Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Fun Stories => Topic started by: edwardofhuncote on June 24, 2021, 02:26:55 PM
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Maybe not straight-jacket model material just yet, but my judgement and reasoning patterns are getting downright questionable.
It's been 7 years today I first stumbled into this place with a messed-up Alembic, needing some help. I got some help all right... and in the years since, several more followed with it, plus I made a few friends, some near, some far, some I haven't even met face-to-face.
This morning, I was in an exam room of a Pain Management clinic, waiting for a sedative to kick in, so somebody could take me to the next room and put another shot of steroid into my upper spine, in hopes that I'd get the feeling back in my fingers again... maybe for a couple months. Months. End of the Summer would be awesome. Yeah... I could play out the schedule with my boys before the next set of Titanium upgrades gets installed. Maybe it'll roll into next year - who knows. There's optimism, and there's reality, and then comes scheduling, and they start cancelling each other out.
When I'm in that particular room, I try to go to a good place in my head... me, I think of a pretty girl in a pink floppy hat, with special brownies that look like chocolate bunnies. (hey, this is just my trip...) Anything to keep from thinking about why I'm really in there.
What's all that got to do with anything here? Well, here's where it gets tied-in. Seven years ago I had made up my mind somehow I was going to have Alembic build me a bass. They had just helped me fix the sick Dragon I had got from an ebay crook, as if I had gotten it new. (they did, and it's amazing) I'm going to do it again, only this time, it's going to be a guitar. Strikes me as nutty, because I can't even play a guitar right this minute. Haven't been able to for a couple weeks now, and bass was becoming a struggle. They put this ESI (epidural steroid injection) in me at 11:45 this morning. The nerves in my arm are still warm, my hand feels like a hundred bees stung it, and over the next couple days it will feel puffy as the feeling slowly comes back while that impinged nerve contracts and those electrical currents start flowing freely between my brain and fingertips again. See what I did there? That was on purpose. See... my spine is collapsing up around C7-T1-T2 shorting out the wires that go to the fingers that play the strings, that those glorious Alembic pickups are listening to, and the electronics are amplifying. When you think about it this way, the whole experience really is a big interface... from our brain to the speakers, and sound back to our ears completes the circuit. And it's all dorked-up by rotten bones. But they're going to fix me. Don't ask me how, I just know it.
I told you all at the top Ed went to Crazytown. I swear they were just chocolate brownies. I think the secret is in the butter. But once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
So I won't bore you all with the details, because some of them are still a moving target of formulating ideas as I gain experience and knowledge. I'll just say picture this;
A Brown Bass, reimagined into a guitar, with a few modern twists and vintage throwbacks. I'm particular about a few things, like scale length and neck profile for instance. I know what it looks like, plays like, generally what it sounds like, and I have every confidence Mica and Susan will know what to do, because this is what they have done for life. Like my Custom fretless 5-string Chain-Links, it'll be a one-of-a-kind. They'll even share a couple features. There will be at least one personal touch that identifies it with me, but won't destroy the appeal of the instrument for whoever has it next. You don't always have to understand art to appreciate it.
So here I am, still hangin' out with real players. Even got myself a gig with some boys who like to play Grateful Dead music, Appalachian style. I'd still whip a grizzly bear for a Fleetwood Mac Tribute gig. All things considered, shoot... Lucky as a 7.
Thank You, All. ~Ed of H
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... But once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right ...
:)
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A crazy ride and a cool instrument on the way! :)
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Where can I get some of the butter that was used for the brownies?
Gregory - I appreciate that you are holding your head high through this, thoughts and prayers for you, I admire your positive outlook! Keep shining!
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Still a few key decisions to make, a couple things need to fall into place, a couple irons need to come out of the fire, and then of course, a transaction before... you know... a cool guitar gets started. But it would take a lot to turn back now that the resolution is in. I'm getting there fast. Just emailed Mica a list of questions. Electronica, etc. She'll blow my mind, and I'll be back to Square 3 or 4. You know how that goes.
My wits are back. My left hand feels puffy today, and the nerve still feels warm, but I am getting feedback, so I know they definitely got the stuff where it needed to go. Amazing when you realize they hit a 3mm target with a 2mm needle. The sensations come back in the opposite direction they left. Isn't that weird?
Paul, I needed plausible deniability, so I stayed busy elsewhere. But thanks for the well-wishes just the same. I was worried about this ordeal last time. This time, it's just massively inconvenient. I live alone, and a 5-month recovery/rehab time after another fusion surgery needs very much to happen on my schedule. So I'm doing these injections (as long as they work) until I can fit a more permanent arrangement into things. Get the masterful brownie baker in here for a week or two...
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Gregory,
can't wait to see this instrument develop and then see you play it for years to come!
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Hey there, Toby! :)
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Love both your spirit and positive outlook, Gregory as well as the idea of a retro looking bb guitar. Your approach to life gives the rest of us with compressed or compressing spines/disks and pinched nerves hope. Just make sure you time the guitar making and surgery so Mica’s package doesn’t arrive before your recovered sufficiently to play it. Personally, that scenario would be too much for me to handle.
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Thanks Brian. Timing. Timing isn't everything in this particular case, but I am trying to time a few key milestone events. It would be cool if the guitar coincided with one of them. It's good that I don't have to be on a hard deadline, but I'm 52, and got a what I think is a work-able plan to be done with the Public Service gig at 55. What's Next? Professionally, I dunno... depends on how I feel. I hope for a lot more years of playing music though.
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It's all about swallowing pills lately.
Both literally, and figuratively. And coming to realizations. It's hard to make progress 6 weeks at a time, but I have been steadily working at guitar every minute I had any inspiration left at all. Every 6-7 weeks my fingers go to sleep again. I schedule another shot, and a couple weeks later the cycle begins again. Some days I think I'll figure this guitar thing out. Some days I couldn't hit the ground with my hat.
I really like P-90's. More and more, the guitar I'm reaching for is a plain old slab-body Les Paul Special with those things. This might sound nutty, but they're like training wheels for other pickups. If you can dial-in what you like to hear on these with two volumes and two tones, then you can figure it out with '59 Classics or Burstbuckers. I even had one guitar modded with coil-tapped mini-humbuckers. Now there's a cool sound that defies all Les Paul-ism.
I can't make myself love the longer Fender scale. I know. It's almost an insignificant amount. It matters in feel. The reach isn't a problem.
I'm trying lots of things. I may even build another Activator-equipped guitar to augment my Alembicized Telecaster.
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Gregory, you can always get a neck for your Tele that converts it to a 24.75 scale.
Bill, tgo
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Gregory, you can always get a neck for your Tele that converts it to a 24.75 scale.
Bill, tgo
Very true, Bill, and that's most likely what I'll do with that guitar. I like that contoured body a lot, and I especially like the Alembic sound applied to Telecaster sensibilities. It's a nice MIM Fender neck. Imagine I wouldn't have much trouble selling it to someone who can use it after the scale-converting one is in place on Super-Tele.
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Love that birdseye Stanley. Beautiful. The throwback is one of my favorite shapes.
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I still think it'll make a slick-lookin' guitar too.
This guitar thing... man. I'm still working at it. Trying to figure out who I am with an electric guitar. Once I know, they'll build it.
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My dragon guitar, though not commissioned by me, is a nod back to some vintage features like tighter horns and flatter bottom. More recent things like bookmatch to centre and more streamlined bridge. I think the scale is strat size too.
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That's such an incredible guitar, Jazzy. And in a number of ways. Don't guess I knew what scale it was, but since you are accustomed to the Fender scale it probably feels just right to you. I just can't quite get there. It's not like I can't play one... just my preference is the shorter span found most on a Gibson.
I still have the Custom Quote, folded up and paper-clipped, with notes in the margins, random thoughts or questions about the guitar of a lifetime. Nothing major has changed design-wise since I asked for it. In the spirit of my forgotten thread though... yeah, I must be crazy. Some days I really struggle to play at all. It's still in my head though, and some days, something will burst through and surprise me. Woah - where'd that come from?!
Just play something every day... and like speaking another language, eventually it becomes more natural. When I can speak 'guitar' fluently, it will tell me what I need to know.
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Ed, continued healing and realizing your dream instrument. My friend who is a drummer and bass player has had amazing results with Ozone injection therapy for his sciatica and arthritis in his hands and joints. He also went for a treatment after he recovered from covid.
Just passing along something that I have seen actually work and heal.Cheers