Lightning Bolt Prototype 1

Excerpts from correspondence with Lightning Bolt Prototype 1 Owner

I have to thank my wife for web surfing to your site on Cripe’s guitars. It’s been years since I’ve been able to get any more info on my guitar. I originally purchased the ‘Bolt Prototype’ on eBay when Stephen’s sister was auctioning off about 5 of his guitars through a music dealer in California. I nearly flipped when I saw the picture of it on your website.

Yes, you are absolutely correct about the ‘sweet’ sound and incredible ‘sustain’. It does feel like a bowling ball strapped on your shoulder though. Where would you find wood like that? And what was the reasoning for 3 different humbuckers?

I am the “Jerry” guitarist with the Dead cover band, ‘Uncle John’s Band’ in Tampa, Florida.

Q: Did you have information and/or pictures from the eBay listing when you purchased the guitar? Did you keep a copy of the eBay auction or the pictures posted on the auction?

A: No pictures or eBay listing as my eBay account from back then got terminated and I can’t find any print or e-copies of the purchase unfortunately. I am pretty sure the eBay auction was in the summer of 2002.

Q: What kind of case did they ship it in?

A: It came in a black hard case, which is the one it currently resides in (similar to a Fender Strat case but of a larger width dimension to fit the guitar)

Q: Did you ever change out the pickups or modify the electronics?

A: I left the electronics ‘as-is’ which looks to be as you mentioned in your e-mail; 2 Schallers and a Bill Lawrence Hot Humbucker in the bridge position.

Q: I know it’s heavy, but do you still play it?

A: Yes, heavy it is at over 13 pounds. It has seen the stage very rarely lately – it is heavy to play a full two set show. At the time of purchase, it was my second ‘custom’-built guitar at the time, and since I’ve accumulated many tribute guitars of Jerry’s collection (two Wolf guitars, two ‘Tiger’ replicas, TB500 replicas, two Alligators, a Scarlet-Fire Rosebud, along with a Resurrection ‘Bolt’ that I purchased as the next guitar after the Cripe in 2005). I try to rotate through most of them as guitar strings and batteries don’t last forever in Florida.

The history of the purchase from what I recall is that Cripe’s sister had inherited several of his guitars. However, needing money for medical bills that were mounting, she decided to sell I believe what was a total of ‘5’ of his guitars on eBay. The Prototype was the last of the bunch to be auctioned and the bidding went a bit frantic in the last minutes with my bid as the ‘winning’ bid luckily.

The Prototype had a lot of exposure on the stage for many high-profile shows soon after receiving it. In August 2002, we had a 1000+ patron crowd at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg, FL (now called the Floridian Social). The venue with its huge sound system and floor space in front of the stage had the flavor of what I perceived was similar to the ‘Great American Music Hall’ or ‘Winterland’ in San Francisco. The Prototype’s first shows played on were at Skipper’s Smokehouse in the summer of 2002, one of which was with David Gans. In 2003, Uncle John’s Band played ‘Magnoliafest’ at the ‘Spirit of Suwanee’ and it was out on the big stage once again. In July, when ‘The Dead’ came to the St. Pete Times Forum, the ‘Cripe’ was played at an after-party show at ‘Twilight’ in Ybor City. In January 2004, it also shared the stage with Vince Welnick when I sat in with ‘Gent Treadly’ at the ‘Green Room’ in Ybor City, Tampa. The guitar was not the heaviest item to carry on stage as I was using a Mcintosh 2300 amp for many shows in that time period as well.

I have attached several photos from these events.

Thanks for your interest in keeping the ‘Cripe’ legend alive,

Alan