After an excellent and inspiring conversation on The People’s Guild (@thepeoplesguild), and at the encouragement of @azircon and @bjangles, I’ve decided to start writing about my ‘day job’.
The quick version:
I spent about 6 years as the lead guitarist in a band called “Mountain of Venus”, living on the road, touring the United States playing music. It was an amazing experience, one that led to many lifelong friends as well as contacts in the music industry. I may go into more of those stories at some point in the future lol!!
Skip ahead 20 years. I own and operate Fat Jimmy Amplifiers as a one man operation; a top shelf, boutique, guitar tube amplifier company. I live in the north part of the San Francisco Bay Area, which has been an absolutely integral center of the modern creative arts, especially music and film. The original Star Wars trilogy was created right down the road. And bands like the Grateful Dead, local legends, have been pushing not only live music itself but the actual DELIVERY of live music (to huge live audiences) forward for almost 50 years, out of necessity, through innovations in gear and PA systems designed to improve sound delivery to enormous crowds.
All of these things will make fun posts, and I will go into greater detail on those topics in the near future.
Today, I wanted to share an absolutely incredible moment I had the honor to experience just last night.
A little background:
O’teil Burbidge has been the bass player for ‘Dead and Company’ since he band’s inception several years ago. Before that, he had been the Bass player in The Allman Brothers from 1997-2014, and has been involved in countless other projects.
For those who might not know, Dead and Company is the band three of the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead launched around 2016, with the goal of continuing the legacy of the band’s incredible MUSIC. Bob Weir (founding member of the Grateful Dead) said in an interview that he had a dream about this project, and that he envisioned it as an entity that could continue on indefinitely, with the older players retiring and being replaced with new band members in an ongoing and indefinite cycle. The goal being to preserve the evolutionary spirit of the music itself, which was ALWAYS evolving and changing during the Grateful Dead’s 30 year lifespan (1965-1995).
O’Teil and Friends performed in Berkeley California last night, with an absolutely amazing lineup of absolutely incredible top shelf, veteran musicians. Mr. Steve Kimock was included in the lineup. In a nutshell, he’s one of the greatest living guitarists in my opinion, and an ‘underground legend’. He’s a “musician's musician” and very well known in the professional world as one of the greats. He’s also known for having the best TONE as a guitarist. I have been good friends with Kimock for decades now, and get to work with him often. I was asked to bring some of my amps down for him to play, and help out as his tech at the show.
Well… a very special guitar came out to play last night.
Jerry Garcia’s ‘Alligator’.
Alligator was one of Garcia’s main guitars in the early 70s, named so because of the Alligator sticker that ended up being prominently displayed on the guitar, and most famously being used exclusively for the Grateful Dead’s legendary Europe ‘72 tour. Check it out, this live album is widely regarded as one of the Dead’s finest recordings ever, and lets you hear Alligator in all of its glory!
Alligator started life as a 1955 Fender Stratocaster, and was given to Garcia by Grahame Nash (of Crosby, Stills, and Nash) as a gift for playing Pedal Steel guitar on CSN&Y’s enormous hit “Teach Your Children”. (Grahame had picked up the guitar in a pawn shop).
Yep, that’s Garcia’s sweeeeet playing that gives such incredible personality and character to that famous recording!
Alligator was customized for Garcia, with a brass nut, bridge and tailpiece (part of the secret of it’s incredible tone), along with custom electronics to boost the signal. It is very likely that this is the first place we find the now famous ‘stratoblaster’ preamp circuit, built into the guitar itself.
One of the VERY cool and unique details of the guitar is the custom brass bar attached to the headstock that bends the strings down a bit from the nut. This gets just a little more tension and may very well improve tone. You can also see Jerry's cigarette burns on the headstock where he tucked a smoke into the strings as a holder on occasion lol. A very cool detail!
I had the honor of getting to play Alligator last night, and I could not be more grateful for the experience.
When you pick up this instrument, you know immediately that this is something incredibly special. I cannot describe the VIBE that it has, just holding it you can feel an intense energy emanating from the wood. It feels absolutely PERFECT in your hands, and when you start to play it you quickly understand that it IS perfect. It feels both solid and authoritative, yet smooth and fluid at the same time. It literally feels like it plays itself.
The feeling I get while holding it, thinking of all the incredible music I have heard throughout the years that was made by this guitar, creates an almost transcendent and psychedelic experience, like a jaunt through the space time continuum to a very unique and amazing point for a quick pop in just to say hi before being pulled back to the here and now.
Even when playing it without plugging it in, you can feel the vibration of the instrument against your body, the resonance physically reaching you in a way that seems more amplified and intense than a ‘normal’ guitar. And when you DO plug it on… oh man!!! This is truly a thing of legend!! Absolutely unreal…
The current owner of Alligator, Andrew Logan, is an incredibly kind and generous person who believes that this legendary guitar deserves to be PLAYED, not sit behind a glass case in a room somewhere. He will show up randomly at shows where the guitar will be appreciated, and offers to let the guitarists to perform with Alligator out for a spin. He purchased the guitar at an auction in 2019 for $420,000 (yep 420)!
I could ramble on and on, but I don’t want to go TOO long lol!
I just wanted to share this amazing moment, and share this incredible piece of rock and roll history. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I look forward to sharing more of my music related adventures in future posts. Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear what you think and hear from any other Grateful Dead fans out there!
Jimmy!!!
420 big ones. Wow, I live the fact he doesn't want it gathering dust. Would love to have a shot!!
I don't know if you checked his website boomy! You will like it. I have been trying to get Jimmy to write for a while.
@fatjimmy Boomy here likes to play. In fact not too long ago he bought an Amp if I remember correctly!
I did indeed, just a digital one. I shall have a look at the site!
Yes, the fact that he brings it out to do what it does best... it's NOT about the monetary value of the instrument but the fact that it was used to bring joy and happiness to literally millions of people, and that he feels it should CONTINUE to do so is amazing and a priceless blessing.
Oh man what a way to break the ice into the tales of that day job! Great story, great history.
The auction price reminds of this never-forgotten gem from another legend, Bob Barker, & co
Man if the guy stuck with it and bid 420 on the guitar instead of 1420 he would have WON!!
What a cool experience! To hold something in your hands that you know another person used to create amazing art and put it out in the world - that's awesome man!
Thanks Jimmy! Not only 'another person' but one of the musicians who shaped who I am as a human. The honor and humility involved is staggering.
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Wow! That's my first comment. I will let it sink in a bit.
I forgot to mention that the close up photos of the guitar were taken by me last night!
The 'policeman helper' sticker is also funny as hell lol. I never knew what that said before 😂