The Alligator Strat Relic pays tribute to Jerry Garcia’s original restless, road-scarred companion that carved the Grateful Dead into music folklore. This isn’t just a nod to a vintage instrument, but a resurrection of a talisman that music wasn’t just played on—but travelled through. The original Alligator was never static; it was alive, mutating and absorbing the energy of every night it survived. This Relic channels that same wandering spirit: part relic, part psychedelic artifact, part chapter torn straight from the legend of The Grateful Dead.
Masterbuilt by Austin MacNutt at the Fender Custom Shop “Dream Factory” in Corona, California, this Limited Edition Alligator Strat features a 1-piece select ash body with relic’d nitro lacquer, a 1-piece rift-sawn maple neck with a ’55 Soft “V” profile, 7.25" radius and 21 Jescar medium-vintage (47095) frets, plus three Josefina Campos hand-wound ’55 single-coil Strat pickups voiced from the original guitar. A brass nut (1.625"), custom brass bridge and tailpiece with rosewood base, brass control plate, 3-ply parchment pickguard, “hat” knobs, Schaller M6 tuners, replica stickers and a custom “Blaster” clean-boost output jack complete the circuit. It’s built like a precision instrument, aged like a veteran, and tuned to let you feel, just for a moment, what it’s like to stand where Jerry once stood and light the fuse.
