Chicago guitar collector Bobby Tseitlin purchased Jerry Garcia’s famed “Tiger” guitar at auction for $11.56 million, according to a March 18 announcement. The sale briefly set a record for the most expensive guitar ever sold before being surpassed by David Gilmour’s black Fender Stratocaster, which fetched $14.5 million at the same Christie’s auction.
The acquisition is significant for music fans and collectors, as “Tiger” was one of Garcia’s favorite instruments and played a central role in Grateful Dead history. Tseitlin, co-founder of Family Guitars in Chicago, has spent two decades collecting historic guitars and aims to keep them accessible to musicians rather than locked away.
Tseitlin lends his guitars out so they can continue to be played on stage. Following the auction, Derek Trucks of Tedeschi Trucks Band performed with “Tiger” at New York’s Beacon Theatre, fulfilling fans’ hopes that the instrument would remain active in live music settings.
Garcia originally paid $5,800 for “Tiger” more than 46 years ago and instructed luthier Doug Irwin not to hold back when building it. The result was an ornate solid-body guitar featuring mother-of-pearl inlays and constructed using layers of cocobolo, maple, and padauk wood—a style known as the “hippie sandwich.” Garcia used it as his primary stage instrument from its debut in Oakland in 1979 for over a decade.
The recent sale marks Tseitlin’s third Garcia-owned guitar; he also owns the Travis Bean TB500 from the late 1970s and the Modulus Blackknife from the mid-1980s. Previous owner Jim Irsay bought “Tiger” for $957,000 at Guernsey’s auction house in 2002. Last week’s estimated price ranged from $1-$2 million but far exceeded expectations with its final bid.
According to Family Guitars’ website, Tseitlin does not treat his collection as a museum: “These instruments are not locked away in a vault or hidden behind glass. They are part of a living collection; guitars that continue to be played, heard, and experienced the way they were meant to be.” The statement continues: “Our mission is simple: keep these guitars alive. Because their story isn’t finished yet.”
Tseitlin and Family Guitars could not immediately be reached for comment.
