Jerry played Strats ( late '60's Fillmore shows)
Here he is in later years
Fender is about to issue a Jerry Garcia signature strat.
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Here he is in later years
1- I have no idea where you read this. Can you tell us? It was actually Jerry himself who turned his guitar down while the board guys tried to turn it up as loud as they could. That was simply Jerry thinking he was not playing his best and wanted to be low in the mix. But, in reality he was playing and still singing great up until the last show. The entire show, run and year was not 100% great but he had hundreds and hundreds or great performances.
2-It's always amazing to me when people knock on Jerry Garcia and his guitar playing. It's like, tell me you have no idea about great guitar playing without telling me you have no about what a great guitar playing is. I don't think you could find one high caliber guitar player who would not praise the playing of Jerry. When Jerry was alive, anyone who was anyone was dying to play with him. He mastered the guitar, the banjo and could have mastered the pedal steel. He still played incredible pedal steel. Plus, why would anyone, other than jealousy or meanness, want to knock on Jerry when he was known for being an incredibly nice guy with a huge sense of humor and a smile for days.
3-This Strat is definitely strange to put out but no different than Gibson putting out an Adam Jones LP for an insane amount of money. But, Jerry moved on from this guitar many times. The thought and time he put into his custom guitars is way beyond what the average guitar player would think of. Jerry lived and breathed the guitar, guitar theory, songwriting, guitar amps, pedals, strings, picks every day of his life. And in the end, he was one of the handful of guitar players who truly mastered the instrument.
Here is a video from the last show of his. He'd be dead a month later. Granted, he's worn out but if you know this song 'So Many Roads', you know that this version is very good. His singing sounds good, he nails the lyrics, which he didn't always do with this song and his solo sounds beautiful to my ears. Jerry still had it all the way until the end even if every moment on stage was not a great as it once was. The guy was extremely sick.
TeleBrew
Doctor of Teleocity
I get it, I get it. I am not a Dead fan, so that would explain why I haven't seen a bunch of pictures of him playing Strats.
There will never be a GD/Dead thread w/o detractors, picking on Jerry's health, drugs, and of course, the always hysterical 'tuning' jokes.
The Dead played more music than just about anyone (almost touring non-stop), and just put it all out there for us.
- I'm really grateful for this ( no pun)
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TeleBrew
Doctor of Teleocity
I'm not a Dead fan, but I recognize the skills.
artdecade
Poster Extraordinaire
To everyone whining about the price - You are clearly not the market that the Fender Custom shop has in mind. There are a zillion other less expensive Strat options for you to choose from. People wealthier than you exist.
ChicknPickn
Poster Extraordinaire
My father was an accountant. He often said that "a thing is worth whatever someone will pay for it." I guess it was his way of teaching me not to start the bidding too low.
New Fender Custom Shop-Garcia Alligator Stratocaster
It had to happen.... https://www.fender.com/articles/artists/custom-shop-jerry-garcia-alligator-strat
www.tdpri.com 
Texicaster
Friend of Leo's
Oh yeah!
I kinda pity those that don't get the Dead. Such a deep pool to dive into and opens up so many avenues along the way. I became a bluegrass freak specifically from Old And In The Way and Jerry talking about old time music. As a teen reading Garcia interviews I learned so much about other music. He was a Django freak and it took me a while back then to figure out who that was but oh boy when I did!
People like to denigrate Jerry but fail to realize he was carrying a pretty heavy load. The Dead employed dozens of full time staff...family... that would lose their jobs if they took a break. Pretty much sacrificed his health to keep it rolling.
While there's no way I'm getting one I think it's one of the cooler ones in that it's horse of a different color. Not just a '55 Strat with some small change the dude it's after wanted.....
Jerry's best tone was through Alligator although impossible to tell what tweaks were done to it from show to show. Europe '72 tone is just great country rock sounds!
They were called "Bread Heads"
bowman
Poster Extraordinaire
I’m not a Deadhead per se, but I do like some of their stuff. In my relatively limited experience, Jerry sounded better in the early days when he was playing a Strat. It was a grittier, beefier tone on the live recordings I’ve heard from those days.
ahiddentableau
Friend of Leo's
The pictures don't lie I guess but I never associated Jerry with the stratocaster. I always associate him with that natural finish custom 3 pickup thing. The one he holds when he appears in Half Baked. I also seem to recall seeing him with a Travis Bean a some point, but maybe I'm not remembering right. But not a strat.
Then again I'm not a dead fan, so what the heck to do I know.
Then again I'm not a dead fan, so what the heck to do I know.
Texicaster
Friend of Leo's
Jerry played a LOT of guitars! From Gibsons to weird Alembics, Strats and yes a Travis Bean aluminum neck most notably documented in the 1977 tour Cornell show.
His last guitars were a fan built ones! Stephen Cripe made Top Hat and Lightning Bolt. Sadly Stephen was a fireworks designer and actually blew himself up in an accident!
Weirdest one was The Peanut by Rick Turner!
6stringcowboy
Friend of Leo's
Looks more like a roll bar...
HootOwlDude
Tele-Afflicted
Heh-heh. Man. The Alligator and the Wolf for me are neck and neck as my fave Jerry guitars. A hardtail strat I made years ago was certainly inspired by the Alligator, and it’s got a soft V neck too. Love it. But, I dunno, I kind of think this sort of recreation is sorta cheesy. Actually more than sorta. I’d feel like a bit of a poser or a doof playing it. The sort of almost punk rock, making-do manner in which Jerry made this his main player back then seems lost in making it into this exorbitantly priced monstrosity. I love Jerry, and I love Fender, and I agree that the Alligator is an important piece of musical and cultural history, but this whole venture just seems silly. That said, if I was insanely rich, and money really was no issue at all, I would probably click the buy button after a few beers.
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TheCheapGuitarist
Friend of Leo's
Tab Benoit would play something like that.
willietheweirdo
Tele-Afflicted
It's amazing how well that gator sticker has held up in the beaten path.
If I were Fender, or any guitar company for that matter, and someone as big as JG had kustomized one of my guitars... and it's quite recognizable... you bet I'd be milking that for all it's worth!
That said, there are some glaring holes in Fender's artist line!!
If I were Fender, or any guitar company for that matter, and someone as big as JG had kustomized one of my guitars... and it's quite recognizable... you bet I'd be milking that for all it's worth!
That said, there are some glaring holes in Fender's artist line!!
HootOwlDude
Tele-Afflicted
No offense to you, Red Ryder—I am not questioning whether this is something you once read—but it is complete and utter garbage. Many of the Dead’s final concerts are easily accessible, with pro-shot footage, on YouTube, and while during that final run, Jerry’s playing was certainly not as resplendent as it was in earlier phases of his ridiculously long and prolific live career, any observer can easily determine that he, and he only, played every chord and note, for better or worse. For starters, Garcia was to the end intensely involved in the technical minutiae of his unique setup and sound, probably more than most guitar techs for pro players are, and it’s ridiculous to think it plausible that such a scenario could happen, or—considering the thorough respect and love that his band members and crew had for him—would even be contemplated, even during those last shows when Jerry was so visibly weak.
I like the main '70's Jerry guitars best...
( Note: I never saw Jerry, but after he died, I really went 'Dead Crazy' for years- listening to so much fantastic Dead/Jerry music- playing catch-up, still...)
...as I just love the sound of the band then, and songs that came about from say '71-'78- remarkable, to me!
So it is Alligator, Wolf, and the Travis Bean that I'm really drawn to:
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