Grateful Dead Music Forum

This is from last night at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley. They were super fun! This section is from the encores which are outside of their sets which contain note for note versions of Workingman's Dead and then American Beauty.

Marc Muller, who is playing the Cripe, is very talented and also played the mandolin, the pedal steel guitar and the banjo. A highlight for me was the pedal steel version of The Wheel, which can also be seen on my channel where this video is located. The band is full of very talented and nice people. Marc was very gracious about playing the Cripe, so that it could be seen and heard by the community. Thanks, Marc!

Enjoy,
Andy

What were his thoughts about the guitar? What did he like not like?

I will have to ask for his complete feedback, as it was late when we said our goodbyes. Before the show, he was not interested in using the Piezo pickup, so I showed him how to blend it off. As they are traveling from the east, they rented some amps and gear, so he was using the standard mono out without the OBEL. Like everyone, he did comment on the weight. I bring a padded Gibson strap to help, but no matter what, it is heavy at almost 11.5 pounds. His other electrics were a Strat and an SG that night. Overall, he was very amped to play it and said he is psyched to do it again. A few fans said it sounded amazing and like he kicked it up a notch when he was playing it. Many say it sounds more aggressive and ballsier than a Strat. That is based on feedback from this show and earlier this spring what fans said comparing Mattson's Strat with it, too.

Really happy for the DOL guys - one of my fav dead bands
A bit ironic that a band that is known for its early Dead sound would do a show with one of Jerrys Cripes !
Check them out if you get the chance

Wow, what a blast. So many great things happened on our SF trip. Certainly a highlight was getting to play the Andy's Cripe. Thanks so much for making the effort to bring down to the show. I was looking at our early 70's set list and trying to think where the later guitar era would fit in best. After playing and hearing it could have fit in anywhere. It could have carried the whole show, whatever era we were doing.

Speaking of carrying, yes, it was a little heavier than the strat and SG I use but it was really distributed nicely. It didn't feel heavy at all. It sat totally balanced on the strap. As far as tone, even with the limited use of only the 3 traditional pick ups, it was wide open and clear, again, totally balanced. Not too woofy on the neck or too brittle on the bridge pick ups. As far as playability, the more I played and got used to the more I could see the potential of how easy it was to play could up your own playing. Again, the word has to be balanced, top to bottom.

Being that I've transcribed and regularly play Jerry's parts from 67 to 95, I can clearly see how each guitar changed and expanded his playing. The gutsy Les Paul blues, the thick sounding SG, the belly sounding strat, to the custom made Irwin/Cripe guitars. The touch, tone and playability of each guitar totally expanded his vocabulary and voice as a guitarist. Had he gotten his hands on this guitar I can almost imagine the new territory he would have explored.

So fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to do a little exploring myself!
thanks
Marc
www.deadonlive.com
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