Rick Turner

[frank]

Where does Rick Turner fit into Alembic History?

[danny_bryant]

Well, Rick was one of the original partners with Ron and Susan at Alembic. He left in 1978 to start making his own guitars. I really like his work and he is a great guy. In the past I have owned a couple of his guitars and a Electroline bass like John McVie's from Fleetwood Mac. He still is a prominent luthier and is well respected among his peers. I dont know really what happend but I think there was a misunderstanding between the 3 of them.

[811952]

He makes some really nice stuff, with innovative features.  I understand that he was the luthier part of the original equation.
 
John

[mica]

It's a common misconception, but Rick was not an original partner. My mom and dad started the company together. Frank Fuller was the first luthier at Alembic. Later, when Alembic became a corporation, Rick and Bob Matthews were each given one third of the shares and my father retained one third.  
 
There's lots of confusion about the beginnings of our company because many things have been published about us without the writer even talking to us. Even some things were published after the writer spoke with us, but they didn't want to publish something that was historically accurate, since it would go against previously published material. So it's understandable that there is confusion.  
 
I was looking up an instrument history request yesterday, where a previous owner had sent in pictures of his Alembic guitar. He also sent in some pictures of his Travis Bean, because I understand that Travis Bean used to be with Alembic. Travis Bean never had anything to do with Alembic.  
 
There's an Alembic history page on our website that more fully explains the history of the company.

[oujeebass]

Its my understanding that Rick Turner was the luthier who set the standard of instrument design when it comes to Amembics. The classic hippie sandwich. The electronics make an Alembic a true Alembic.

[frank]

The Alembic History clears some things up. Like that Susan Wickersham ...is responsible for the design of the Alembic instruments

[olieoliver]

Everybody knows Susans the head honcho!
 
OO

[oujeebass]

Yes, but I have seen Rick Turner era basses hanging on a bunch of the greats.

[ajdover]

At the risk of sounding Dave Houck-esque (and this is meant as a compliment to our wizened sage mod), I offer the following...
 
There are a couple of sayings that come to my mind when I read the posts in this thread.  They are:
 
Success has a thousand fathers.
It's amazing what can be accomplished when no one takes credit.
 
Mr. Turner surely played an important role at one time at Alembic, as have many others.  The bottom line is we're all enjoying superlative instruments that bring infinite joy to ourselves and hopefully many others.  Who was first, who made it, who came up with what is irrelevant, at least as far as I'm concerned.
 
The instruments we all play, cherish, lust after and adore are the product of many years of painstaking labor, trial and error, experimentation, etc. by any number of folks.  Rick Turner was one of them, and I'm glad he was.  Just like I'm glad James is the guy who put the inlays in my custom.  
 
I can respect how Mica and the Wickersham family wants to make sure their company history is correct and accurately reflects how the Alembic we know today came to be.  The only problem is (and I was a history major in college) is that two historians can take the same set of facts and arrive at completely different conclusions based on their interpretation of said facts.
 
This being said, I think we can all agree that there have been a bunch of wonderful folks, past and present, who've produced the finest instruments many, if not all of us have ever known.  I don't care who invented it.  I just thank God they did.
 
Alan

[oujeebass]

Yeah I completely agree, and the Alembics we know today are true to that lineage. I am sure that like the music most of us play, its a coat of a many fibers.