About The Jerry Garcia recreation Gear

The recreation of the Jerry Garcia band gear and guitars

For our nationally touring Jerry Garcia Band tribute, we wanted to recreate the “sounds” that were heard when one would go to see The Jerry Garcia Band. To do this we have invested time, sweat, money, patience and love into recreating the identical instrumentation and electronics that The Jerry Garcia Band performed with.

VOCALS
Kat Walkerson has performed with Melvin Seals (the keyboardist from The Jerry Garcia Band) many times. She has a soulful voice that captures the essence of the Jerry Garcia Band singers through all of the years. She sings all of the eras and feels the music like no one else. Her signing, enthusiasm and smile brings joy to all who come to listen!

GUITAR
Mik’s guitars are built to be identical to Jerry Garcia’s custom Tiger, Travis Bean and Wolf guitars. From the pickups to the unity gain buffer and on-board effects loop – not one thing has been skimped on to recreate that wonderful Jerry Garcia Tone.

Mik has three tribute guitars (gifted to him personally by Andy Logan, owner of Jerry’s Alligator guitar and Founder of the Grateful Guitars Foundation) and hand built and modded recreations of Jerry’s actual guitar amps, effects and speakers.

The guitars are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to Jerry Garcia’s unique tone. The amps and effects are also a very important aspect of achieving the right sound. Mik had acquired a 1967 Fender Twin (blackface) from a friend about 15 years ago. Using some inside information from Mike Wald on components and wiring that needed to be modified, Mik took the twin and made it as close to Jerry’s specifications as he could find. The twin is just used as a preamp, though. The real raw power (and additional tone) comes from the Mcintosh 2100 solid state power amp. Why use a 30+ year old power amp? Because nothing else on earth sounds like it.

Mik’s Rig Fall 2023

Combine the preamp and power amp sections with a rectreation of the Wall of Sound speaker cabinets and authentic JBL e-120 speakers, and thats where the magic starts to happen! Mik plays the guitar in his own style, not copying Jerry note for note. This gives a new energy to the music and helps create a new magical journey for each song.

GET EXCLUSIVE CONCERT LIVE STREAMS, VIDEOS, PHOTOS, EARLY BIRD TIX AND MORE BY SUPPORTING THE GARCIA PROJECT ON PATREON – Click this link and sign up to help our mission and get great perks: https://www.patreon.com/thegarciaproject

The recreation of the Jerry Garcia band gear and guitars

KEYBOARDS
Depending on the era, you will see and hear either a Hammond Organ  with Leslie Speakers (80’s, 90’s) or a Yamaha CP 70 Electric Piano (76-78). So many variations in The Jerry Garcia band over the years make the keyboard slot in The Garcia Project a fun and exciting position for all our great players, including Melvin Seals!

DRUMS
From jazz to jam and rock to roll, having a solid drummer that can keep one foot on the brakes and one foot on the gas is a very important part of creating the Jerry Garcia Band experience. Our drummers do just that – Keep time like a swiss watch and can turn any jam on a dime!

GET EXCLUSIVE CONCERT LIVE STREAMS, VIDEOS, PHOTOS, EARLY BIRD TIX AND MORE BY SUPPORTING THE GARCIA PROJECT ON PATREON – Click this link and sign up to help our mission and get great perks: https://www.patreon.com/thegarciaproject