![Derek Trucks [left] plays his Dickey Betts SG live onstage; [right] a portrait close-up of Jerry Garcia's Tiger guitar, which recently sold for $11,560,000.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hApvaUMjSsSfmE4fdWUV96-1920-80.jpg.webp)
Derek Trucks likes his electric guitars light. He told us this once while giving MusicRadar a guided tour of his live rig. His go-to stage guitar, a Dickey Betts Gibson SG gifted to him by Duane Allman’s daughter, Galadrielle, is a real featherweight.
He told us that, nine times out of 10, when there are a bunch of Les Pauls, pick up the lightest one and that’ll sound the best. But he will make an exception now and again.
Some guitars are a special case – such as the Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar, the custom-made Doug Irwin six-string that was six whole years in the making. Trucks had the opportunity to play it during Tedeschi Trucks Band’s shows at the Beacon Theatre last week, the week in which it became the second most expensive guitar in the world when it sold at auction for $11,560,000 as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Christie’s.
Article continues belowIt was officially the most expensive instrument to be associated with the late Grateful Dead frontman, and for many Deadheads – for Garcia himself – the Tiger was the ultimate Grateful Dead guitar. And constructed of cocobolo and vermillion, with decorative brass strips binding the body, it’s a total lunker, reportedly tipping the scales at 13.5lbs.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Trucks says it is not only a weight on the shoulder (thick padded guitar strap essential), it’s like the Fender Twin of electric guitars in that it has a voice that punishes sloppy playing.
“It’s a really heavy guitar, but it’s really articulate when you play it,” says Trucks. “So there’s no hiding anywhere. You’re going to hear all of it, every note. It almost speaks like a piano in some ways, where everything’s clean and even. It’s not for the faint of heart. You need to know what you’re doing to play that guitar.”
Trucks was briefly the subject of some speculation that he actually bought the guitar. A rumour he intends to have a little fun with. But the man who parted with the best part of 12 million bucks for it is the co-founder of Family Guitars, Bobby Tseitlin.
This, Rolling Stone reports, is his third Garcia-owned guitar, following the acquisition of his Travis Bean TB500 and a Modulus Blackknife – the latter a guitar many might more readily associate with his old bandmate Bob Weir. Tseitlin says we might see Tiger in the future again.
Family Guitars collects these guitars to save them from being bought by overseas collectors and entombed behind museum glass. Tseitlin assures Deadheads and fans of extravagantly constructed, culturally iconic guitars that Tiger won’t be caged for all time. It’ll be let out for others to play as Trucks has, as his old pal and collaborator Warren Haynes has.
Trucks says just seeing the Tiger in the flesh was a “holy shit” moment – for him and the audience – and he returned it to Tseitlin in the same condition he received it.
“I wasn’t worried about hurting that thing,” says Trucks. “It’s a big old heavy beast, and he can handle it.”
Tiger was one of a number of guitars that Garcia commissioned Irwin to build, and it takes its name from the mother-of-pearl inlay by its bridge. It followed the Eagle and the Wolf, the latter Garcia’s number one electric until the Tiger emerged on the scene in 1979.
Speaking to Guitarist magazine, Amelia Walker, specialist head of the Private & Iconic Collections at Christie’s, said Garcia commissioned the guitar as soon as he took receipt of Wolf, and it took Irwin all that time to complete his masterpiece.
“Cocobolo is an incredibly exotic wood, and the maple on the back of the neck is hand-selected for the most figured timbers,” said Walker. “Even on the front, as you’re looking at the horns, he’s carved the wood in such a way as to select the peak of the grain where it curls over the arched top. It’s very, very beautifully done.”
The Tiger is a guitar with an arcane series of switches and an onboard preamp, wired for mono and stereo outputs. A sandwich of exotic laminate tonewoods, it has been strategically chambered to keep that weight down as much as possible.
Some of the mythology surrounding the guitar speaks of a secret compartment where Garcia would keep his weed – but Walker suggests that, well, maybe people are reading too much into it.
“I don’t think that Doug Irwin specifically put in a ‘weed slot,’” she said. “I think it’s just chambered and therefore to access the preamp cover, which has got this beautiful inlay, there is another little corner – which could potentially be used for transporting [small items].”
On any other night, the Tiger would surely have been the most expensive guitar in the world, beating the $4.5 million (not including fees) that Jim Irsay paid for Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit ‘Competition’ Mustang in 2022.
That Mustang was sold again last week, smashing its own record and fetching $6,907,000 . But this was an occasion when David Gilmour’s Black Strat stole the show.
After 21 minutes of bidding, the hammer came down and a new record was set for the world’s most expensive guitar. The former Pink Floyd guitarist’s modded Fender Stratocaster – as heard on Comfortably Numb et cetera – had sold for $14,550,000.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.