Alembic Inc
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Alembic was founded in 1969 and is a manufacturer of high-end electric basses, guitars and preamps.
Most bass historians would agree that the most important event in the history of the electric bass was the introduction of the Precision Bass by Fender in 1951. The second most important event was, arguably, the formation of Alembic. If Fender created the modern electric bass in 1951, Alembic created the high-end electric bass in 1971. The key design elements in the first Alembic bass – active electronics, premium woods, mutli-laminate neck-thru construction – established the template for high end instruments which still applies today.
Fender’s success set the scene for Music Man, G&L (both with input from Leo, himself) Lakland, Sadowsky and numerous less innovative copies. The rise of Alembic in the 70s, opened the door for high end bass manufacturers such as Warwick, Spector, [Ken Smith] and Fodera – as well as defining expectations for top of the line instruments from large manufacturers such as Yamaha and Ibanez.
History
Alembic was started in 1969 by Ron and Susan Wickersham. Originally it was a consulting firm that worked closely with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the like to help improve the quality of live sound and recordings of live concerts. Rick Turner also joined the company in that first year, becoming a shareholder in 1970. Rick and Alembic parted company in 1978 and Rick founded Renaissance Guitars.High impedance pickups have limited bandwidth. Ron Wickersham and Rick Turner designed new pickups to be low impedance to increase the bandwidth. This also made the pickups low output and so Ron had to design an active onboard preamp to boost the signal. In 1969 Ron installed the first active elctronics in instruments owned by Phil Lesh, Jack Casady, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia. These were the first low impedance pickups with preamps installed on a musical instrument. (UK manufacturer Burns introduced active tone controls on their TR2 bass in the 60's, although without low impedance pickups which are the essential feature of modern active electronics.)
Alembic became quite busy installing these new active electronics in player’s guitars and basses. They also did a lot of modifications on the instruments like remanufacturing the headstocks with a 14° angle, machining solid brass parts for the bridge, tailpiece and nut, carving necks and the like. This eventually led to manufacturing their own line of guitars and basses from start to finish.
The instruments
In 1971 the very first Alembic bass, number 001, was made for Jack Casady, then of the Jefferson Airplane. The bass cost more than four thousand dollars – an unheard of amount at the time. It resembled nothing that came before it and has had a profound impact on bass design ever since.Although considered radical at the time, history proved Alembic to be right on the money. Key design elements from #001 are still present in Alembic’s instruments today - as well as those built by many high end bass makers that have since sprung up.
Alembic's 4 string basses were usually based on a five piece multi-laminate through neck using various combinations of maple, purpleheart, walnut, cherry and ebony. By 1979 maple and purpleheart was the standard.
In 1976 Alembic made the world’s first graphite neck basses with necks supplied by Geoff Gould, who subsequently founded Modulus Guitars. The first two were sold to John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) and Stanley Clarke. Alembic continued to build graphite neck instruments until 1985.
Another more far-reaching development in 1976 was the delivery of the first ever 5 string bass with low B string to Jimmy Johnson.
The players
By 1973 Alembic was established as the instrument maker of choice amongst all the influential US west coast bands, including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, New Riders of the Purple Sage and others.In 1973 Rolling Stone ran an extensive profile on Alembic and Stanley Clarke acquired his first Alembic. Stanley released his first solo album in 1974 and started getting really famous. Alembic’s fame had well and truly spread beyond its West Coast roots. Some other early Alembic players included Lamar Williams of The Allman Brothers Band and Tom Fowler of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
At this time no one else concentrated on making finely crafted basses and Alembic became the “must have” instrument for many of the leading bassists of the era.
Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and 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 (The Who), who worked with Alembic to develop the Exploiter body shape – a cheekily named derivative of Gibson’s Explorer. John ordered 15 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.
By the late 70s John Paul Jones had also converted to Alembic and drove the development of the Triple Omega body shape. JPJ can be seen using both 4 and 8 string Alembics in the Knebworth concert on the Led Zep DVD.
Funk players were quick to pick up on Stanley’s percussive playing style, to which the clear, extended high end response was well suited. Legendary funk bassist Louis Johnson can be heard playing an Alembic Series 1 on classic tracks by the Brothers Johnson. Lequient Jobe (Rose Royce), Jermaine Jackson (The Jacksons), “Skeet” Curtis (Parliament / Funkadelic) and Wyzard (Mother’s Finest) also played Series 1s. Brown Mark played an Alembic Spoiler on several hits recorded by Prince.
Into the 80s Mark King continued the Alembic slap fusion tradition, while the heavy rock connection was ably continued through to the 90s by Metallica – with both Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted playing Alembics at various times. Alembic made a dozen instruments for Jason – typically stained darkly so that, from a distance they look black while up close the wood grain can still be seen clearly.
In the 1990s Flea fused the slap and rock traditions – recording with an Alembic Epic on most of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 1995 One Hot Minute album. Allen Woody, who held the bass chair in the Allman Brothers Band from 1989 through 1997, also played Alembics extensively on stage and in the studio.
No endorsements
Alembic have always followed a strict no endorsement policy. Everyone, including Stanley Clarke, 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 did make two exceptions to this rule when they presented Stanley Clarke with a specially inlaid instrument to celebrate 30 years of working together. Alembic also 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.
Alembic Guitars
From the beginning Alembic had always been involved in repairing and modifying guitars and they began making guitars shortly after their first bass. But the association of a number of high profile bassists with Alembic in the 70s meant that Alembic came to be perceived as a bass company.These days Alembic sells nearly as many guitars as basses – with both being made by the same craftspeople in the same factory.
Many famous guitarists have bought Alembics, including Jerry Garcia, Carlos Alomar, Adrian Belew, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Johnny Winter, Steve Miller, Neil Young, Chet Atkins and Stanley Jordan.
The future
Alembic is still essentially a family company. Presently, the company employs twenty-six people, including seven members of the Wickersham family. Ron and Susan’s daughter, Mica, is the General Manager.All Alembic instruments are made in Alembic's factory in Santa Rosa, California. The Wickershams have no intention of manufacturing from any other location to create budget models.
External links
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