Grateful Dead Music Forum

Just a few shots of my in-progress Alembic. Another hippie sandwich masterpiece from the folks in Santa Rosa. The wood combination is burl walnut/maple/purpleheart/maple/mahogany/maple/purpleheat/maple/walnut. I was going to go with a flame maple core like on my Scott Walker and the Tiger that Leo is building me. But I've found that the Alembics tend to be a little brighter sounding as it is and I was afraid that a maple core would push things a bit too far. Plus as a Les Paul player, I've always loved the warmth of a mahogany body. The electronics are one of their simpler setups. It's two pickups each with a volume and filter control as well as an on/off/bright switch. I'll post more as I get them. Here it is so far:

Dang! That's another sweet guitar you've got going on there

Are you going with the standard Alembic electronics? Cool inlay?

The electronics are the standard Skylark. It's one up from the most basic package and includes a volume and filter knob for each pickup plus an on/off/bright switch for each pickup. The Series electronics (which they are most known for) would've added an additional $5,000-10,000 depending on whether I went with Series I or II. Because I play mostly overdriven/distorted, the benefits of those electronics would be completely lost on me. So I've never done a custom build with them.

Very nice! Really cool combination of woods too. When you get it let us know the details on how it sounds.

So if I understand this correctly... you own a Scott Walker...and you have two builds in progress...a Tiger and an Alembic? I believe this is what people mean when they say "Life is good"! Congrats.

jester536 wrote:So if I understand this correctly... you own a Scott Walker...and you have two builds in progress...a Tiger and an Alembic? I believe this is what people mean when they say "Life is good"! Congrats.

Thanks. This is also what they mean by having a VERY understanding wife.

I think he gets away with it because the Alembic's are for the "kids"

softmachine72 wrote:I think he gets away with it because the Alembic's are for the "kids"

Yep...I found a loophole in the system!

What's up with the freaked out looking dude on the upper right back of the guitar?! Spooky!

zambiland wrote:What's up with the freaked out looking dude on the upper right back of the guitar?! Spooky!

I never noticed that before. That is absolutely freaky looking!

The more I look at it, the more I see. It's like a Hieronymus Bosch painting!

I see dead people...

That thing is lovely! I'm not gonna be able to get anymore custom guitars for a while. The wife looks around at the 20-something other guitars in the house along with the new Phiga Bolt, sees me lusting after other builds online and gives me that "don't you dare" look. In my case, the Mrs is a horse-owner, so whatever I get in the way of guitars and gear ends up costing double by the time she gets hers for her horses. Thank god guitars don't eat or need to be boarded.

...and the vet bills, farrier, dentist, transportation, show fees, tack..... keep reminding her

ML, sounds like you got a pretty good deal. 20 guitars vs horses. Two idiots in the same house shouldn't point fingers at each other.