1979 Doug Irwin "Tiger"
Musician
Jerry Garcia
(American, 1942 - 1995)
Maker
Doug Irwin
(American)
Date1979
ClassificationsMusic
DimensionsGuitar: 39 x 14 x 2 in. (99.1 x 35.6 x 5.1 cm)
DescriptionJerry Garcia's 1979 Doug Irwin "Tiger" guitar, no serial number. The body consists of layers of laminated cocobolo, maple, and padauk and a brass binding. The neck features maple and padauk with brass bindings and inlay. The fretboard is ebony, with pearl inlays throughout. At the base of the top of the body is an inlayed tiger set on a black background, which also serves as a preamp cover. The back of the body features an inlaid "050" surrounded by a floral motif and black background. The inlay is set within a light colored, well-figured wood. Tiger has a Schaller tune-o-matic style bridge with one DiMarzio SDS-1 single coil pickup in the neck position and two DiMarzio Super II humbuckers in the middle and bridge positions. In a custom hardshell case with Tiger sticker.Tiger has a unique onboard electronics system, including a preamp and effects loop. The electronics are controlled by a five-way selector switch, master volume control, two tone controls, and three mini toggles for the pickups and effects loop.
Coming off of the design of "Wolf," Jerry Garcia again contracted luthier Doug Irwin to custom build a new guitar. Irwin spent six years designing what became Tiger, delivering it to Garcia in 1979. He first used Tiger at a concert in Oakland, CA on August 4, 1979, and it became his primary performance guitar from 1979-1989.
Of all of Garcia's most prominent guitars, Alligator, Wolf, Tiger, Rosebud and Lightning Bolt: Tiger has logged the most performance hours. It is the only one of these guitars that was a primary performance instrument for an entire decade. While Rosebud made its debut on New Year's eve 1989, it was only commissioned to take advantage of the latest advances in midi technology and not because Garcia needed to replace Tiger. Wolf and Rosebud were both in use for approximately 6 years respectively.
During Garcia's last show at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 9, 1995 Garcia played Rosebud throughout the show until there were technical difficulties during the first encore, "Black Muddy River." Garcia switched to Tiger for the last song he would ever perform with the Grateful Dead, "Box of Rain," making Tiger the last guitar Garcia ever played on stage. The guitar was lent out for The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration Tour held on August 1, 2016, which would have been Garcia's 74th birthday. Warren Haynes had the honor of playing Tiger that night and later commented to Rolling Stone magazine about what a unique voice Garcia's Tiger has.
Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) was a musician known as the lead guitarist, singer, and primary songwriter for the Grateful Dead. Garcia began playing music at a young age while also exploring art. A car accident in February 1961 reinvigorated Garcia's interest in music, and he began playing in several bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, mainly playing bluegrass and folk music. One of these bands, The Warlocks, evolved into the Grateful Dead, with their first performance under their new moniker coming in December 1965 at one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.
Garcia brought his unique improvisational style to the Grateful Dead, where they became known for their extensive touring where each night's version of a song was different from the last. The Grateful Dead played over 2,300 shows during their 30-year existence, and the band's willingness to allow shows to be recorded by fans led to extensive sharing and increased their popularity.
As his career progressed, Garcia formed a relationship with luthier Doug Irwin. Irwin had originally worked for Alembic before striking out on his own. Irwin built Eagle, his first guitar for Garcia, while still working for Alembic. Irwin's next custom guitar for Garcia was Wolf, before he spent six years completing Tiger. Irwin later built two more guitars for Garcia, Wolf Jr. and Rosebud.
3D Model
