Grateful Dead Music Forum

Very interesting stuff here. Thanks for the discussion

One thing I’ll add - it’s important to note that the actual pickup positions in Wolf and Tiger are non-standard for a 25.5” scale guitar. I think this accounts for a great deal of the unique tone Jerry got from all of these pickups.

NeilG1 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 3:32 am Very interesting stuff here. Thanks for the discussion

One thing I’ll add - it’s important to note that the actual pickup positions in Wolf and Tiger are non-standard for a 25.5” scale guitar. I think this accounts for a great deal of the unique tone Jerry got from all of these pickups.

To this I'll add that even if your humbuckers are sited closer to the neck than in the actual Tiger, you may be able to satisfactorily compensate for it by choosing the coil closer to the bridge when you split the coils.

On my Philtone Jerrycaster (below), you can see a small gap between the bridge humbucker and the bridge that isn't there on the real Tiger. But my minitoggles are 3-way that allow me to select neck coil-full HB-bridge coil. IIRC (correct me, please, if I'm not), on the real Tiger, the active single coil is the one closer to the neck. Listening to each of my coils, the differences are painfully obvious - the one closer to the bridge is far more Jerry-ish.

Beautiful guitar Jon!

Edit*
I almost always play on my middle pickup, and I also pick right behind it. So right between the mid and bridge, to me I get much better Jerry type tones in that spot, even more so with either an Adamas pick, or these Dunlop Gator 1.5mm I’ve been trying out.

That’s one reason I’m not interested in changing out the neck single coil. I just don’t use it. I’m sure I will eventually, but it’s not at the top of my list of things to get, right now.

Especially now that I have been playing, while using the Bugera PS1. To hear the natural overdrive finally, at a decibel level that doesn’t shake the windows, is a real eye opener of what my amp is capable of.

10-4. probably about the same time frame if not a little more on my end.

LazyLightning72 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:56 am Beautiful guitar Jon!

Edit*
I almost always play on my middle pickup, and I also pick right behind it.

Thanks and your point on where to pick is incredibly important. We spend so much time and effort on gear that we sometimes forget the magic begins in our brains and hands. Picking relatively closer to the bridge can, all by itself, be tone-changer.

Jon, that's one of the things I've kind of discovered and been working on since the beginning of the covid lockdown. Think I went almost a year without plugging into an effect just working on right hand technique and dynamics both flat picking and finger picking.

wpmartin1979 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:35 am

PLS30820 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 7:30 am I have an Eastwood wolf as well and was thinking about doing the exact same thing. I had been looking at the Super II's, but now think i'll go with the SD's. I might have missed the answer, but can you tell if the pots are 500k or not?

Since the guitar has Humbuckers the pots must be 500k. 250k pots would only be in guitars with single coils only.

Thanks, i wasn't quite sure since it has both.

PLS30820 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 11:42 am

wpmartin1979 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:35 am

PLS30820 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 7:30 am I have an Eastwood wolf as well and was thinking about doing the exact same thing. I had been looking at the Super II's, but now think i'll go with the SD's. I might have missed the answer, but can you tell if the pots are 500k or not?

Since the guitar has Humbuckers the pots must be 500k. 250k pots would only be in guitars with single coils only.

Thanks, i wasn't quite sure since it has both.

Just to be sure you could look closely at the back of the pots ... a lot of times there are markings to indicate the value. I would assume they are 500k though since the single coil is a sds1 clone (super distortion single) which is pretty high output plus’s the humbuckers and Jerry liked his tone bright. 250k pots would darken the tone.

I stand corrected that Jerry kept his 250K pots in Wolf when he switched from singles to dual sounds,
Apparently 500k pots were not used until Tiger.
In regards to the Eastwood - I’m really not sure what they used so I would check the back of the pots to be sure. My Eastwood Tiger had 500k pots and I was assuming their Wolf was probably the same - but I’m not positive because I don’t own the Wolf.
Conventional logic says 500k pots for humbuckers and 250k for singles but obviously there are exceptions.

wpmartin1979 wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 12:42 pm I stand corrected that Jerry kept his 250K pots in Wolf when he switched from singles to dual sounds,
Apparently 500k pots were not used until Tiger.
In regards to the Eastwood - I’m really not sure what they used so I would check the back of the pots to be sure. My Eastwood Tiger had 500k pots and I was assuming their Wolf was probably the same - but I’m not positive because I don’t own the Wolf.
Conventional logic says 500k pots for humbuckers and 250k for singles but obviously there are exceptions.

I have been needing to pop the back plate off, to make an adjustment to the gain. I’m not sure I’ll do it today, but when I do, I’ll look and see if I can spot any markings.

I’ll update as soon as I do

Here's a little "secret." The QAQC on mass produced pots is abysmal. I once, with my tech, went through a lot of "500K" pots with a multimeter (we were searching for a relatively low value "500K" pot for a LP I had at the time with the ability to split the coils). They varied from around 375K to over 600K. Sometimes, a guitar we believe sounds exceptional does so because of the pots being atypically resistive. Hard to believe, but it's true.

Jon S. wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 4:10 pm Here's a little "secret." The QAQC on mass produced pots is abysmal. I once, with my tech, went through a lot of "500K" pots with a multimeter (we were searching for a relatively low value "500K" pot for a LP I had at the time with the ability to split the coils). They varied from around 375K to over 600K. Sometimes, a guitar we believe sounds exceptional does so because of the pots being atypically resistive. Hard to believe, but it's true.

Would adjusting the tone pots affect or cancel out the volume pot in any way? Which would be more
Important in terms of resistance in regards to the over all tone?

Here’s an interesting blurb from D Allen saying that he prefers 500k pots with Voodoo 69s which is interesting considering most Strats would have 250k pots.
My Strat with V69s has 250k pits and I think they sound great but this makes me wonder how they would sound with different pots.

This also shows IMHO that it really is just based on preference in regards to how the pots interact with the pickups and what sounds best to your ears

I tried to look at the pots last night for markings.

The impact to the top of my skull when I broke my neck, has caused severe chronic “ghosted” vision, that some days isn’t too bad, and others, looks like everyone has 4 eyes, two noses, and two mouths.

Unfortunately, last night it was bad, so I couldn’t tell. I think it’s better tonight, so I’ll take another look.

wpmartin1979 wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 9:03 amWould adjusting the tone pots affect or cancel out the volume pot in any way? Which would be more Important in terms of resistance in regards to the over all tone?

I think the volume pots are more important, tonewise, relative to the tone pots. But really, I'm no expert on this.