The first time I ever heard of Jerry Garcia or the Grateful Dead, I was eating ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s had their “Cherry Garcia” flavor in the freezer at my local convenience store, and I remarked to my friends that it sounded like somebody’s name. One of them did a double take and remarked “yeah, Jerry Garcia! From the Grateful Dead!”
When I started listening to the Grateful Dead, I realized they weren’t like the other bands I was into. Their jam-based, improvisation-heavy music was unlike anything I’d heard before or since.
Core to this sound was Jerry Garcia’s playing. Light, melodic, and heavy on innovation.
But how did he achieve his sound? Let us explore the gear he used and see if we can recreate his unique tone. I’ve heavily based my recommendations on my favorite Dead album, their self-titled live record from 1971.
Table of Contents
Jerry’s Guitars
Unfortunately, getting the same guitar used by Jerry Garcia is quite literally impossible. Particularly in later years, Jerry played custom-built guitars that are truly one of a kind.
His main guitar was one built by Doug Irwin. It used custom wound single coil pickups as well.
The easiest way to get close to his tone is with a single coil Strat-style guitar. That means that a Fender Strat like the American Professional II or the Player II Stratocaster is the two obvious options. The Squier Classic Vibe ‘70s is also a great budget option.
Fortunately, through the early years of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, like so many of his classic rock-era peers, played mass-produced guitars.
The rough timeline of Garcia’s easily replicable guitars is as follows:
- Mid-late 60s: P-90 Les Pauls
- 1969: Gibson SG
- 1970: Fender Stratocaster
- Early ‘70s: Gibson Les Paul and the “Peanut” guitar, a custom instrument made from the neck, pickups, and hardware from an early ’60s Les Paul
The early ‘70s saw Garcia recording the Dead’s eponymous second live album, played largely on a Les Paul or the “Peanut.”
For this reason, and my own personal preference for vintage Gibson-style guitars, I’d recommend a Les Paul or similar guitar for chasing classic Grateful Dead tones.
A great budget option is the 1959 Epiphone Les Paul, or at a lower price point, the Epiphone Standard 60s. The stock Epiphone humbuckers in the Standard 60s in my experience lack the clarity and cleanliness necessary for classic Dead tones. I tend to replace Epiphone pickups with Seymour Duncans like the ‘59 set.
However, later Jerry sounds relied more on split coils or single coils, in which case a great Stratocaster is the best bet.
Jerry’s Amps
Just like his guitars, Jerry’s amps are also not easy to come by. His main amp for much of his career was a Fender Silverface Twin Reverb.
These amps are quite rare. You will likely only be able to find one second-hand on Reverb, and even then, it is going to set you back thousands of dollars.
But luckily, there are great alternatives that are more affordable. They will also still be able to get you quite close to Jerry’s sound.
The best option will be a similar Fender amp. The ‘65 Twin Reverb is a modern amp that is fairly similar to the Silverface.
The Tone Master Deluxe Reverb is also a great option, and the Fender Champion is a good budget option that pairs well with a Strat.
I can usually get in the ballpark of Jerry’s tone with a clean enough Fender amp. Even the UAFX Dream is a good enough starting point. The key thing here is a Fender preamp with plenty of headroom.
It’s key to note, as well, that compression is the enemy here. Jerry’s playing relied heavily on space and dynamics. Any amp that compresses too early won’t get close to Jerry’s sound.
I strongly recommend running the drive as low as possible. The Tube Screamer can be hard to dial in with a clean amp: for a little more control, I like to use the EHX Crayon or East River Drive.
Jerry’s Pedals
Jerry’s pedalboard is a bit more straightforward than his guitars and amps. The pedals he used can still easily be found.
Overdrive
For overdrive, he used a few different Boss pedals. But mainly, he used the ever-popular Ibanez Tube Screamer. This was his main pedal for many years until he moved over to the Boss OS-2.
Delay
His delay pedal was the MXR MX118. He used this for most of his career, replacing it immediately when one broke without testing other delay pedals.
The MX118 is hard to come by these days, but the MXR Carbon Copy is a good alternative. Its tone isn’t quite as weighty as the MX118’s, but it is still a fantastic analog delay.
Reverb
There isn’t much information regarding the reverb he used. It is known that he used a Real Tube Reverb.
Alternatively, you can just use a good analog reverb pedal like the TC Electronics Drip Spring Reverb.
Distortion
For distortion, Jerry used a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal distortion pedal, whose modern version is the HM-2W.
Interestingly, he would often use it alongside his OS-2 overdrive pedal. As you can imagine, using an overdrive and distortion at the same time can cause some noise issues.
To compensate for this, he used a Boss GE-7 Equalizer pedal. This helps to shape the sound of the overdrive and distortion.
Envelope Filter
The final piece of Jerry’s pedalboard was his envelope filter. He specifically used a Mu-Tron III.
This pedal creates a variety of synth sounds through your guitar. The more percussive your playing and the sharper you play your strings, the crazier the sounds you get.
The Mu-Tron III is another piece of vintage gear that is hard to come by. Alternatively, you can use an envelope filter like the Electro-Harmonix Micro Q-Tron.
Jerry’s Amp Settings – Grateful Dead Live Tone!
With the right gear picked out, we can finally start looking at the settings that Jerry Garcia used.
Jerry’s tone was fairly bright and had quite a bit of twang to it. But he was also known for boosting his mids to make his tone a bit fuller and punchier.
There was very little bass in his tone, and not too much gain. It was also quite spacey, thanks to his use of reverb and the envelope filter.
Let us take a look at a basic signal chain to get a Jerry Garcia sound. For this chain, we will use the envelope filter and the Tube Screamer. These will go into the amp, followed by the reverb.
So, starting with the envelope filter, your settings should look something like this:
Envelope
- Q – 5
- Thresh – 5
- Level – 6
Tube Screamer
- Gain – 6/7
- Tone – 5
- Level – 6
Amp
- Gain – 6
- Volume – 6
- Bass – 2
- Mids – 8
- Treble – 9
Reverb
- Dwell – 4
- Tone – 5/6
- Level – 4
With these settings, you should be able to get fairly close to Jerry’s sound. Don’t forget to experiment and adjust the settings until they sound right to you. Every amp and pedal is different, and these settings won’t necessarily be universal.
Final Word
Devoted Deadheads all over the world will debate for the entire length of a Grateful Dead concert on the best way to achieve Jerry Garcia’s tone.
In my experience, the best way to get close to a player’s sound is to pick a song or an album – especially a live album – and work from there.
This should be all the gear and settings you need to get you playing your favorite Grateful Dead songs.
He only used the fender twins pre amp his main power came from a McIntosh power amp.
Guitar: Rosebud 3 Dimarzio super 2s. Tiger & Wolf 2 super 2s and their single coil version for the neck. All HBs were wired for series & single coil. The unity gain buffer preamp was the EMG JG1.
You’ll need JBL D120’s in your silver twin, or save your $ The E 120 comes close, the k120 has a ceramic magnet. The D was alnico. Big difference in sound!
Mutron octave divider under was left out! The Mutron boxes have NO COMPETITION! They’re back in business.
The tone was in him 9 fingers he could play ant rig and still sound like him.
The closest I have herd is Nelson of NRPS with a standard tele.
I’m surprised he even owned a distortion pedal. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him use it. I’d like to though.
This is all wrong. First, Jerry never used a Tube Screamer. His amp settings were treble dimed, mids at halfway, and bass all the way off. He didnt use an HM2 until 1988 and that was the only year he used it. He used blackface amps as his main amps up til around 1969, silverface and blackface through 73 with a blackface preamp for 74 wos. Hr uses a mesa boogie mark1 from 76 through 76 with his dual twin cabinet not arriving for main use starting im 1977.