 001 to original Dead road crew member Ramrod. Garcia gave away a lot of guitars.)
After a brief dalliance with an aluminum guitar designed by Southern California maverick Travis Bean, Garcia replaced Wolf with Tiger in 1979. The guitarmaker spent more than six years working on it, and Garcia played the heavy 14-pound guitar for 11 years.
Irwin mixed exquisitely detailed, intricate brass work with dense, exotic hardwoods in his designs. He also incorporated a lot of special features Garcia himself devised, like a loop that ran the signal back through the guitar so he could control his special effects with knobs on the body of the guitar or a built-in pre-amp hidden beneath Irwin's inlays. "Jerry knew more about his guitars and equipment than anyone," said Parish.
Wolf briefly came out of retirement in 1988 as a guinea pig for MIDI synthesizer experiments. After a Roland synthesizer was successfully attached to Wolf, Tiger went back to the shop for retrofitting. Garcia used the synthesizer attachment to make his guitar sound like a trumpet or other instruments.
In 1989, Irwin delivered his $11,000 masterpiece, Rosebud, with MIDI controls built in. "Everything he had learned about guitars went into Rosebud, " said Parish.
Garcia's next guitar arrived in the mail at the Grateful Dead office in 1993. Stephen Cripe, a 39-year-old Florida woodworker who spent years building custom interiors for Caribbean yachts, decided to try his hand at making a guitar. Using a few photos and a Dead video, he knocked off Irwin's design of Tiger with a few flourishes of his own, like carving the body out of a piece of East Indian rosewood recycled from a 19th century Asian opium bed.
Garcia was floored. He gave the piece to San Francisco repairman Gary Brawer to fix the electronic guts, but it was a miracle guitar.
"Garcia was amazed when it came around," said band mate Bob Weir, "at the guesswork he had to make -- and got right -- to give that guitar Irwin's look and feel. It was astounding."
He pronounced the piece "the guitar I've always been waiting for" and began playing the instrument exclusively. It came to be called Lightning Bolt. Garcia met with Cripe briefly backstage at a Florida concert and commissioned a second guitar for $6,500, known as Top Hat, although Garcia almost never played it. Cripe, whose hobby was making fireworks, died in May 1996 when his work shed blew up. He used an exploding firecracker as the insignia on his guitars' headstocks.
Lightning Bolt was in the shop on the last tour. In his final show at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995, Garcia started out playing Rosebud, but midway through the show, the guitar developed problems. Garcia strapped on the tour's spare guitar -- Tiger, out of mothballs for the occasion -- and finished his final concert on his old trusty ax.