How Derek Trucks Ended Up Playing Jerry Garcia’s $12 Million ‘Tiger’ Guitar

How Derek Trucks Ended Up Playing Jerry Garcia’s $12 Million ‘Tiger’ Guitar Trucks and Family Guitars' Bobby Tseitlin talk for the first time about the legendary instrument, which they celebrated over a bottle of 20-year-old whiskey By Angie Martoccio Angie Martoccio Contact Angie Martoccio on X View all posts by Angie Martoccio March 15, 2026 On Aug. 4, 1979, the Grateful Dead performed a stellar 21-song set at the Oakland City Auditorium in California. It marked their first-ever performance of “ Althea ,” Jerry Garcia ’s latest collaboration with lyricist Robert Hunter , that would soon become a Dead staple. He played it on his brand new instrument, onstage with him for the very first time: a 13.5 pound custom-made guitar named Tiger. Garcia instructed the creator, Alembic Guitars luthier Doug Irwin, not to hold back when making the instrument. The result was a gorgeously ornate solid-body guitar, featuring the titular animal under the bridge in mother-of-pearl. The instrument is built in the “hippie sandwich” tradition, in which layers of wood — cocobolo, maple, and padauk — are laminated together. Tiger would become Garcia’s go-to instrument for the next decade. “I’m not analytical about guitars, but I know what I like,” he once said. “And when I picked up that guitar, I’d never felt anything before, or since, that my hand likes better.” Garcia paid Irwin $5,800 for Tiger. Forty-six years and six months later, it sold for $11.56 million on March 12, 2026. It was purchased at Christie’s in New York City on Thursday, as part of the Jim Irsay Collection , a multi-day auction featuring hundreds of the prized possessions — from pop culture artifacts to legendary guitars — of the late Indianapolis Colts owner, who died in May 2025. The next two evenings, Derek Trucks played the guitar just 24 blocks away at the Beacon Theatre. He’s currently in the middle of performing a 10-night residency there with Tedeschi Trucks Band , which he fronts with his wife, singer-guitari...