![Jerry Garcia's Rosebud](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Jerry_Garcia%27s_Rosebud.jpg)
Tiger was
Jerry Garcia's main
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
from 1979 to 1989. It was designed and built by Sonoma County luthier
Doug Irwin. The instrument was commissioned by Garcia in 1973 following delivery of Wolf, his first major Irwin-built guitar. Upon commissioning the instrument, Garcia enjoined Irwin to "make it the way he thought was best, and don't hold back."
Throughout the design and construction process, it was provisionally designated "the Garcia". The final name came from the
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...
inlaid on the preamp cover located on the guitar's top, just behind the tailpiece. The body features several layers of wood laminated together face-to-face in a configuration referred to as a "hippie sandwich" by employees of
Alembic Inc
Alembic is an American manufacturer of high-end electric basses, guitars and preamps. Founded in 1969, the company began manufacturing pre-amps before building complete instruments.
History
The company was founded by Owsley Stanley as a wor ...
., where Irwin worked for a brief period in the early 1970s. The combination of several heavy varieties of wood, plus solid brass binding and hardware resulted in an unusually heavy instrument, weighing . After Garcia began using a new Irwin guitar (known as Rosebud) in December 1989, Tiger became his backup guitar.
During the
Grateful Dead's final concert on July 9, 1995, a mechanical problem arose with Rosebud. Tiger was brought out and thus became the last guitar Garcia played in public.
Electronics
The electronics of Garcia's Irwin guitars are unique, and feature an onboard preamp and effects loop. Much like a
Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...
, the three pickups are selected with a five-way switch. Signal from the pickups passes through the tone controls, followed by an op-amp based buffer preamp, or unity gain buffer, which is designed to prevent signal loss due to capacitance when long cables are used. From the preamp, the signal could be routed via a mini-toggle on the guitar's face to pass through a Y-cable to Garcia's effects rack, and then back into the guitar. This onboard effects loop serves to send the full output of Tiger's pickups to the effects while allowing the guitar's volume control to vary the final output.
The effects loop could be bypassed by the aforementioned switch, sending the guitar's signal from the preamp to the volume control, and then out to Garcia's preamped (and heavily modified)
Fender Twin Reverb into a
McIntosh
McIntosh, Macintosh, or Mackintosh (Gaelic: ') may refer to:
Products and brands
* Mackintosh, a form of waterproof raincoat
* Mackintosh's or John Mackintosh and Co., later Rowntree Mackintosh, former UK confectionery company now part of NestlĂ ...
MC2300 solid state power amplifier. Tiger started with
DiMarzio Dual Sound
humbucker
A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...
s in the middle and bridge positions with a DiMarzio SDS-1
single coil
A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most po ...
at the neck. The humbuckers were switched to Dimarzio Super II's in 1982. Each of the humbuckers is equipped with a coil cut switch.
In summation, there is one 5 way pickup selector, one master volume control, one tone control which affects the neck and bridge pickups, and one which affects the middle pickup as well as three mini toggles, two for the coil-cut of the bridge and middle pickups respectively and one for the on-board effects loop on/off.
Disposition
After Garcia's death, a dispute arose between Irwin and the Grateful Dead regarding ownership of Garcia's four Doug Irwin guitars. In his will, Garcia gave possession of these instruments to Irwin. The Grateful Dead challenged whether Garcia had the right to convey title and insisted that the band owned the instruments. The parties reached a settlement in 2001 where Irwin was awarded two of the guitars, Tiger and Wolf, and the Grateful Dead took possession of the other two, Rosebud and Headless (the latter of which Garcia had never played onstage).
Irwin sold Tiger and Wolf at auction on May 8, 2002. Tiger was purchased by
Jim Irsay
James Irsay (born June 13, 1959) is an American businessman, known for being the principal owner, chairman and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL).
Irsay's father, Robert Irsay, built a fortune estimated to be ...
for $957,500, including commission. Wolf was purchased by
Daniel Pritzker
Daniel Pritzker (born 1959) is an American billionaire heir, musician, film director, and member of the Pritzker family.
Early life
Pritzker was born to a Jewish family, the son of Marian (née Friend) and Jay Pritzker. He is the grandson of A ...
for $789,500.
In 2017, Pritzker sold Wolf for $1.9 million at an auction to benefit the
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...
. The buyer was
Brian Halligan
Brian Halligan is an American executive and author. He is the co-founder oPropeller a venture capital fund targeting climate change through investment in the earth's most precious resource, its oceans. He is the co-founder and executive chairman ...
.
See also
*
Doug Irwin
*
Alembic Inc
Alembic is an American manufacturer of high-end electric basses, guitars and preamps. Founded in 1969, the company began manufacturing pre-amps before building complete instruments.
History
The company was founded by Owsley Stanley as a wor ...
*
Jerry Garcia
*
Grateful Dead
*
List of guitars
This list of guitars details individual guitars which have become famous because of their use by famous musicians; their seminal status; their high value; and the like.
Guitars
0–9
* The 0001 Strat – David Gilmour is the owner of this ...
References
Further reading
*Jackson, Blair (2006). ''Grateful Dead Gear'', Backbeat Books.
External links
Tiger on Dozin.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiger (Guitar)
Electric guitars
Individual guitars
Instruments of musicians
Jerry Garcia