I convinced my wife that she needed a vacation to San Francisco (nudge-nudge, wink-wink), so I got to go to visit the land of the elven crafters.
Susan, Valentino, Mica, (and Chip, Tony, Mike, and the rest of the elves) thanks for taking time out of your schedule to meet with my wife and me.
Here's my report.
First, I haven't played a whole lot of Alembics; indeed, I haven't even seen that many. Just seeing all those custom instruments was totally amazing. I'd highly recommend a factory visit if you're in the area, or schedule a trip if not!
I work as a consultant, and I have lots of short term engagements, so I see lots of organizations-- government, finance, isurance, defense, drug companies, you name it, I've been there. It is refreshing to see a company like Alembic where they obviously care very much about being the best, and making customers happy.
And the instruments! Oh my. They are truly amazing. I won't try to address everybody's instruments, but suffice it to say, I didn't see any instruments that weren't awesome.
It was great. Highly recommended.
Brad