Customized Bob Weir Model

[michael kaufman]

 According to Guitar Stories, Weir added a movable Strat pickup between the Super 70's.  He didn't play the original "Bob Weir" model for very long.  He changed over to a variety of other customized Ibanez guitars.  Can you fill me in with some details like which models did he play and how were they customized.

Thanks!

[JohnS]

 Michael:

Good question!  

I have an '82 catalog that shows Bob draped over  a dark bursted beauty with vines and leaves inlayed all over it. It has a hb/sc/hb pickup config, what looks like a Power or Pro rocker trem bridge (no trem arm or locking nut, tho) and active EQ.

I'd love to know more about this guitar.

[Cameron Berthold]

 Greetings all from downunder, in my 1978 catalouge, there is a picture of Bob Weir playing the guitar in question, it's a weird looking beast. It is a converted 2681 NT model with a Les Paul type black pickgaurd, the sliding white single coil pickup between the two gold Super 80 flying finger pickups, 5 control knobs in a circle pattern, 3 switches in a row on the low e string side of the body mounted on what looks like a gold plated panel, the input jack is located on the top of the body near the control knobs,it has gold deluxe 59er machine heads and of course,the tree of life inlay up the neck.The catalouge reads:Many people have asked us why the guitar that Bob is playing now is not available in stores?.
Since Bob is one of the chief testers of prototypes for Ibanez,he is always using an instrument that is several years ahead in thinking.Trust that his newest ideas will become available to you as soon as they prove valuable for production, but test we must and test we will, and Bob Weir will always be a large part of that effort.(Ibanez catalouge Feb,1978)

Well what more could say after that !
Keep On Rockin'
Cameron

[michael kaufman]

 If you have a copy of Playing in the Band, there are many pictures of Weir playing Ibanezes other than the Bob Weir model.  Each one seems to be customized:  3rd pickup in middle, extra knobs and switches, however, I've never seen any info on these guitars.  I assume he added the 3rd pickup to "brighten" the sound;  the guitar has too much bass at times for me.  I've seen this complaint from other people.  I'm thinking of adding a 3rd pickup to mine...any recommendations.

[Jeff Hasselberger (Jhasse]

 Hello all-

Bob and I tried many different ideas, but he remained fond of the H-S-H combination. The first axe we made for him was in around 1974-ish. He used it on most of the Blues for Allah album, recorded at Bob’s home studio.  

This guitar was a single neck version of the double-neck Rex Bogue/Mahavishnu. Bob was playing a 335 at the time and wanted a brighter sounding instrument. I suggested single coils, but he liked ‘buckers, so we compromised. We couldn’t decide just where all the pickups should go, so we started with a typical H-H and thought that a single in the middle might work ok. Then we couldn’t decide on just where in the middle would be best. I think that in frustration or indecision Bob half-jokingly suggested that we should just make it movable and end the argument. I thought “What the @!##,” and off we went.

The initial sliding pickup didn’t work very well, and I can’t remember why. I ended up making the sliding mount out of nylon rods (about 3/16” dia. for the rails) and a hunk of nylon to mount the pickup. The idea was for the single coil to be able to snug up against the humbuckers. I incorporated height adjustment into the ends of the rails, so that the single coil could be independently adusted.

Bob was an incredibly patient and adventurous guinea pig. During the recording of Allah, he tried many different positions, heights, etc. etc. with this guitar and I went out there to visit with him about it. He had marked the positions that he liked and we discussed some other details. I took the guitar back with me and installed detents at his favorite pickup positions so he could just click it into place as desired. That worked very well for him and I think we might have made another somewhat identical guitar that had those changes.

By the time we got to making the “cowboy” guitar (the antique violin finished fancy one) bob had settled on liking the single coil snugged up to the bridge pickup, so there was no further need to complicate things. He also had an idea about large pegheads. His theory was that more mass up top helped sustain.  I believe that he still holds that theory to be correct.

Incidentally, that peghead design ended up on the transition copies in a slightly smaller version and on the Benson guitar.  

We made a couple of the “cowboy” models with a number of switching combos that were constantly going under the surgeon’s soldering iron. Basically, Bob wanted as much flexibility of pickup selection as we could deliver. So he had a choice of single coils, series humbickers, parallel humbuckers, phase reversals and so on. We also used the standard Artist EQ system on at least one of them. The EQ had a really nice tone, I think due to the use of coils instead of film capacitors.

I’ll have to rummage through my brain to come up with some other salient lies about the Weir guitars. Bob was truly fun to work with and no idea was ever too strange or too loose-wigged for him.  

Jeff

[michael kaufman]

 Jeff:

Thanks for joining in.  During the later 70's and into the 80's, Bob played several Ibanez guitars.  Are these the "cowboy" models?  Were they a particular model with mods or were they all custom from scratch?  Also, was he using Ibanez pickups in every guitar?

They major complaint I have about my Weir model is that it has too much bass.  Is that because it has the original Super 70's?  Did Bob add the single coil to add more brightness to the sound?

How about effects?  I'm sure they played an important part in his sound.  Any insight there would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again.

[RichGuitrman]

 I was wondering what the history is on the Musician guitar? I heard a rumor that BObby had his hand in on the design of that as well. Can you shed any light on this? Thanks!

[JohnS]

 Jeff:

Thanks so much for the Bob Weir info. How did Bob get hooked up with Ibanez?  

I can't see that much of the "cowboy" guitar in the catalog picture. What was the body style? A double cut or single? Any reason why in never made it into full production?

I heard a story that Jerry Garcia played an Ibanez (a semi-hollow model, if I remember correctly). Do you recall anything about that?

[Joerg (Jht)]

 Hi all... couldn't resist to jump in with a small excerpt from Guitar Player 02/98 concerning Bob Weir and Ibanez guitars:

... Weir, who retains possession of nearly all of the guitars he's owned, cites two as his all-time favorites: a Gibson ES-335 from the early '70s ("an old sweetheart") and an Ibanez George Benson model snatched from its namesake. "I was working with Ibanez on some designs in the mid '70s," Weir confesses, "and they showed me a new guitar that had just come in from Japan. I played it a bit, and they told me they had made it for George Benson. I told them, 'No, you didn't. You can call the police or do whatever you're going to do to me, but I'm taking it.' It still has Benson's name on it, and I've written so many songs on that guitar. I don't know if George knows that ever happened, and I'd like to apologize to him." ...

Jörg

[Jeff Hasselberger (Jhasse]

 Hello all again -

Brutal travel schedule has kept me buried for a couple of months. I'm taking off for the NAMM Show in Nashville in a day or so. I'll be back after the 25th. I'll weigh in on some of these pending questions when I get back.

Thanks for your patience.

Jeff

[Chris Sandell (Dozin)]

I believe I can substantiate on Bob's effects during this time period.  Basically the heart of his sound back then was the Intersound IVP.

- The IVP is a Instsrument Voicing Preamplifier. It has two Channels with lo and hi gain input. Master treble and bass control. Four bands of semi-parametric EQ. Footswitchable Clean or Tube instrument voicing preamplifier. I've dissected a lot of photos of the rig and Bobby always left it on the clean side). Master volume control. Two effects loops (one in front of and one after the instrument voicing preamplifier.) Balanced and unbalanced - 10db outputs. Additional main unbalanced output.  It has a connection for a mic in the back too. From what I understand but I'm not 100% positive about this is that the Ibanez UE-400 was connected to the Pre side of the effects loop on the IVP  

- Ibanez UE-400  Multi effects Unit. which contains Compressor, phaser, distortion, chorus/flanger and master switch.  

- Eventide Clockworks Delay

- Ashely Compressor/Limiter

- Furman EQ

- Furman Reverb FV-1

- Ibanez AD-9 Auto Filter (Shakedown St effect) It   acts like a revers Auto Wah, instead of Wah    it's haW that's best way I can describe it.

- Ibanez Tube screamer  

- All powered by a Great American Sound Amplifier  

- 12" Gauss speaker cabinet

- Belden Cables, that's the blue wire that's everywhere on stage.  

Check out this link http://www.dozin.com/Bobs/rig.asp

[JohnS]

 Chris:

Thanks for the information. But I wasn't able to get a viewable page when I clicked on your link.

[Steve (Gitfiddle1)]

 Chris,

Same here. No photo...

[Chris Sandell (Dozin)]

 That's odd, I've checked the link in 3 different browsers. Try refresh maybe???

[michael kaufman]

 Desperately trying to see the photos, but to no avail.  Any ideas?  Can it be e-mailed?