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January 21, 2025 43 mins

Jerry Garcia's unique "Alligator Strat" holds legend status in Grateful Dead lore - and is arguably one of the first heavily modded Strat's to grace the stage of a high profile band.

Ace Nashville guitar tech, Chad Winn, joins us to go deep on the history of this guitar from it's hybrid vintage heritage through to the extensive mods Garcia and the Dead techs performed on it. Chad also discusses his own Alligator inspired guitars and the guitar community forming around "Jerry-tone".

Chad, who has worked for Gibson and Novo Guitars, first appeared on the Guitar Speak Podcast on episode #206 to talk about the polarising Gibson Firebird X - a guitar he worked on in the Gibson factory.

Check out Chad's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cwinnstrings/

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The Guitar Speak Podcast , launched in 2016, is produced and hosted by Matt Wakeling in Sydney, Australia. The show features deep dive interviews with amazing guitarists from around the globe, occasional gear reviews and the Iconic Albums series where Matt is joined by Rob Rhodes and Gabor Josika for guitar roundtable good times. 

This episode is brought to you by Fretboard Biology 

Fretboard Biology - the online guitar college created by Joe Elliott, ex Head of Guitar at GIT and McNally Smith Music College.

www.fretboardbiology.com

Guitar Speak Podcast #146 - Joe Elliott - ex guitar head of GIT - launches Fretboard Biology

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