“It’s kind of hard to play, honestly”: Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi on what it was like to play Jerry Garcia’s $11.5 million Tiger guitar

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi have described the experience of getting hands-on with Jerry Garcia’s iconic Tiger, after the pair were given the opportunity to play the $11.56 million electric guitar hours after it was sold at auction.

The sale of Garcia’s Tiger was one of the biggest headlines of the Jim Irsay Collection auction, which shattered world records on multiple occasions and ushered in a new dawn in the value of the guitar.

Though David Gilmour’s Black Strat was the most expensive six-string of the evening, selling for a cool $14.6 million, Garcia’s Tiger was just behind, becoming the second most expensive guitar of all time when the hammer went down for just shy of $12,000,000.

Hours after the event ended, the Tiger was on its way to the Tedeschi Trucks Band camp, and swiftly returned to the stage in the hands of Trucks. The slide guitar master used the legendary instrument – crafted by Alembic Guitars in the late 1970s – for one of the band’s residency shows at the Beacon Theatre, New York.

Derek Trucks Played Jerry Garcia’s $11 Million Guitar - YouTube

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Trucks and Tedeschi both took the Tiger for the spin backstage, and now the pair have looked back on the experience in a new interview with Howard Stern.

“It’s super-unique. It weighs about 14lbs, which is about twice what my guitar weighs, but it’s super-articulate,” Trucks says. “There’s a unique sound. It was very Jerry Garcia-sounding – like, you play it and you know it was his. It was a very 1980s instrument.”

The guitar is famously a bit of a beast. The body has a layered concoction of cocobolo, maple and paduak, with a bunch of expansive electronics and ornate accoutrements to boot (although, it should be noted, no secret drugs compartments).

It is heavy, and unlike anything else out there. As such, it proved to be a unique instrument to wrangle – something that stuck out to Tedeschi.

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Statesboro Blues ( Derek playing Tiger) 3-13-26 Beacon Theater, NYC - YouTube

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“There’s metal on the neck. It’s kind of hard to play, honestly,” she admits. “Guitars want to be played, and they want to be played in a certain way. So when you start playing it, it’s like, ‘Oh, it wants to play this kind of stuff.’”

Garcia’s Tiger was bought at auction by Bobby Tseitlin of Family Guitars – a Chicago family of historic instrument collectors – who wanted the guitar to see back in action as soon as possible.

“We knew that if Tiger went somewhere else, it was most likely going to be left behind glass,” Tseitlin explained to Rolling Stone. “They deserve to be out there, and people want to hear them. Those guitars bring out something in players.”

Other highlights from the Irsay auction include Prince's Yellow Cloud guitar, Neal Schon's Don't Stop Believin' Les Paul, and a suite of basses played by Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac and ZZ Top.