In 1993, a self-taught woodworker named Stephen Cripe watched a VHS tape of the Grateful Dead's "Dead Ahead" concert until it wore out — freeze-framing it to copy the contours of Garcia's guitar by eye. He'd never sold a guitar in his life. He built one anyway and spent weeks trying to find someone who could get it into Jerry's hands.
Five weeks of silence. Then a message on his answering machine: Jerry was "fiddling around with it and was intrigued."

Garcia called it "the guitar I've always been waiting for." He played it for the rest of his life. Some gifts find exactly who they're meant for. ❤️