Jerry Garcia Deluxe Reverb Tone 

Gabe. Excellent walk-thru/talk-thru. Additionally I must compliment your Garcia playing! Smooth, melodic, phrasing and licks put together well, and most importantly, soft touch with both hands. Inspirational, for sure! Chris

Best guitar faces ever during Estimated Prophet

I think a big part of the reason why his eq settings worked so well is because his amp was turned up to around 5, he had a good amount of reverb and jbls in closed back cabs

Terrific playing!

Nice playing man. Smooth! FYI -the actual Garcia settings are a dimed treble and zero bass…but it pretty much requires that you use a JBL with a very wide frequency range (50Hz -6kHz). Not many (if any) speakers can handle high frequencies like they can, nor cover the low end like a JBL. Altec comes closest. I play a DR into a K120 with JG settings and taming the highs simply comes from using the guitar’s tone knob. I also make the amp sweat a bit and use my guitar’s volume knob to go from clean to some drive. This introduces those lovely Mids and tight low end. Cheers!

Interesting topic and phenomenal playing! You have exquisite tone and touch!!! Thanks for sharing!

dam absolutely fantastic!!!

I had an old silverface Super Reverb...probably 1974 but it gets funky tracing both Fender and CBS Fender serial numbers. Incredibly; they were lax on inventory back then. After 30 years the tubes finally succumbed to the tropical weather and spazzed out. I miss that amp. I got it by chance and over the decades I am amazed at how many players used them

Boca Jr !!! 🔥

great tones and great playing! I found that a balanced tone sound more inspiring when playing alone or a small band but the ‘garcia’ eq works really well in a larger band context. still a bit extreme though lol.

Love your videos and shorts man. Cheers!

I know this wasn't a lesson video, but I certainly took it as a opportunity to learn the break in estimated prophet. Thanks for posting!

I Love the more balanced tone. Found the video really informative since I've been trying to dial in tones based off of jerry's twin reverb and its never sounds right. I also prefer the deluxe over a twin for obvious reasons( my back) .

i have a tone master deluxe. does a great JG sound

Wow great sounds

Hey Gabriel! Sounding good. Wassup brother? I like the DR for this platform and like you prefer a more fulsome low end. Unlike you I’m fine with (and typically use) the extended highs…treble on 7-8. Then again I’m a phoney baloney Kemper guy. Sounds nice to hear that sparkle with the middle pickup. JG reminiscent. And in a band setting the balanced sound and a real DRs output section is going to have a hard time keeping up onstage. At least that’s my experience. I’ve used Twins, Pro, Deluxes and Deluxes with souped up transformers. They are all really great, and depending on the needs of the player…could be a perfect fit. Been wanting to say hi…hope you’re well. Catch up soon…maybe you’ll find yourself in NYC this fall? Best, Jack

I totally agree. Even when I'm playing through my '74 Twin, I can't do the all-treble setting, and on my Tone Master Deluxe, it's even more of a balanced EQ. Sounds great though! I don't try hard to chase Jerry's tone, I'm Clay. I'll never be Jerry or play in a giant stadium like he did. Your tone is killer. Strong work.

DR has a fixed "bright cap" on the reverb channel volume pot. I removed mine on my 1971 but another option is to replace the volume pot with a pull switch volume pot. You can then change to a larger bright cap used on Fenders with a bright switch. I am not sure if this could be a way to get you closer, but thought I would mention. I think the bright tone works in a band context (if you can pull it off with good chops) but for everyday playing I would prefer the balanced tone.

Great video Gabe. I agree that most any Fender clean amp will work for Garcia tone. A super efficient speaker like JBL’s were also part of the Garcia recipe. I think one reason Jerry did use a lot of bass is Phil really owned the low-end frequencies. Phil is a very unique and unusual bassist in that in addition to holding down the rhythm, he plays the bass like a lead instrument. Question - were you using the DR’s internal speaker or the JBL IR on the OX? Keep up the good work 😎

Great video! I think either tone honestly sounds good, especially for Garcia style playing but at the end of the day (like almost all things guitar playing-wise), it comes down to personal preference. Where is that progression you played during the outro of the video from? It sounds so familiar but I can’t place it.

I've been searching for Jerry's tone slightly differently. I liked your balances tone more than the Jerry EQ. The latter seemed harsh through the Deluxe Reverb. I've been using both a Silver Sky and what I call a Pseudo Eagle. A PRS SE Custom 22 Semi-hollowbody, modded with a preamp and three coil-split humbuckers. I tried lots of combinations, but mostly use all single coils on either the Middle or Neck-Mid position. Amp with very low bass, around 3:00 mids and treble. I decided to try Garcia's idea of using a solid state power amp. Apparently he used a Twin preamp since it was very hard to distort. So I'm running the pedals into the effects loop return of a Blues Cube. And the last pedal, the preamp, is a Dream 65, using the JBF120 cab - "Vintage 1968 2x12 Fender Twin Reverb cab w/ original JBL D-120F speakers, mic’d with a 57 and a 121 ribbon mic" - and the Dream reverb. Here's where it gets crazy. My favorite Garcia Tone is 77. My problem is avoiding the ice pick treble, while having a nice bass. My solutions - still experimenting - involve two EQs, followed by an ODR-1 into a Silver Archer (Klon klone) into an AquaPuss for a slight delay into the Dream 65. The first EQ is the MXR 10 band. The second a ParaEQ Deluxe. Both have boosts. I originally paired them to teach myself frequencies and how to shape them. Two things are interesting. One I think I understand, the other I know I don't. The tone knob on the guitar is very sensitive. But engaging the ParaEQ, almost everything at noon, sweetens the sound. What isn't at noon are the high and low pass filters. If the guitar tone knob is set right, the highs are tamed and the bass is crisp. I test it with the opening riff of Scarlet Begonias. Like you. The gain staging is what I don't completely understand. The Archer, set on very low gain, adds both slight grit and brightness. I'm not exactly sure what the ODR-1 does, which is before the Archer. For one thing there is EQ on every pedal. But somehow the ODR-1 seems to tighten or control the boundaries of the sound. And it allows the Boost on the ParaEQ to matter. Definitely inspiring. Also fun to explore. I haven't settled on one tone yet and I'll definitely explore your balanced tone. Thanks.

Just finished a big project. I’ll be testing this out on my DRRI later.

Great vid Gabriel, thanks so much. Tried to support via paypal but the name you suggest isn't recognized on their platform. Help?

Sad we didn't see the Super Eagle make an appearance, it was made for this tone

GABRIEL, try out the vertex Dumble SSS and other Dumble guitar pedals to get that Garcia EQ tone to make a YT lesson on.

Both sound good but Garcia was bass all the way down with treble all the way up.

Are you using the second position (bridge and middle pickups) on your guitar for this video?

What speaker in your deluxe?

I can get a fine Jerry tone from any Fender amp by cutting the bass all the way down.

I wish I could understand why anyone likes the Dead. I've never understood that thing. Wish I did though. I've tried, but I just can't. It's like that part of my brain was disabled at birth or something. I'm so happy JM is done with the Dead. I've been so pissed for so long that he's been putting so much time into the Dead. I feel for the guys that will miss it, but I'm so happy he'll be doing his own thing all the time now.