Rosebud

[Rudi]

This was to be in answer to John Moxey’s ‘Lennon’s glasses’ thread. Something I would love to own previously belonging to a famous person.

Rosebud, one of Jerry Garcia’s (3) Erwin Guitars. These were made for him by Doug Erwin. I myself would want to gig it (if insurers would permit it). If I failed to play well one night (It happens regularly) I would have nothing to blame but myself. Garcia’s playing had a massive influence on me and my whole approach to music in general.

Here it is. Until I read this, I had no idea what was inside this instrument. It was patched into a rack mounted synth.

http://dozin.com/jers/guitars/rosebud/rosebud.html

I have no idea where Rosebud is today

This is what happened to the other 2 of Jerry’s Irwins, Wolf & Tiger. Tiger is a ‘sister’ model to Rosebud.

Garcia's guitars fetch record

'Wolf,' 'Tiger' sold at memorabilia auction for $1.74 million

Joel Selvin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, May 9, 2002

Two of Jerry Garcia's custom guitars -- fought over in a lawsuit last year between the Grateful Dead and guitarmaker Doug Irwin -- sold for more than $1.74 million to two anonymous buyers at a New York auction last night.

Tiger -- a guitar Garcia played for 11 years -- went for $850,000. The other guitar, called Wolf, sold for $700,000. The buyer's commission pushed the price paid for Tiger to $957,500 and the price of Wolf to $789,500.

Garcia, who died in 1995, left both guitars in his will to guitarmaker Doug Irwin, who settled a lawsuit against the Grateful Dead last November and put the instruments up for sale. The Dead had claimed ownership of the instruments.

The standing-room-only crowd cheered every bid, as Garcia's guitars zoomed past the previous world record figure for a guitar -- almost $450,000 paid at auction in 1999 for the tobacco-burst Fender Stratocaster called "Brownie" that Eric Clapton used to record "Layla." The white Stratocaster Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock sold for $325,000 in 1990.

Irwin, nearly destitute and still suffering from a hit-and-run car crash about three years ago, attended the sale and was introduced to the crowd. "I'm glad to see all you rock 'n' rollers," Irwin said. After the sale, he was swamped by autograph seekers.

[Steve]

But if you owned 'Rosebud', would you also be able to play out of tune like Gerry?

[Rudi]

Its Jerry, not Gerry. As for intonation, he does sound a little out mid-range a lot. Whether its got anything to do with the guitars or not I couldnt say. By the time he got Rosebud, he was tuning digitally.