Garcia's Guitars
A pictoral guide to Jerry's guitars.
HINT: Pictoral means image laden, or very long download.
This does not attempt to be a definitive description of the guitars, just a
reference guide created by crosslinking various bits of information readily available in
the public domain. It was created after i was inspired by the page above while flipping
through an old Relix magazine looking for images of the Wall of Sound.
The text on the site is transcribed from many sources and then composited here for easier
reference in a timeline format.
The images are new scans of various printed material from my collection, to illustrate the
guitars being discussed.
These are all used without permission, for educational purposes only, all
copyrights remain with the original copyright holders.
1965/66 With the Warlocks he used a red Guild Starfire, also used on the 1st Dead album.
1967 - black 1956 Les Paul w/p-90's p/u covers removed, this guitar has a Bigsby
tailpiece/tremelo bar.
1968 - Gold-top Les Paul with single coil p/u's (aka soap-bars,aka P-90's) three Twin
Reverbs w/two ext. Fender 4x12 cabinets, JBL speakers
3/1/69 - cherry Gibson SG. associated with the "Live Dead" sound. Vox Crybaby
wah-wah pedal
Woodstock
Martin D-18 "American Beauty", "Wokingman's Dead"
1969/70 - sunburst Strat. He's pictured playing this one on several 1970 dates.
ZB pedal steel 70-74
He's back on an SG on 5/6/70 and pics captioned "1970"
3/24/71 - Looks like a Les Paul neck on a handmade body. I'll take a guess that it was an
early effort from the Alembic guys, because the raised pickguard appears to be made of
hand-cast metal,and they were into that.
8/71 - sunburst Les Paul
4/72 - natural finish Strat.As heard on Europe '72.
8/27/72 Sunshine Daydream movie shows Jerry playing a Sunburst Strat.
Strat the "Alligator" from Graham Nash
1957 Fender Stratocaster, a classic rock 'n' roll guitar given to him by Graham Nash, with
an alligator decal on the body that gave the guitar its name, Alligator.
aluminum guitar designed by Southern California maverick Travis Bean
09/28/75. Travis Bean MC1000 w/humbuckers
76 Travis Bean MC500 w/single-coil pickups and fx loop
+Mu-Tron III +Mu-Tron Octave Divider +MXR analog delay
early '77 Travis Bean MC500 recieves Jerry's first unity-gain buffer/fx loop jack combo,
placing all effects in front of Jerry's gtr vol. knob.
05/77. 1 (silverface)Twin Reverb as pre-amp > McIntosh MC2300 power amp > 3 JBL
2x12's; BF Twin as reserve backup head
Bean returns for select JGB shows through '78
Irwin delivered Wolf, named after its distinctive inlay of a wolf, in May 1973 for $1,500. Wolf briefly came out of retirement in 1988 as a guinea pig for MIDI synthesizer experiments.
Doug Irwin on Wolf
THE WOLF
In May, 1972, I began the project that eventually became the Wolf" (#007).
Remembering the balance problems that Alembic was having, I decided to make it
asymmetrical to give it good balance. I drew an original design and cut a master plexiglas
template to shape the body.
The body core is amaranth, commonly known as purpleheart It grows in the Northeast of
South America, in the Guyana's. Extensive research and testing of numerous species of wood
on a world-wide basis by the U.S. Forestry Department demonstrated that for strength, as
measured by stiffness, purpleheart exceeds all. It appears grey when first cut, but with
exposure to light it turns purple in days to months depending on the shade of purple.
Though this wood can turn to an awesome shade of purple, the color doesn't bleed into the
finish, nor is it oily or waxy.
Purpleheart glues most satisfactorily with wood glues (for me that means Franklin
"Titebond"]. The body is laminated on both sides with four 1 /28' thick sheets
of maple and purpleheart.
The top and back of this guitar are bookmatched curly western maple. Both maple and
walnut, as well as well as other hardwoods have distinct differences between the same
species grown the West Coast, with warm winters, and the East Coast, with very cold
winter.
The neck of this guitar runs through the middle of the body. It is made from a lamination
of flddleback maple and purpleheart
The peghead of the Wolf is overlaid on both sides with several 1 /'28 thlck sheets of
maple and purpieheart with each piece turned 180 degrees, thus alternating the direction
of grain. The peghead is attached to the neck on the back with a "tongue" of
this overlay that runs past the first fret; a feature which is not only visually striking,
but also adds tremendous strength at a traditionally weak area.
The fingerboard is made of gaboon ebony and has twenty-four frets. It is bound on each
side with four lamination's of maple, purpleheart and ebony. Each fret slot is cut across
the fingerboard just to, but not through, the outside of the binding. Each fret wire is
then notched at each end so that only the top of the fret extends all the way to the edge
of the fingerboard. Using this process, you don't see, and more importantly, you don't
feel the ends of the fret wire, making the neck feel very fast and smooth. The fret wire
itself is a special nickel-silver wire made by Dunlap. It is wider than that used by
Fender and narrower than that used by Gibson and harder than either. On the left side of
the neck (the view of the neck and fingerboard that Jerry saw while playing) there are
marker dots made c' sterling silver, and below that, there is a visible layer of marquetry
below the binding made of many tiny pieces of 1/28" thick holly, which is naturally
white, colored with annelid dyes.
The string scale is 25". The fingerboard is inlaid with African ivory except for the
first fret, which is mother-of-pearl.
I configured the guitar with a plate system for mounting pickups. This allowed for a
variety of pickup choices. It was originally set up with three Fender Stratocaster
pickups. I also provided Jerry with a second pickup plate for Humbuckers (hum-canceling
dual-coil pickups). The 70's were a time of evolution in guitar pickup design, so when
Jerry got a new guitar, there was usually a period of experimentation. Then, from time to
time Jerry would try new pickups, but once he found what he liked, he usually stuck with
it. Sometimes Jerry felt that an old set of pickups. would get "tired", so I'd
change them out for new ones.
The pickup selector is the five position Stratocaster type. Front, middle, or rear, or
combinations of the middle and either front or rear. Wolf is equipped with a master volume
control, and a tone control for each of the middle and front pickups. The two subminiature
switches set side by side are the pickup coil switches. There are two 1/4" phone
jacks. One went directly to the amp, and the other to Jerry's effects loop, with the
master volume located after the effects loop. There is also a subminiature switch to
toggle the effects loop in or out. The electronics cavity accessible from the back plate
is shielded from the electromagnetic field with silver print. The chrome-nickel tuning
machines and bridge are made by Schaller (W. Germany). The switch plate, pickup plate,
back plate, guitar serial number plate (located on the back side of peghead) are all made
of solid brass and are chrome-nickel plated.
For historical purposes, I should mention that the peghead of this guitar was originally
faced with Brazilian rosewood and had a large inlay of a peacock made of abalone,
mother-of-pearl, brass and ivory. This was the first guitar to have the distinctive D.
Irwin peghead shape, the traditional mark of the luthier, that I still use today. I chose
the peacock because the peghead needed something, and I hadn't yet decided on the eagle as
the company logo at this time. It is the image of this guitar that appears in the
self-portrait that graces the cover of ]erry's solo album "Compliments of
Garcia".
A few years after I delivered Wolf to Jerry, the guitar took several tumbles during
Grateful Dead's European tour. The first, a fall of about fifteen feet off the stage onto
cement, had no effect on the guitar at all, but the second incident caused a crack to
appear in the peghead. When Jerry finally brought me the Wolf for repair, the crack was
actually very minor, but a stitch in time, saves nine. Repairing the crack wasn't much of
a problem, but having the guitar again made me reassess my early inlay work, and prompted
me to reface the peghead with ebony and replace what I determined to be a poor excuse for
a peacock with my signature eagle inlay cut from mother-of-pearl.
I also noticed the guitar needed some refinishing work so I took this opportunity to inlay
the Wolf into the body and refinish the whole instrument, hence its moniker.
When I finished and first delivered the Wolf to Jerry in May, 1973, I was anxious to see
his reaction. He was immediately quite pleased, but after playing it for about five
minutes, Jerry asked me if I would build him another guitar. I asked him what he would
Iike in the next guitar? He told me that I already knew what he liked in a guitar, that I
should make it the way I thought best, not to worry about how much it cost, just
"don't hold back". Oh, yes! My kind of job!
There is really something quite special about delivering your work, and getting this kind
of reaction... it ain't really work!
Lets see... "Don't hold back"... This will require some thought
Peacock inlay.
09/28/77. return of "Wolf", w/added buffer/fx loop, still with 3
single-coil p/u's...
mid '78 "Wolf" gets new Dimarzio pickups:(b,m)Dual Sound;(n)SDS-1
fall '79 "Tiger" Irwin custom:(b,m)Dual Sound,(n)SDS-1
Doug Irwin on Tiger
THE TIGER
A guitar like none built before...
The Tiger's body core is made of curly western maple, and is laminated with 3/16"
vermilion and 1 /28" maple. The top and back are made of bookmatched, carefully
selected coca-bola, which was chosen for its grain pattern, integral knots, and red color.
The body is constructed from three sections. The center section is about 3 1/2" wide.
This allowed me to place a block of wood underneath the part of the guitar that anchors
the bridge and the tailpiece.
It is the mass of the guitar which determines, in most respects, its acoustic signature,
or resonant characteristics. Any sound we hear can often be identified by its resonant
decay pattern. On an oscilloscope we see this as a frequency height attained and
characterized by the duration and mode in which the sound decays. In addition to the
guitar's mass, other dominant factors that affect its sound are the scale length, the
total string length, the angle of the strings as they cross over the string nut and the
bridge, or the "speaking string".
The neck of the guitar is flawed fiddleback western maple which has a centerpiece of
vermilion with 1 /28" sheets of vermilion and maple on both sides of the vermilion.
The peghead is overlaid with cross grain sheets of 1 /28" maple and ebony on the
face, and maple and walnut on the back side.
The fingerboard is made of African gaboon ebony. It is bound in 18 gauge solid brass with
overlaid frets of Dunlap nickel-silver. The fingerboard inlay is carefully selected
Australian mother-of pearl, chosen for its color and unique reflective quality. The
24" fret inlay is cut from a piece that is 50% thicker than the standard .060" I
usually work with. It was necessary to do this because the piece is so wide and the
fingerboard is deeply rounded. It was also fitting because I carved into it "J.
Garcia", the name of the man who gave me license to do this kind of work. The inlay
in the peghead face is the deluxe version of my company logo, the eagle circling the
earth. It is cut from brass, mother-of-pearl and abalone and this is the first guitar on
which I used this image.
The brass filigree that borders all the plates mounted on the guitar and continues around
both sides is inlaid into the 3/16" laminate of vermilion of the body core. This
1/16" square brass wire is inlaid into a rounded surface, and I have never before
seen work of this nature. The brass wire is slotted at a 45-degree angle at 3/16"
intervals. The slotting ensures that the brass remains firmly anchored.
The pickup mounting plate is made of solid brass and continues in the same curve around
the arch in the top. This curved plate has brass rings soldered to the underside. The
Tiger is inlaid with a solid ebony plate, underneath which is a compartment that houses
some of the guitar's electronics. The electronics compartments are shielded from
electromagnetic interference by silver print.
The Tiger also has a large oval plate on the back that is made of curly
maple and has a marquetry border. The plate is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and abalone in
the form of an Art Nouveau flower. This floral motif also includes the guitar's serial
number, 050. Beneath the plate, known only to a few, is a hidden compartment.
Garcia replaced Wolf with Tiger in 1979. The guitarmaker spent more than
six years working on it, and Garcia played the heavy 14-pound guitar for 11 years.
Irwin mixed exquisitely detailed, intricate brass work with dense, exotic hardwoods in his
designs. He also incorporated a lot of special features Garcia himself devised, like a
loop that ran the signal back through the guitar so he could control his special effects
with knobs on the body of the guitar or a built-in pre-amp hidden beneath Irwin's inlays.
"Jerry knew more about his guitars and equipment than anyone," said Parish.
After a Roland synthesizer was successfully attached to Wolf, Tiger went back to the shop
for retrofitting. Garcia used the synthesizer attachment to make his guitar sound like a
trumpet or other instruments.
"Tiger" (pearl coverplate) Description: Seven years to make, ebony fingerboard on maple neck, an arched cocobola top and back, vermilion neck and body striping, and W. flamed-maple body core. Meticulous scrolled inlay finger position markers and hand-crafted brass hardware; Strat approach, but with one DiMarzio SDS-1 single coil and two DiMarzio Super 2 humbuckers that were easily removed 'cause Jerry thought their ouput weakened after a year or two. Also had Jerry's effects bypass loop (he knew his electronics!), as well as an op-amp buffer/amp to maintain the high end during effects "on". Result: Garcia's favorite guitar for the next ll years & most played.
"Tiger"
Named for the beautiful bottom cover plate bearing a mother-of-pearl tiger inlaid on
ebony.
The guitar is called Tiger because of the inlay on the battery/preamp
compartment cover. Doug worked at Alembic guitars for a year and half or two. Tiger was
built in the Alembic "Hippie Sandwich" tradition. "Hippie Sandwich" is
several different layers of wood sandwich together which creates the beautiful layers of
the guitar. Tiger's top layer being Cocabola, then a Maple stripe, a layer of Vermillion
and a Flame Maple core. A brass binding is set around the body of the guitar and across
the front. There's a beautiful inlayed on the back side of Tiger's body too. The Western
Maple neck has a hardwood section of paduk inlayed in the back and the ebony fret-board
has a brass binding. 13 1/2 pounds of muscle and beauty, which is where a major part of
Jerry's rich deep tone comes from.
Garcia played with high action 7/64" at the 12th fret, with .030" relief in the
neck. At the nut, the strings where also quite high at about .030" above the 1st
fret. The ebony fingerboard has a 16" radius and sports. .105" x.45" frets.
The neck and middle pickups are 10/64" from the strings, and the bridge pickup sits
14/64" away. (The bridge was made by Schaller for Gibson, and the tailpiece was
custom made for the guitar.) The brass nut is scalloped between the strings, and the
spacing -as specified by Garcia- is equal between the edges of the strings (as opposed to
the centers of the strings being equidistant, which is more common). Garcia used Vinci
strings, gauged .010 - .046, but from time to time used an .011 on the highE and a .047 on
the low E.
The guitar features a single-coil in the neck position, as opposed to the humbuckers you
see in other configurations. Garcia used a DiMarzio SDS-1 Strat-style pickup in the neck,
and DiMarzio Super IIs in the middle and bridge pickups.
The guitar's wiring is unusual. The pickups are switched by a standard 5-position pickup
selector. The neck and bridge have a tone control, and the middle pickup has its own tone
control. The ouput of the pickups goes directly into a unity gain (no boost) preamp
powered by a 9-volt battery. The preamp protects the guitar signal against high end loss
due to cable capacitance by lowering the output impedance.
Unity-gain buffer Pre-amp for Electric Guitar designed by John Cutler for Jerry Garcia.
Use long cables between your Guitar and Amp Low-Z output, 9-volt power.
click on image to find out more
From the preamp, the signal goes to an onboard effects loop switch, which routs the signal
either directly to the guitar's volume control or to Garcia's effect (via a TRS jack), and
then back into the guitar (through the same TRS jack) to the guitar's volume control. From
there, the signal finally goesout the main output jack.
The genius of this wiring is that it allowed Garcia to keep full volume going to the
pedals while controlling his output volume from the guitar. The advantage is that the tone
and response of the pedals would not change with the guitar's output volume, as it
normally would if Garcia plugged directly into them. The wiring also allowed for a true
bypass of the effects when they weren't in use.
Tiger Guitar Electronics and how they work:
Again, The Tiger has two Dimarzio Super ll pickups and one Single coil Dimarzio SDS1 in
the neck position. The humbucking pickups are wired with Black and White wires together in
true single coil switching mode. There is a 5 way strat style pickup selection switch, two
3 way toggle switches for coil selection on the humbuckers (On/Off/On) switch is for
single(north)/humbucker/single(south) configuration of the dual-coil pickup and one 3
position toggle to turn the effects loop on and off. There are two 500k tone pots one for
each humbucker and one 25k volume pot. There are two output jacks, both are stereo type
jacks. The mono cable uses a stereo jack so it will turn the battery off when you unplug
the guitar. The mono cable runs straight to the Fender Twin. The stereo jack runs out of
the guitar to the effects rack and then back into the guitar BEFORE the volume control.
Here is the important stuff. By running the effects loop from the guitar you are able to
shape the sound of the effects with the tone controls of the guitar. In the effects loop
is a Unity Gain Buffer. It is a little op amp that keeps the gain of the signal in the
loop constant and makes the output of the guitar low impedance. The Buffer is always ON
and seeing a signal no matter if the effects loop is on or off. You can get one from EMG
www.emginc.com . The model number is JG1. (or now a JG-2) Since the loop is wired pre-
volume, the effects are always seeing the same full output from the pickups. When your
signal from your guitar is not going up and down with volume you know right where your
effects levels are going to be. Most importantly this allows you to shape the tone of your
effected signal with the tone controls of your guitar. When you daisy chain stomp boxes in
between your guitar and your amp you are sucking a lot of tone away and when you kick in
any effect it takes over your signal and you have no control over it. Try turning on a
distortion pedal and switching your pickup selectors or turning your tone knobs, you see
very little change in the sound. With the effects loop and unity gain buffer you have 5
different distortion tones and you can roll the tone off to get real cool horn like
sounds. In this way, Garcia was seamlessly painting with an incredible number of varying
tones that were controllable right from the guitar and one control foot switch.
Feb. to Mar. '80 JGB tour Mesa Boogie MkIIa head> MC2300> Hard Trucker JBL 3x12
'82 "Tiger" gets pickup change:(b,m)Dimarzio Super 2,(n)SDS-1...
Takamine acoustics 1980 acoustic shows & benefits
In 1989, Irwin delivered his $11,000 masterpiece, Rosebud, with MIDI controls built in. "Everything he had learned about guitars went into Rosebud, " said Parish.
In 1990 Garcia introduced the 3rd Doug Irwin guitar "Rosebud",
named for the inlaid dancing skeleton on the ebony cover plate. It is almost a twin of
Tiger, but two pounds lighter at 11 1/2 pounds. (While the shape is identical to Tigers,
the body inlay, tone and volume control positions are different.) Though he continued to
use Tiger with Garcia Band for about a year, Rosebud became Jerry's full time guitar.
Specifications: Under Rosebud is a cavity that houses a gutted out Roland GK-2 guitar
synthesizer interface. The carved cocobola top and back are divided by a flamed maple core
that has been hollowed out to reduce weight. The maple neck has a vermilion stripe and a
24-fret ebony fingerboard. As with the Wolf and Tiger, the electronics layout and pickups
are basically like those of a Strat one volume control, two tone knobs, and a five-way
selector switch. Rosebud features three DiMarzio Super II split coil humbuckers. Except
for the
Schaller bridge, tuners and brass knobs all the hardware is hand-fabricated of brass by
Irwin, including the tailpiece, the switchplate, the pickup plate assembly and the jack
mounting plates. The GK-2 mates with a GR-50 synthesizer rack mount unit. This is
controlled by interacting pieces. Midi volume and synth patch increment/decrement changes
(which are the red mini-momentary action switches on the guitar) were generated
conveniently by the GK-2 controller electronics. One of the switches were for 'remote'
incrementing of the synth(s) patch numbers, the other for decrementing to a different
patch. It was possible for Jer to switch between guitar or synth(s) by themselves by use
of the volume pots on the guitar or have both at the same time.
The GR-50 synth unit was coupled via Midi interface cabling to a Lake Butler Midigator
foot-controller. The LB Midigator was used primarily to switch to a patch that was not
'adjacent' to the last patch used. For example, going from patch 9 to patch 33 could not
be accomplished by using the GK-2 inc/dec switches in one move, so a foot controller was
used for that. The Lake Butler Midigator could be set up to be labeled by song title or
'space1' , where under that label up to 5 different patch changes could be stored and
accessed easily.
For example, a MIDI patch of Bambu Tremolo on the Korg M1R, with an oboe, a flute, a
flungelhorn could be stored under the title of Space1.
The MIDI thru port of the GR-50 was cabled to the MIDI in of the Korg M1R. You hear many
of the MIDI patches Garcia used on Without a Net and Built to Last. It is located at the
bottom of the rack if you look at the guitar picture on the right side of the page.
If Jerry hit the patch increment button on the GK-2, the patch would be incremented on
both the GR50 and Korg M1R at the same time if he used both units on the same MIDI channel
(MIDI can support up to 16 channels). He worked with a library of about 500 sounds.
All three of Irwin's guitars share Garcia's effect-loop design, which is basically a
stereo jack that sends the signal out through the effects and back before it hits the
volume and tone controls.
Alvarez-Yairi "Garcia/Grisman" + live shows
Garcia's next guitar arrived in the mail at the Grateful Dead office in
1993. Stephen Cripe, a 39-year-old Florida woodworker who spent years building custom
interiors for Caribbean yachts, decided to try his hand at making a guitar. Using a few
photos and a Dead video, he knocked off Irwin's design of Tiger with a few flourishes of
his own, like carving the body out of a piece of East Indian rosewood recycled from a 19th
century Asian opium bed.
Garcia was floored. He gave the piece to San Francisco repairman Gary Brawer to fix the
electronic guts, but it was a miracle guitar.
"Garcia was amazed when it came around," said band mate Bob Weir, "at the
guesswork he had to make -- and got right -- to give that guitar Irwin's look and feel. It
was astounding."
He pronounced the piece "the guitar I've always been waiting for" and began
playing the instrument exclusively. It came to be called Lightning Bolt.
Then in '93 came the coup de gras: Deadhead woodworker Stephen Cripe from
Florida custom built the "Lighting Bolt" using photos of the Tiger and a well
worn "Dead Ahead" video. Garcia liked it a lot and used it from 1993 on. It had
an acoustic piezo pickup built in, as well as the rest. He fashioned the body out of a
peice of E. Indian rosewood recycled from a small 19th-cent. Asian bed for opium smokers.
Built "totally by feel", the cocobola through-body neck has a recycled Brazilian
rosewood fingerboard (note: Jerry's interest in the rain forest) with an unusual accuracy
in the higher end allowing him to play where he usually avoided. Predictably, Garcia made
a few intonation changes and installed a Roland MIDI system.
Garcia met with Cripe briefly backstage at a Florida concert and
commissioned a second guitar for $6,500, known as Top Hat, although Garcia almost never
played it. Cripe, whose hobby was making fireworks, died in May 1996 when his work shed
blew up. He used an exploding firecracker as the insignia on his guitars' headstocks.
Lightning Bolt was in the shop on the last tour.
In April of '95 Jerry ordered the backup "Top Hat".
The final show at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995, Garcia started out playing Rosebud, Lightning Bolt was getting a new bridge, during the show Rosebud developed problems. Garcia had to use the spare guitar, Tiger, to finish his final concert by the Grateful Dead.
Jerry recorded "Blue Yodel # 9" using a mint condition 1939
Gibson Super 400N acoustic that seen in the video for the movie "Smoke".
Effects:
Effects used during the early '70's were limited mostly to the Vox wah-wah pedal being
occasionally used.
By the late '70's, he was using the Mutron envelope filter (which was used for Estimated,
Shakedown, etc.), and he continued to use it until the very end.
A Mutron Octive Divider, MXR Distortion +, Phase 100 and Analog Delay.
By the late '80's, his effects consisted of mostly Boss effects: Octave Divider, Turbo
Overdrive, Super Overdrive, EQ's, etc. in two effects loops.
He also used some extremely expensive Lexicons a PCM-42 or PCM-60, with a PCM-70)
reverb/delay units in the rack behind him; these are studio units.
By 1993, he was using these effects, but used a Groove Tube TRIO preamp as well as a Real
Tube Reverb unit to go direct to the soundboard, when all of the power amps & speakers
were removed from the stage. They used in-the-ear monitors instead of floor monitor
wedges.
Chandler Stereo Digital Echo
Korg O1R/W
Korg M1R
Emu Proteus/1
ADA MicroCab
Alesis Midiverb
Boss OD2
Turbo Overdrive Boss OD1
Overdrive 2
Boss GE7 Equalizers
Boss OC2 Octave
Mutron III
MXR Phase 100
Groove Tubes Trio
Tube Works Real Tube Reverb
some ADA rack mount FX box
Steve Parish notes
"He slept with these instruments," said equipment manager Steve Parish, who
handled Garcia's guitars for more than 25 years. " You could lose amps. You could
break things, and sometimes we did. But I could never look Jerry in the eye and say, 'I
don't have your guitar."
Jerry had about 25 guitars, but 70% of his time in the spotlight he played just 3, all
custom built by the same luthier Doug Irwin (Sonoma, CA). After a series of Gibsons SGs,
Les Pauls (with P90 single-coil pickups), and a couple of Teles and Strats he declared:
"I don't like any guitars that are available. I'm trying to have a guitar
built."
This was the Travis Bean. He laughed upon first seeing it, but quickly changed his mind
when he tried the custom aluminum-neck guitar made in San Francisco. He used a Vox wah-wah
in those dayz.
In '72 he received the his first custom Doug Irwin the "Wolf". Description: 25.5
in maple neck, 24 fret ebony fingerboard, blonde Western "quilted" maple body
with at purpleheart (amaranth) core. Guts like a Strat, but with a clever effects bypass
circuit Jerry designed himself.
In 1977, the Travis Bean was retired after a while because of the tuning problems that the
neck created.
By 1977, his silverface Fender Twin amp was already a central part of his sound. He
continued to use the preamp from the Fender amp through 1993.
From the late '70's to about 1993 he didn't use the power amp & speakers of the
Fender, instead using three JBL D120/E120 speakers in a vertical box powered by a McIntosh
solid state amp (note that this probably made the power amp Class A, which is not the
Class AB power amp that the Fender normally has). It was miked with a Sennheiser 421 mic.
He used the Alligator, Bean, and Wolf exclusively up to '78.
In the late 80's Jerry mounted a GK-7 synth interface on the Wolf. Mated to the GK-50
controller, this allowed him to sound like a trumpet player and bass flautist. San
Francisco repair expert Gary Brawer later retrofitted it internally.
Not completely satisfied until Irwin delivered him the "Tiger" in 1979.
Description: Seven years to make, ebony fingerboard on maple neck, an arched cocobola top
and back, vermilion neck and body striping, and W. flamed-maple body core. Meticulous
scrolled inlay finger position markers and hand-crafted brass hardware; Strat approach,
but with one DiMarzio SDS-1 single coil and two DiMarzio Super 2 humbuckers that were
easily removed 'cause Jerry thought their ouput weakened after a year or two. Also had
Jerry's effects bypass loop (he knew his electronics!), as well as an op-amp buffer/amp to
maintain the high end during effects "on". Result: Garcia's favorite guitar for
the next ll years & most played.
In 1990 Garcia changed guitars when Irwin completed "Rosebud" named for the
inlaid dancing skeleton on the ebony coverplate. Lighter than the Tiger, it became his
fulltime Dead guitar, but he used the Tiger in the JGB for a another year.
A Short Biography of the Jerry Garcia Guitars
Jerry Garcia was a legend that brief words on this site could not begin to describe. Millions upon millions revel in his memory. As a musician, Garcia cherished the handful of instruments he played over his remarkable career. The most extraordinary of these instruments were lovingly created by the noted guitar- maker Doug Irwin for his friend, Jerry. Of these, the most noted were "Tiger" and "Wolf," instruments so remarkable that millions of Deadheads recognize them on sight. Recently, "Tiger" and "Wolf" were returned to their maker in accordance with Garcia's last wishes. In what augers to be one of the most remarkable auctions of all time, Guernsey's is honored to be offering for sale these most wonderful instruments. With the auction date about to be announced, fans can look forward to the exciting opportunity of bidding on these guitars, as well as small (in comparison) but significant artifacts relating to Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, as well as a stunning collection of personal items from the great Janis Joplin.
The Jerry Garcia Guitars at Auction
Guernsey's - the auction house known for such high profile events as the Graceland (Elvis
Presley) Auction and the baseball sale that featured Mark McGwire's $3 million ball,
enthusiastically announces an unprecedented auction focusing on the Grateful Dead and
Jerry Garcia's remarkable guitars. The auction will be held on May 8, 2002 in New York
City following a variety of preview activities celebrating the life of the beloved
musician.
Although the auction will be presenting an array of rare and desirable Grateful Dead
artifacts, the auction is really about Tiger and Wolf, the fabulous guitars that millions
of "Deadheads" (passionate Grateful Dead followers) came to view as unparalleled
icons. Currently, the guitars are owned by Doug Irwin, the master guitar maker who's work
Jerry Garcia so admired. In his will, Garcia left the guitars to Mr. Irwin who had devoted
many years of his life creating them. Several surviving members of the Grateful Dead
contested the will, but a court confirmed Mr. Irwin's right of ownership. The guitars are
now being sold to allow Irwin to create a new woodworking shop where he can continue
crafting his extremely fine creations for clients in the future. (Several years ago, Mr.
Irwin was involved in a bad accident leaving him in critical condition. Recovery expenses
exhausted his assets.)
Through the latter years of the twentieth century, Rock & Roll-era guitars
increasingly became the center of attention at pop cultural auctions. However, it is
unlikely that any have had the magnetism of Tiger and Wolf. Most rock musicians play
instruments for limited periods, continually opting to move on to newer, improved models.
Jerry Garcia was very much the exception, playing only a handful of instruments throughout
his three-decade-long career. So identified were his guitars that his followers called
them by name. (Tiger and Wolf were named for the exquisite mother-of-pearl and ivory
inlaid animal images Doug Irwin created on the guitar bodies.) It has been said that there
are Deadheads who can discern - simply by ear - which instrument Jerry is using in his
many recordings. Wolf was used throughout the early part of Jerry's career, while Tiger -
which took six years to craft (Jerry had commissioned Doug to create the very finest
instrument he was capable of making) - was used by Jerry in his very final concerts. In
one of several articles that have appeared about Jerry Garcia and the Doug Irwin guitars
in Guitar Player (there have been numerous articles about this subject in many other
popular magazines as well), it was said about Tiger: "Garcia produced more notes with
the Tiger than any other guitar, using it exclusively for the next 11 years. 'When I
picked up that guitar,' Garcia said 'I'd never felt anything before - or since - that my
hand likes better.' " Wolf was the first guitar Jerry Garcia commissioned from Doug
Irwin. Once in the musician's hands, Garcia rarely used guitars other than the creations
of Mr. Irwin.
In addition to the guitars, there will be many rare Grateful Dead items to intrigue the
participants of this auction. A small sampling includes original paintings created by
Jerry Garcia, original handwritten lyrics for the Grateful Dead, the rarest of Dead
posters and (even rarer) proof sheets and the original artwork for several posters. There
will be two wonderful Grateful Dead photographic collections (both consisting of images
never previously published.) The first is by Roberto Rabanne, a highly regarded
professional photographer whose images of the Dead (and many other rock celebrities) are
widely recognizable, while the second collection is by Robert Cohn, known for his joyous,
candid images of the Dead in concert. The only other rock artist included in this unique
auction is Janis Joplin. With many links to the Grateful Dead, material from Janis adds an
extra element of excitement to an event that by any account has to be viewed as a somewhat
wild affair.
As this is being written, Guernsey's is preparing a comprehensive catalogue documenting
Tiger, Wolf and the other exciting objects in the auction. The book (which is likely to
become a collector's item in its own right) will include extensive text and numerous
exciting photographs which clearly should have interest for Deadheads and others whose
lives were affected by the unique talent that was Jerry Garcia. To acquire the catalogue,
discuss the possibility of late consignment or arrange to become a bidder at the auction,
please contact
Free Garcia's Guitars!
GARY GREENBERG
(RS 890 - Feb. 28, 2002)
The long legal battle over the Grateful Dead leader's prized possessions
You could read Jerry Garcia's will and not learn much more about him than how many
children he had. The only hint of his life's work -- indeed, the only mention of any
specific possession or of any person outside his family -- comes in the fifth paragraph:
"I give all my guitars made by Douglas Erwin to Douglas Erwin,or to his estate if he
predeceases me."
This gift is a simple and, some would say, fitting close to a quarter-century-long
relationship between Garcia and the fifty-two-year-old California guitar maker, whose name
is actually Doug Irwin. But spelling was the least of the bequest's problems. Garcia, whom
Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh describes as "not the kind of guy to plan
ahead," seemed to have forgotten one important detail: The guitars were not his to
give away in the first place. Or so said the band's lawyers, arguing that a Grateful Dead
tradition of communal ownership of band equipment meant that Garcia's guitars belong to
Grateful Dead Productions. The ensuing legal battle has strained relations among the
surviving band members and between the band and Deadheads, for whom the guitars are holy
artifacts. (Some Deadheads claim to be able to discern which guitar Garcia is wielding
just by listening to a tape, or to divine in his choice on a given night what was on his
mind or in his heart.) And when Irwin became destitute following a disabling bicycle
accident in 1997, GDP was left to defend itself against a potential public-relations
nightmare. An agreement to grant Irwin two of the five guitars -- the two Garcia played
most -- was reached in January, but the feelings all around are still raw.
Each side agrees on at least one thing: The guitars are exquisite -- "absolutely
stunning pieces of art," according to Howard Kramer, associate curator of the Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame, where three of them reside. Irwin started building guitars for
Garcia in 1971. Garcia, shopping at Alembic's guitar shop in San Francisco, spied a guitar
leaning on a display case. Irwin, who was working in the back of the shop, had built it on
his kitchen table. "The guys came back and told me that Jerry Garcia was out there
and wanted my guitar," says Irwin. "I thought they were yanking my chain, but
finally I went out, and there he was. I sold it to him [for $850], and right away he asked
me to build another one" -- this time with electronics specified by Garcia.
Thus began a collaboration that, according to Steve Parish, Garcia's equipment manager,
brought out the best in both men. Irwin was "a true luthier, really dedicated to
custom-making guitars for Jerry, and Jerry was so able to express what he wanted. We'd sit
there for hours and talk about guitars." Garcia got his first Irwin-built custom
guitar -- made with curly maple and purple heart and buffed so shiny that, Irwin says,
"it looks like a piece of candy" -- in time for the Dead's European tour of
1972. (Garcia played it there only a few times, but it came back sporting a decal that
Irwin used as a model for a retrofitted inlay that gave the guitar its name: Wolf.)
Before Garcia left for Europe, he'd given Irwin new, and irresistible, marching orders:
"He said, 'Start me another guitar,' " Irwin remembers. " 'Do it any way
you want, and don't hold back.' " Irwin began to ponder designs ("I became the
Lewis and Clark of my own mind") and to collect worthy materials -- choice pieces of
cocobola, vermillion and maple, mother-of-pearl -- and during the next eight years he
built a guitar with ivory inlays, brass bindings, a gently rounded body ("It feels
sexy," Irwin says), more Garcia-designed electronics and the piece de resistance, a
bottom cover plate bearing a gorgeous mother-of-pearl tiger inlaid on ebony, for which it
was named. Irwin got $5,800 for Tiger, which Garcia played at what turned out to be his
last performance, in 1995.
All told, Garcia had five Irwin guitars: the original (dubbed "001"), Wolf,
Tiger, Rosebud and Wolf Jr. Given their sheer beauty, the mystique they have accumulated
over the years and the fact that, as Kramer points out, "the Dead have some fans of
extraordinary wealth," the Irwin guitars are doubtless very valuable. (Steve
Routhier, who assembled the Hard Rock Cafe's memorabilia collection, says that if all
conditions are good for Irwin, bidding could take the price of Tiger and Wolf "well
into six figures.")
Irwin was expecting to get his windfall as the will got settled, so he was surprised when
the lawyer for the estate told him that it didn't have the guitars and had no plans to
seek them from Grateful Dead Productions, which held them in storage.
This news came at a time when Irwin needed money. In 1997, he was struck by a car while
riding his bicycle near his Northern California home. By the time he got out of the
hospital, where he underwent brain surgery, his shop had been closed and his equipment
stored away. Unable to raise money for a new shop, he moved into his seventy-nine-year-old
mother's trailer home.
Irwin hired a lawyer, and as 2001 began and motions were filed, the case became a cause
celebre among Deadheads. The subject lit up cyberspace, especially in places like the
Well, a San Francisco Deadhead-heavy online community, and Dead.net, the Dead's official
Web site, where the discussion generated more than 4,000 entries. Sentiment ran heavily
against GDP, and a David and Goliath tale in which the heartless corporados were
subverting the hippie ethos and the last wishes of the demigod Garcia -- and deepening the
suffering of a destitute man in the bargain -- began to take shape.
In the meantime, squabbles within the Grateful Dead family threatened to merge with the
guitar dispute -- especially after bassist Phil Lesh contradicted GDP (and his band mates)
in a deposition last April. According to Irwin's lawyer, Lesh testified that corporate
ownership of the instruments was a tax strategy.
For his part, Lesh says, "the concept of collective ownership of instruments was
never brought up during Jerry's life, and if it had been, I believe it would have been
laughed out of the room."
A settlement attempt last October seemed to only worsen matters. The agreement gave Tiger
and Wolf to the Garcia estate (and thus to Irwin), but it also required Irwin to give the
Dead the right to match whatever price the guitars fetched, to participate in a joint
press release stating that the case had been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,
and forever after to keep his peace on the matter. Irwin was willing to settle for only
two guitars, but the press release and gag order were a different story. "Those guys
knew the guitars were Jerry's," he says. "How can they expect me to say his
wishes had been done?" He refused to sign and sent out a press release of his own,
accusing the Dead and its lawyers of trampling his free-speech rights.
At the beginning of 2002, the Dead backed away from its conditions and granted the two
guitars outright to Irwin. "The only strings attached will be guitar strings,"
says Irwin -- and the requirement that any sale will be public so that GDP can bid on
them. But he's still not satisfied. He thinks the settlement is "about forty percent
of what it should be," and, as he prepares to sell Tiger (and perhaps Wolf, as well),
he continues to rail against the Grateful Dead for "stealing" his guitars.
GDP, through its lawyer, insists that "even though [Garcia] had no right to do this,
they didn't want to go against his wishes. They wanted to find some way to address what
Jerry had intended -- that Doug Irwin would be taken care of."
Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally says the Dead will try to buy Tiger and Wolf and
then make all the guitars available to the public -- something that won't happen if the
guitars disappear into a collector's vault. (The guitars at the Hall of Fame are located
-- at the Dead's insistence -- in an area not subject to an admission fee.)
Lesh, however, is unconvinced. "I don't agree that justice has been done to Garcia's
wishes," he says. "For him to do something that specific in the will means that
he wanted that to happen." Lesh would have preferred an agreement that gave Irwin all
the guitars and the Dead access to them. But "since Jerry died," he says,
"consensus has degenerated into democracy, and I was outvoted." In the end, he
says, "Now that Jerry's not here to play them, I don't care if they go into someone's
vault."
Evidently, Garcia didn't care, either, at least not as much as he cared about returning
his guitars to their maker. Now it is up to his musical brethren -- who on any given night
would have followed Garcia's guitar off a musical cliff -- to save Tiger and Wolf from the
abyss of the open market, regardless of what he may have wanted.
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