GRATEFUL GUITARS
Grateful Guitars also stewards the“ Bobby sound” by gifting instruments built by Rich Hoeg, Weir’ s longtime luthier. Having famously built the Modulus Blackknife under founders Geoff Gould and Jerry Dorsch, Hoeg went on to create Weir’ s“ Blue Lightning Bolt” and the“ Hoeg Classic”— guitars that remained in Bob’ s rotation until his recent passing. The Foundation continues this tradition by providing Hoeg’ s Blackknife models to dedicated players including Rob Eaton, Nate LaPointe, and Alex Jordan, ensuring the unique rhythm textures of the Weir style live on.
In addition to guitars, the Foundation works closely with Rick Turner Guitars on Lesh-style bass projects. The partnership was cemented by the resurrection of“ Little Brown”, a vintage Guild Starfire II that Logan brought to Rick Turner in 2021. Originally modded by Turner at Alembic in the style of Phil Lesh’ s“ Big Brown,” the bass was meticulously restored by Addam Stark and Zachary Jones. A key part of the project involved reverse-engineering Turner’ s signature trapezoid pickups, the same design found on Jack Casady’ s bass. After Skip Vangelas of DSO played the restoration for several months, it paved the way for a new GGF model gifted to Skip Vangelas, who named it“ Foxy Brown.” These instruments are now finding their way into the hands of players like Jacob Groopman of Bertha, with several more gifts planned for the coming year.
Then there is the strange and beautiful story of Steve Cripe, which belongs in any serious account of this world. Cripe was a yacht builder
and woodworker in Florida who became a devoted Dead fan and decided, at some point in the late 1980s, that every guitar he would ever make would be made for Jerry Garcia. He iterated through 15 or 20 instruments, correcting the intonation, reshaping the neck profile, adjusting the body geometry, building toward something he would recognize when he found it. Around 1993, he showed Garcia the result, the
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