Garcia Guitar
2019-12-19
I've built another Jerry Garcia styled guitar. This time I've made some modern adaptations. The standard pieces of the JG puzzle are Dimarzio Super 2 pickups switched to the middle position with a coil cut so it's in single coil mode. A unity gain buffer to change the standard high impedance signal to low impedance. This allows the extra cabling for the third piece which is an FX insert in the guitar. The signal would flow from pickups, to buffer out a 1/4 TRS jack to the FX, then return to the TRS, to the volume and tone pots and then out another 1/4" TS connector to the amp. By having the TRS insert cable, you've effectively placed the FX loop inside the guitar between the buffer and the volume knob. This is a great feature for several reasons.
On a normal guitar, when turning down the volume knob, one is actually reducing the signal to the FX, thereby changing the tone of the FX pedals and how the react to the guitar. In the Garcia setup, the pickups always send 100% signal to the FX pedals and then return to the volume knob. So when turning down the volume knob on the guitar, it's post FX. The FX therefore do not change in tone, only volume. This is especially noticeable on distortion pedals but it's a game changer on the Mutron envelope filter. The place where the Mutron breaks the envelope has to be precise and having a full signal from the guitar guarantees it always breaks the threshold properly.
I made a physical change while keeping the logic of this signal flow. On my new guitar I used a multi-pin XLR cable instead of having a TRS 1/4" and a TS 1/4". Therefore, everything runs on one cable. In fact, I had extra pins to spare so I utilized one of them to also send 9 volts DC to the guitar. That allows me to power the buffer and not use batteries as I would in other active pickup guitars. Basically I got tired of buying batteries when I already had a tether cable. It seemed logical to add this feature. Because I had voltage, I was also able to add a LED to display when the FX loop is engaged or disengaged. It's bright enough to double as a flashlight on stage. I mounted the LED in the standard Stratocaster tear drop jack, so it points at the floor and doesn't distract my view.
Garcia notoriously used only his center pickup in single coil mode, but I opted to go ahead and add the 3 Dimarzio Super 2 pickups even though when playing Grateful Dead I won't use the others. I do not have a standard 5 way selector switch like a Stratocaster. I made the pickup selector a rotary switch in the second tone pot position. I opted for a 6 way rotary switch. This means I get the normal 5 plus one more. The normal 5 are, bridge, bridge/middle, middle, middle/neck, neck. I added bridge/neck as my 6th. This gives me that Telecaster sound with the front and back. I do that in single coil mode on both. If I use position 6 in humbucker mode, it sounds like a Les Paul with the spread out humbuckers. I'm loving it.
All of this is in a Stratocaster body that I bought at Gruhn guitars in high school. I attached a Modulus graphite neck that I bought in college. It's all black with black hardware. Murder.
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Garcia Guitar