Oteil Burbridge doesn’t recall where the idea came from: Make a bass guitar version of Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia’s custom guitar known as “Wolf.”

But Burbridge — who resided in Birmingham, Alabama for 18 years early in his career –- now has his own Wolf-style bass, which he’s dubbed “Dire Wolf,” after a classic Dead song. “It’s like a dream to me,” Burbridge wrote on social media July 2. “However it happened, it’s all actually happening!”

It’s fitting he should possess such an instrument. Since 2015, Burbridge has played bass in Grateful Dead spinoff band Dead & Company, which recently played a run of shows at state-of-the-art Las Vegas venue The Sphere.

“Wolf has some unique properties,” Burbridge wrote on socials. “You can hear it on the tapes. Of course, a lot of that is Jerry but it’s distinct. I’m so curious to see how those unique properties translate two octaves lower!”

Garcia’s Wolf was built by Doug Irwin, who crafted five custom guitars for the Dead singer/guitarist, who died in 1995 at age 53. In addition to Wolf, Garcia’s Irwin-made guitars included instruments named Eagle, Tiger, Wolf Jr. and Rosebud. Irwin also made instruments for Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

Burbridge’s Dire Wolf bass is by Doug Asher, a Los Angeles luthier who’s crafted instruments for stars like Warren Haynes, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, and Dixie Chicks.

“The first piece of wood for this guitar was cut from the same batch of wood that Jerry’s Wolf was made with,” Burbridge wrote. “I almost cried when Bill Asher sent me the video of Doug Irwin up out of his wheelchair cutting it himself.”

Burbridge’s Dire Wolf bass features a quilted finish and several switches and knobs for tonal options. A wolf decal, too. All echoing the look of Garcia’s guitar.

The bass is a gift from Grateful Guitars Foundation, an organization that describes itself as “a nonprofit obtaining world-class musical instruments for talented players carrying on the tradition of jam band music into the 21st century and beyond, while also partnering with music-education nonprofits in seeding the next generations of players.”

Grateful Guitars Foundation’s bass gift to Burbridge is accompanied by a $5,000 donation to Can’dAid, a Colorado nonprofit with “programs provide tools and access for under-resourced communities to lead healthy, active, and creative lives.”

In his post, Burbridge said he planned to debut the Dire Wolf bass at the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration, held July 6 at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheater. That show featured the Colorado Symphony and jam-band standouts including Widespread Panic drummer Duane Trucks and Phish bassist Mike Gordon.

In addition to Burbridge, Dead & Company’s current lineup boasts two classic era Grateful Dead members, singer/guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart. Blues pop heartthrob John Mayer features on lead guitar. Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane, two longtime Weir collaborators, are on keyboards and drums respectively.

With Dead & Company, Burbridge carries the flame for Phil Lesh, who died in 2024. Of walking in Lesh’s footprints, Burbridge said in 2015, ” I doubt anyone can sound like Phil. He’s unique. I can tell it’s him in 10 seconds.”

Alabama’s Grateful Dead connections also include Shoals native Donna Jean Godchaux, a backing vocalist for the band in the ‘70s. Huntsville’s Stephanie Jennings was a Grateful Dead tour photographer in the ‘80s.

Over the decades, the band performed at Alabama venues including Tuscaloosa’s Memorial Coliseum, Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium and the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. In 1980, the Dead released the single “Alabama Getaway,” a patchouli boogie off their “Go To Heaven” album.

Before his Dead & Company run, Burbridge was already jam-scene royalty. He was a member of the Allman Brothers Band, from 1997 to their 2014 finale.

“The Allman Brothers have something uniquely Southern that I am glad I will always carry with me,” Burbridge told AL.com in 2015. “Most of my favorite American music started in the South. Things like the Allman Brothers Band, James Brown, the Hampton Grease Band, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Bill Monroe and so many others could only have happened down South.”

Burbridge is a Washington D.C. native and recent Boca Raton, Florida resident. He first made his name with cult-faves the Aquarium Rescue Unit. Along the way, he’s been a part of Tedeschi Trucks Band and side projects like Vida Blue, also featuring Phish keyboardist Page McConnell and New Orleans drummer Russell Batiste, Jr. He also fronted his own band, Oteil and the Peacemakers.

Of his time in Alabama, Burbridge recalled in 2015, “I used to love the out-of-the-way Indian and Thai restaurants. I was glad for the slower pace of Bham after being on the road. With the Allman Brothers Band, the band members lived in six different states. It didn’t matter.”