Fender Custom Shop Announces Alligator Stratocaster Reproduction in Celebration of Jerry Garcia’s 80th Birthday
In celebration of Jerry Garcia’s 80th birthday, the Fender Custom Shop has announced the release of 100 reproductions of Jerry Garcia’s iconic Alligator Stratocaster guitar. The master-built, bespoke guitar features all the wear and tear and extensive modifications made by Garcia and Steve Parish made on the original.
The original guitar, a 1955 fender Stratocaster, was given to Garcia by Graham Nash in late 1969, who bought it for $250 in a Phoenix pawn shop. Garcia used it famously during the Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 tour, during a time many believe was the peak of his playing, and he continued to use it through the fall of 1973.
The reproductions were created by master builder Austin MacNutt and feature a hammered brass control plate, Josefina hand-wound ’55-style single-coil pickups, cigarette burns on the headstock and, of course, the iconic alligator graphic.
Watch videos from Fender announcing the celebratory reproductions below
