putting together a 'jerry garcia' rig, for my dead cover band.

[hawk900]

 If you really want the jerry tone:
1st You need a Dimarzio DP104 HB to start preferrably in the middle pos. if not neck for sure.
The thee ultimate speaker of sensitivity and power and cleanliness is the JBL e-120 8ohm that has a 4inch voice coil. Other JBLs eg K's and D's use lightweight anilco magnets. If you can find one of those jbl's check Eminence speakers. they amke a Liberty and some say the canabis model sounds even closer.
2nd Amp tone stack comes from the blackface 64-67 era. If you don't feel like messing with old tube amps which may be problems cause there so old. Fender in 93 made a Fender Deluxe VM that has a clean channel with the exact specs and more solid contruction.
3rd You need to pre amp that out to a McIntosh solid state amp eg Jers was the MC2300. Just becareful in mono they double their watts. I use the MC2100
The McIntosh adds some warmth to the brightness. To coil split you just need a switch that ground the south or north coil finish wire.
Heres some links:
My SG
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6170/sany0005h.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4332/sany0029qt.jpg

http://www.roger-russell.com/amplif1.htm#mc2505

http://www.roger-russell.com/amplif2.htm

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[pinkjimiphoton]

check the guitar player magazine forum out, they have a lot of lowdown on jerry's rig. i wouldn't bother too much with the onboard fx loop thing, it seems he abandoned that idea.

[hawk900]

  He never ever abondoned the effects loops ever. All the external fx loops and back amp fx loops defeat the entire purpose.  The whole purpose of an onboard is the signal of the pickups is sent directly out a stereo jack using a stereo cable(ground and two positives A and B. He sends the signal in this order pickup<10db boost stratoblaster(cb-1 cae sound sells them designed by Cutler)<out A-positive<through all the fx<back into the guitar B-positive<tone knob<volume knob<out standard mono guitar cable jack<black face tone stack aka pre amp out<McIntosh MC2300.
  Example every external loop use just one cable and tone and mainly volume knob which screws up alot of FX  especially the quack box(Mutron3) as you guys call it.  If you mess with the volume high or low is loses the proper quack(wah).  With Jerry's setup you can set tone and jack the volume up or down as much as you want after all the FX and have thee identical sounds that you set them up originally.  Most all custom electric guitar builders have this as an extra option aka invented like many things  by Mr.Garcia.
  Hawk

[jdub]

+1.  The whole point was that his effects would see full output from pickups before volume & tone controls.

[hawk900]

To Quackzed, it's just my opinion, but but the Twin II is likely to let you down.  Those amps are really a different thing, and don't sound at all like a black or silver face Twin.  One thing no one seems to mention about Jerry's tone is the compression, very noticable on his clean tone.  It may just be natural amp compression from playing at a very loud volume.  There has never been any mention of him using a compressor pedal that I know of.  It may be post amp processing.  I have stood close enough to the stage to hear his rig many times, but was usually having too good a time to think about such details!  A lot of the Jerry clones I have seen are using humbuckers, and they get that naturally compressed clean humbucking tone, which gets you close, but you miss the sparkle and clarity of single coils.  I use a Strat (in the middle position, this is key!) for a basic Jerry tone, but always feel like I am missing that perfectly compressed yet smooth and natural sound.

Also, you don't mention your guitar and pickups.  In the early days Jerry used humbuckers, then switched to straight single coils.  In the late 870s maybe he started using humbuckers again, this time with coil taps, usually played in single mode.   I suspect that is a big part of the sound of the later period.  I have always used straight single coils on a lightweight Strat, and never felt like I quite get there.  The tapped humbuckers have a different sound, which I never really likied when I tried them, but maybe that is part of the tone, combined with the incredibly solid, heavy neck through body guitars he used.

On Europe '72 Jerry used a good bit of wah into a clean Twin, but once he started using the Mutron things got really interesting!  I have an original Mutron III and the sound is unmistakable, and in my experience unreproducable.  I have not built or heard a copy such as the Neutron, but other filter circuits just don't get there. I have an original Q-Tron, from pretty much the day it was first released in the early 90s.  I bought it hoping it would take the place of my Mutron so I could retire it from road use, but it is really hard (sometimes impossible) to dial in.  It drifts away from the sweet spot, and sometimes just won't go there.  On a good day it can do just fine though.  I don't know anything about the newer ones.

Jerry used a lot of overdriven tone over the years.  In the early days in was clearly just humbuckers into a clean Twin played really LOUD!  By '72 he was using single coils regularly, and the tone cleaned up a bit.  Jerry used a lot of pedal produced overdiven tones for leads by the late 70's.  The song Rhapsody in Red from the Cats Down Under the Stars album stands out as having an almost fuzz tone lead.    The MXR D+ tone he used during this period was harsh by comparison to his later overdriven sounds.  He reportedly used a HM-1 later on, though I have never been able to get anything vaguely resembling that sound from an HM-1.

Compare '81 Warf Rat (starting at 8:45):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20dic8S3cWI

'87 Warf Rat  (starting at 6:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPKNw_LOY9U&feature=related

with '89 Warf Rat (starting at 6:25):

or with '93  Deal(starting at 4:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9azzo7HYX0

Of course, none of that actually matters, Jerry's tone was all in his hands.  He sounded pretty much the same on an acoustic guitar.  Pull out For The Faithful and copy those acoustic tones and playing techniques, and if you can do that then your gear troubles will quickly sort themselves out!

I don't think the twin is the prob. Itis hall of famed cause of the envelope n w/the twin 64-67 ab768circuit that is is with transformer upgrages,pots,caps and the most important jbl120 series/pair @ 4ohms total. Yes it was in his fingers and was held sideways @ 2mm like a pencil and with the op-amp(vol between chords n notes was normalized too) the slightest tough on each string ultra sensitive and super clear with the Mcintosh SS amp hearing above twin ab768 upgraded circuit tapped out of standard fender twin combo.
It was such a joywhen irwin's wof came along and he split the middle bucker the ultra sweet spot which no other guutar manufac. can figure out due to magnet/wiring phasing. PRS throws a single coil in the middle of some of the 3 2bucker 1 single high end models.
No you don't need a wood wall to phasse 3buckers in a row. the middle gets flipped and completely colour swapped when wiring. Jeesh.... This finally killed the dimazio highout put standard bucker wiring assos. with travis bean.
Let the late nights with owesly finally pay off and crystal clear and soon to be digital dead around the bend.

[blackieNYC]

Loved his tone and fx over the whole span.   The best - the sound of snare drum(s) being rattled to pieces with each note of his solos.  Early years.
Now there's a pedal idea....