Alembic Inc
Encyclopedia
Alembic was founded in 1969 and is a manufacturer of high-end electric basses, guitars and preamps.

History

Ron and Susan Wickersham founded Alembic, Inc. in 1969. Originally, it was conceived as a consulting firm that worked closely with the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and other bands to help improve the quality of their sound systems and live recordings. Rick Turner
Rick Turner
Rick Turner co-founded Alembic in 1970 and was involved in the design and construction of the Alembic instruments. He founded Rick Turner Guitars in 1979 and joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division.Turner left Gibson in 1992 and ran a guitar repair...

 also joined the company in that first year, becoming a shareholder in 1970.

Ron Wickersham and Rick Turner designed low-impedance pickups and electronics with greater bandwidth than the high-impedance pickups typical in electric guitars and basses of the time. To boost the low output of these pickups, Wickersham designed an active onboard preamp. In 1969, the first active electronics designed by Alembic were installed in instruments owned by Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....

, Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...

, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...

 and Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...

. These were the first true active electronics to be installed in musical instruments. (UK manufacturer Burns introduced active tone controls on its TR2 bass in the '60s, although without the low impedance pickups essential to modern active electronics.)

Alembic became quite busy installing these new active electronics in players' guitars and basses. Instruments modified with these electronics were also often retrofitted with new necks and hardware. This work led the company to begin producing its own line of instruments, incorporating the improvements the company developed during this period. The first Alembic instrument, serial number 72-01, was a bass made for Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...

, then a member of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

. This bass incorporated a massive electronics suite, with super-filtering capability, and had pickups mounted on brass tubing so that their position could be adjusted.

The first production Alembic instruments were less ornate, and incorporated the PF-5 electronics circuit, later replaced by the PF-6. The pickups were single-coil, with an active hum-cancelling coil mounted between the pickups. This configuration gave the player the fidelity of single-coil pickups without their inherent noise, and is used to this day. The basses and guitars built using this configuration would later become known as the Series I and II, and were available in a variety of scale lengths and body shapes.

In 1976, Alembic made the world's first graphite neck basses with necks supplied by Geoff Gould, who subsequently founded Modulus Guitars
Modulus Guitars
Modulus Guitars is an American manufacturer of musical instruments, most notably bass guitars built with carbon fiber necks. The company, originally called Modulus Graphite, was founded in part by Geoff Gould, a bassist who also worked for an aerospace company in Palo Alto, California.The name may...

. During this period, Alembic also delivered one of the first 5-string basses equipped with a low B string to Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (bassist)
Jimmy Johnson is an American bass guitarist best known for his work with James Taylor, Allan Holdsworth, Lee Ritenour and Flim & the BB's...

. Production of graphite-necked instruments ceased in 1985.

In 1978, Rick Turner left the company.

In 1979, the Distillate, a more affordable model, was introduced in bass and guitar versions.

Through the 1980s, Alembic introduced several new models. These included the Spoiler, Elan, and Europa basses, and the Electrum and California Special guitars. Alembic's model line has continued to expand to the present day, with models such as the Epic, Orion, Excel, and Darling being introduced.

The instruments

Key design elements from the earliest instruments are still present in Alembic’s instruments today.

Most Alembic basses and guitars are constructed around a laminated through neck, using various combinations of maple, purpleheart, walnut, cherry and ebony. This construction technique, combined with the laminated body wings found on most Alembics, inspired the "hippie sandwich" nickname commonly associated with instruments built this way. A popular configuration is a maple and purpleheart neck, a coco bolo top and back, and a mahogany body.

A variety of body shapes have been introduced throughout the history of the company. The Standard Point, the iconic Alembic body shape, was conceived to force players to put the instrument in a stand, as headstock repairs resulting from falls were the most common repair performed by the company in its early days. Newer body shapes have been introduced to improve ergonomics and to designate new models.

Alembic instruments can be ordered with a wide variety of custom features, including complex inlays and LED position markers in the neck.

All Alembic instruments incorporate the proprietary Alembic active electronics, with various options for tone controls and pickup configurations available.

All Alembic instruments are made in Alembic's factory in Santa Rosa, California.

The players

By 1973, Alembic was established as the instrument-maker of choice amongst many US west coast bands, including the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

, New Riders of the Purple Sage
New Riders of the Purple Sage
New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco, California in 1969, and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. Their best known song is "Panama Red"...

 and others.

Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...

 acquired his first Alembic in 1973. Other early Alembic players included Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams was an American musician, most known as the bassist for The Allman Brothers Band and Sea Level....

 of The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...

, Tiran Porter
Tiran Porter
Tiran Porter is a American bass and guitar player, vocalist and composer. Born September 26, 1948, he graduated from Leuzinger High School in Hawthorne, CA in 1966...

 of the Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

 and Tom Fowler of Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

 and the Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...

.

As a result of such high-profile users, Alembic's fame soon spread.

Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...

) played a number of Alembics, including an eight string bass (four pairs of strings, each comprising a regular bass string and another lighter string tuned an octave higher) ordered in 1976. This instrument was subsequently sold to John Entwistle
John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players...

 of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

.

John Entwistle
John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players...

 switched from his custom "Fenderbird" basses to "standard point" Alembics for The Who's 1975 and 1976 tours. He then worked with Alembic to develop the Exploiter body shape – a cheekily named derivative of Gibson's Explorer - which he used exclusively from 1977 to 1985. Entwistle ordered 4 Series II Exploiter body basses over the years in a variety of woods. Most had note names inlaid as position markers on the fingerboards and sterling silver spider web inlays on the body. Prior to his death in 2002, Entwistle was working with Alembic on a limited edition replica of his guitar which was subsequently released as the "Spyder". On a very few dates of The Who's 1979 tour, guitarist Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

 played Entwistle's zebrawood standard point bass during the song "Trick of the Light".

By the late 1970s, John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (musician)
John Paul Jones is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a...

 of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 had also converted to Alembic (from Fender) and drove the development of the Triple Omega body shape. Jones can be seen using both 4 and 8 string Alembics in the Knebworth concert on the Led Zeppelin DVD. Jones also used his 8 string on the song "Achilles Last Stand
Achilles Last Stand
"Achilles Last Stand" is a song by the English rock group Led Zeppelin, featured as the opening track on their 1976 album Presence. It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at Page's house in Malibu, California where they stayed for a month while Plant recovered from a serious car accident he...

", from the 1976 Led Zeppelin album Presence.

Chuck Panozzo
Chuck Panozzo
Charles Salvatore "Chuck" Panozzo is an American musician best known as the bass player for the rock band Styx. A longtime member of Styx, he founded the group with his fraternal twin brother, drummer John Panozzo, who died in July 1996, and singer Dennis DeYoung...

 of Styx
Styx (band)
Styx is an American rock band that became famous for its albums from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Chicago band is known for melding the style of prog-rock with the power of hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and elements of American musical theater....

 used Alembic bass guitars during Styx's 1979 to 1984 heyday. Their use in heavy rock continued into the 1980s, with both Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton
Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton was an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the American heavy metal band Metallica....

 and Jason Newsted
Jason Newsted
Jason Curtis Newsted is an American bassist known for his work with Metallica, Voivod and Flotsam and Jetsam. Joining Metallica in 1986 after Cliff Burton's death, Newsted remained a member until 2001, making him the band's longest-serving bassist...

 of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

 playing Alembics at some point in their respective careers.

Funk players were quick to pick up on Stanley Clarke's percussive playing style, to which the clear, extended high end response of the Alembic electronics was well suited. Legendary funk bassist Louis Johnson
Louis Johnson (bassist)
Louis Johnson is an American bass guitarist.Johnson is best known for his group The Brothers Johnson and his session playing on several hit albums of the 1970s and '80s including the "best selling album of all time" Thriller...

 can be heard playing an Alembic Series 1 on classic tracks by The Brothers Johnson. Lequient Jobe (Rose Royce
Rose Royce
Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B band. The group is best known for several hit singles including "Car Wash," "I Wanna Get Next to You," "Wishing on a Star", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "I'm Going Down".-Career:...

), Jermaine Jackson
Jermaine Jackson
Jermaine La Jaune Jackson is an American singer, bassist, composer, a member of The Jackson 5, older brother of American pop stars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson and occasional film director...

 (The Jacksons
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...

), Rodney "Skeet" Curtis (Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...

) and Wyzard (Mother's Finest
Mother's Finest
Mother's Finest is a funk rock band founded in Atlanta, Georgia by Joyce Kennedy and Glenn Murdock in the early 1970s. The group charted with the singles "Fire" , "Baby Love" , "Don't Wanna Come Back" , "Love Changes" , and "Piece Of The Rock" in the mid to late 1970s.-History:Mother's Finest...

) also played Series 1s. Brown Mark played an Alembic Spoiler on several hits recorded by Prince. During the 1980s, Mark King
Mark King (musician)
Mark King is an English musician. He is most famous for being the lead singer and bassist of the band, Level 42. In the early 1980s King popularized the 1970s-era slap and pop style for playing the bass guitar by incorporating it into pop music.-Early life:King was brought up on the Isle of Wight,...

, of Level 42
Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...

 fame, was perhaps the most visible Alembic player in the funk scene. Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...

, bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

 recorded the 1995 album One Hot Minute
One Hot Minute
One Hot Minute is the sixth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 12, 1995, on Warner Bros. Records...

with an Alembic Epic.

In the modern indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 scene, a notable player of Alembic basses is Armistead Burwell Smith IV
Armistead Burwell Smith IV
Armistead Burwell Smith IV is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays Alembic Stanley Clarke bass guitars, set at a standard tuning...

 of bands Three Mile Pilot
Three Mile Pilot
Three Mile Pilot is an indie rock band from San Diego, California formed by Armistead Burwell Smith IV on bass and vocals, Pall Jenkins Three Mile Pilot (often shortened to 3MP) is an indie rock band from San Diego, California formed by Armistead Burwell Smith IV (a.k.a. Zach Smith from Pinback,...

 and Pinback
Pinback
Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego, California, currently signed to Temporary Residence Ltd. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. Tom Zinser, Chris Prescott, and Mario Rubalcaba have all contributed drums...

.

Many famous musicians have also played Alembics, including Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...

, Carlos Alomar
Carlos Alomar
Carlos Alomar is an American guitarist, composer and arranger best known for his work with David Bowie, having played on more Bowie albums than any other musician...

, Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...

, David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...

, Mark King
Mark King
Mark King may refer to:*Mark King , singer and bass guitar player with Level 42*Mark King *Mark King , Northwich Victoria player*Mark Anthony King Minor league basketball owner/player...

, Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

, Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

, Steve Miller
Steve Miller (musician)
Steven H. "Steve" Miller is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more popular-oriented sound which, from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of successful singles and albums.-Early years:Born in Milwaukee,...

, John Entwistle
John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle was an English bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, horn player, and film and record producer who was best known as the bass player for the rock band The Who. His aggressive lead sound influenced many rock bass players...

, John McVie
John McVie
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleetwood, was the inspiration for the band's name...

, John Lodge
John Lodge
John Charles Lodge is an English musician, best known as bassist and singer of the longstanding rock group The Moody Blues.-Early years:...

, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

, Dean Borso, Mieczysław Jurecki and Stanley Jordan
Stanley Jordan
Stanley Jordan is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and pianist, best known for his development of the tapping technique for the guitar....

.

No endorsements

Alembic have always followed a strict no endorsement policy. Everyone, including Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...

, has paid for their instruments. In Alembic’s view this is the best endorsement of all. In Susan Wickersham’s (co-founder and CEO) words, "the most successful artists can afford to pay for their instruments – but if we gave them endorsement deals the cost of those instruments would have to be recovered from customers who are far less able to afford it".

Alembic has made two exceptions to this rule. The first occurred when they presented Stanley Clarke with a specially inlaid instrument to celebrate 30 years of working together. The second occurred when [a representative of Alembic] approached Mark King at a gig on the Stevie Winwood tour in 1986 with an offer to build him a bass. Mark received two 34" scale Series 2 basses initially and then ordered two more in identical woods with 32" scale.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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