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Jerry Garcia Tiger Copy


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Thanks to MAGGOTBRAIN I have the plans for a Tiger I got them a few months ago but didn't get to start until today. I ordered all the parts I don't have and will hopefully get started tomorrow.

I am starting my next guitar build. It's going to be a copy of Jerry Garcia's tiger. It will be neck through mahogany neck with a maple strip down the center. The body wings will be mahogany sandwiched between quilted maple. 24 3/4" scale rosewood fingerboard. Jumbo stainless steel frets. Output jack recessed into the side like on my bass. The bridge pickup will be a dimarzio double whammy, the middle will be a dimarzio air zone, and the neck is a single coil that I pulled out of an old Ibanez that sounds great. The tuners will be locking Schallers. Hope to get pics up soon

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So what part of this is actually going to be like the Tiger? Other than the body shape, of course, it seems like nearly everything that could be different is going to be different.

Not meant to be a critique, just a comment.

Pretty much just the shape and the pickup setup. Someday I'll make one with the "hippie sandwich". In the beginning it was going to be more like the tiger.

I've got the wings and neck clamped up. The wings ended up being spanish cedar which is supposed to be a really good tonewood.

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I had to start the neck over but decided not to do the maple strip. I didn't think the neck with the strip looked too good with the body pieces after seeing it. Mahogany with 2 maple thin maple strips would have looked better but I didn't think of that until after the headstock was glued on. I also rough cut the body. I'll sand it tomorrow rout the control cavity and output jack cavity and do the carving. I'll also glue some maple wings onto the headstock and glue on a bookmatched quilted maple veneer (scrap from the body) if the truss rod comes from stewmac.

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I got the wings sanded and carved today and I routed the control cavity. I couldn't fit the recessed output into it so it's going to have an sg style output jack. I still have to carve the back of the bottom wing. I did the carves differently than the tiger, I like them this way better it reminds me of some of the alembic guitars and I think it flows better with the maple.

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I can't decide weather or not to do an arm contour or not, it would be more comfortable but it will change the look a lot. This is how I'd do it, any opinions?

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the obligatory lots of clamps pic :D

looks like a good build so far!

personally, i wouldn't put the arm contour in there; i think it would kill the looks; however if your going for function over form, go for it!

BTW: ive recently given up on clamping on veneers, ill stick to thicker pieces thank you!

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the obligatory lots of clamps pic :D

looks like a good build so far!

personally, i wouldn't put the arm contour in there; i think it would kill the looks; however if your going for function over form, go for it!

BTW: ive recently given up on clamping on veneers, ill stick to thicker pieces thank you!

I decided against the arm contour no one liked the idea. It would either change the look a lot and look good or ruin it.

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Looks pretty nice so far...I think it was a good idea opting against the arm contour. I too think it would have hurt the overall look. What kind of bridge are you using?...Are you doing any inlay behind the tail piece?

Looking forward to seeing more progress!

Jack

I'm using a hardtail strat type bridge. It's one of my favorite bridges. I'm not doing any inlays, I'll probably do a tiger type build later on that's a lot more like Jerry's.

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It's lookin really good so far.

I like this method of build, actually I really like Hippy Sandwich's, they're usually very tasty. :D

Did you use any little pins to hold the Wings in place during clamping?

Doug.

Yeah, this isn't really a hippy sandwich but I hope to do a tiger like that sometime. I used a couple biscuits on each wing to keep it all in line.

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This looks like it will be my main guitar...or at least my best looking and most comfortable one. I routed the pickup cavities today, got the neck almost all the way carved, fretted the fingerboard and put the side dots in, and glued the fingerboard on. Stainless steel frets are hard to work with but it'll be great when it's done.

Marking out pickup routs:

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Fingerboard glued on:

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FYI...

This IS an accurate description of Tiger.

TIGER

I worked for Jerry a few times as an employee of Bill Graham. I was fortunate enough thrice to be close enough to Tiger to be asked to hand 'her' over 'here'. I was quick enough back then to take a gander at the build. So I KNOW! :D

You are doing GREAT work so far... ;)

Just not really a Tiger. B)

PEACE

BTW...I own the #8 Alembic Tribute!!! :D

Got lucky on a one-time deal! B)

Edited by imott
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The guitar is great, it plays perfect has really low action and no buzzing at all. The stainless steel frets feel really smooth when bending and the sperzel locking tuners are awesome. The dream 180's sound great playing anything from cleans to death metal and the single coil is great for clean. Each humbucker can be coil tapped so I can get all the strat sounds. It is the guitar for me so I don't really see any need in building anymore electrics for myself besides maybe one of these with a floyd rose. It is a lot better than I thought it would turn out to be.

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It is the guitar for me so I don't really see any need in building anymore electrics for myself besides maybe one of these with a floyd rose. It is a lot better than I thought it would turn out to be.

Hehe, we´ll see about that...any builder here will tell you this is an addiction. Even if I haven´t built one myself yet I can assure you...designing, reading, searching for parts, etc...it´s already an obsession. I´m glad it worked out so great for you. It is a very interesting design which no doubt could benefit from a tremelo (yes, yes..."vibrato")], and before you know it, you´ll have convinced yourself you "need" to build another one...oh, and maybe another one just after that...

Yeah I know I'm already obsessed pretty much. Sometime I'm building a nicer one with a floyd rose. I'm starting an acoustic now, I've pretty much realized that I only enjoy the woodworking part of it.

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S-H-H pickup configuration rocks!

im not really a fan of how the shh looks but im sure it sounds real good :D

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