Jeff Healey

[Ben...]

the procedure for adjusting the truss rods is beyond belief.

I've always wondered about that. I imagine you'd have to adjust both at the same time or else bad things would happen (Headstock split at the points?).

[bfloyd6969]

Very, very cool story. Welcome to the forum.

[nhspike]

I have that guitar.

Jeff and I have been friends since we were in our mid teens, played in bands together back then, and buds ever since.

About a year and a half ago he called me and told me he had put it up on ebay a while back, had no bites, was going to list it again at a lower reserve price but had second thoughts and decided I should have it instead. So he gave it to me. This was shortly after his first lung cancer operation.

As you can imagine, it's a pretty special instrument and I will always treasure it.

Aside: I remember when Jeff gave me the guitar he told me how much his tech hated it. I won't go into details here, but the procedure for adjusting the truss rods is beyond belief.

Here's a pic of me playing it...

Very cool!
Priceless friend, and a great keepsake.
Thanks for joining, sharing, and we hope you hang around for a spell.

[Nuclear Vampire]

Wow! What a story, and an amazing guitar. How did Jeff have the action set up on it for unique style of playing? Did he use odd string guages, or standard sets? Always wondered how his axes were set up.



Btw, his cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps is the best Beatles cover EVER.

[RobQ]

I have to say...we're not worthy!

That is truly awesome.
Do tell more about what you know about this awesome musician!

Some of us are not here because we are headbangers...I fall way down the rawk list...blues and soul touch me to the core. Jeff was both, just pure.
I'm here because I love Jackson's/Charvels. I would love to hear what you know.

What do you want to know? Jeff and I were close friends for over 25 years.

Unlike any oher musician I have ever worked with, the more you worked with Jeff the more you appreciated his talents and really wondered what his limitations were.

[RobQ]

I've always wondered about that. I imagine you'd have to adjust both at the same time or else bad things would happen (Headstock split at the points?).

It's not that, though the fact that adjusting one neck affects the other is a complication.

It's the mere fact of getting access to the truss rods. On the 12 string neck, the truss rod cover is underneath the "tailpiece" that holds the ball end of the second set of strings. So you have to remove all 12 strings and that tailpiece just to get at it.

On the 6 string neck, at least on the Healey Jackson, to get at the truss rod you have to remove the locking nut. Again that means removing all strings.

So all 18 strings have to come off the guitar; then you adjust both truss rods, cross your fingers, put it all back together again, string it up, and hope you got it right. Repeat until either it's perfect or you give up.

[RobQ]

Wow! What a story, and an amazing guitar. How did Jeff have the action set up on it for unique style of playing? Did he use odd string guages, or standard sets? Always wondered how his axes were set up.



Btw, his cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps is the best Beatles cover EVER.

Jeff liked huge frets. His string gauge preference is actually available from DR; it's called the "JH" Gauge. 10-56. He liked big fat low strings.

As far a setup, he liked the neck pretty much dead straight (no relief), fairly high action at the nut-end and even action across the neck all the way from the nut to the 22nd fret. Action was what I would call moderate. Not as low as I like it but not real high either.

The Jackson has 2 Evans single coils and what i think is some kind of high-output DiMarzio 'bucker on the 12 string side, and two of the dimarzio buckers on the 6 string neck. the original Jackson pickups that it came with are long gone; I guess he didn't like them

His stage rig in the beginning was of course the old squier strats (Japanese JVs with Evans pickups) or the Jackson through DOD pedals and into a Marshall JCM 800 set up painfully loud and very clean. He liked to get all his distortion from boost and overdrive pedals cranked way up to beat the shit out of the input stage of the amp.

The strats he was playing for the last 8 or so years had pretty wild electronics. They had three Duncan SH-5 humbuckers and each of the three pots were push/pull so you could tap a coil in any or all of the three pickups. Plus he had a regular master tone control and then a "brightness rolloff" control that rolled off highs but didn't touch mids. Plus a little microswitch that allowed him to get any combination of the three pickups. Fender approached hm about a signature model, that's the spec he gave them. They thought he was nuts and said there would be no commercial appeal for a guitar that complex. So they built him two prototypes and then walked away from the idea of a Signature strat. Jeff told me he thought Fender were nuts for not putting it into production.

As far as amps in the latter part of his life, he settled on ProTube Twins (he used to use the Blackface reissue Twins but he blew them up all the time.) He switched to BOSS pedals (a bluesdriver, a GE-7, a compressor, a chorus, delay) and once again he would max the level on all the boost pedals to drive the living shit out of the input stages of his amps (hence all the exploding blackface twins). He would set up on stage so the amp was pretty much pointed at his hands. A mere mortal would have had uncontrolled feedback but somehow Jeff was able to tame it. If you don't have his last release, Mess of Blues, you shoudl get it if for no other reason than to here the absolutely scorching tone he gets throughout.

[Cygnus X1]

Thank you, Rob...that answered my question...that tone was awesome.
Mostly in the hands, of course...but right on the edge.

[RobQ]

I'd like to post some photos of Jeff's strat...but apparently there aren't attachments on this forum...?

[Cygnus X1]

I'd like to post some photos of Jeff's strat...but apparently there aren't attachments on this forum...?

You should be able to upload photos from hosting sites (Imageshack, etc).
I think you have to be a Platinum Member to attach links to your PC photos.

Check your options settings.

[guitarsjb]

Wow, thanks for the info Rob.

[RobQ]

You should be able to upload photos from hosting sites (Imageshack, etc).
I think you have to be a Platinum Member to attach links to your PC photos.

Check your options settings.

OK I threw them up on facebook first...

[Cygnus X1]

Is that aluminum foil sticking out from under the edge of the top edge of the pickguard?

[RobQ]

No.

Jeff had his tech route the top so the pickguard is recessed - so the pickguard is flush with the top rather than sitting on top of it.

Anyway, it's a fairly sloppy routing job and what you are seeing in the photo are little irregularities.

[Aaron]

Rob, great story. I loved his playing and the fact the he couln't see blew me away.