I don't know what's gotten into me lately. I am a bass player, through-and-through. Years ago, I learned to play rhythm guitar a little bit after some really bad upright technique caused enough tendonitis that I had to lay the bass down for a while. I can hold my own in any bluegrass/oldtyme string band. An electric guitar was the next logical step. Wow, I sounded really bad plugged-in... amplified mistakes - what a concept! But I kept messing with those dad-blamed lek-trik guitars, and eventually, it got better. Telecasters and Les Pauls seem to be my sweet spot. Then one day recently, I had this idea of running them through my Broughton Resonant LPF pedal. Oooh. Then the SF-2. Gears stripped.
Sure, the easiest thing to do here would be just put some Alembic goodies into a guitar I already have. Do they still have that Tele set available? It's on the main page still... gotta' remember to ask Aunt Mary 'bout that. The next easiest thing to do is just wait for a nice used guitar to come along.
I'd been thinking about commissioning another Custom Alembic for when I retired from public service in the next couple years... being a bass player, I had been leaning more towards either a 4 or 5-string Brown Bass variant, but maybe this is it. We're just dreaming, right?
I really hadn't contemplated before what I would like in an Alembic guitar, had no reason to. Like I said, Telee's and Elpee's are kinda' my thing. How do we split the difference and build an Alembic to fit my hand and tickle my ears in the process?
So... what does it look like?
I really like the Skylark model's shape.
Standard Skylark is 24.75" scale, which probably has some bearing on pickup location, which becomes more important later in this thread. (where I really run it off the rails...) I wonder if adjusting the scale might help... personally, I really prefer the 24.9" scale of my small-body Martins. It isn't a deal-breaker, but when pickup location on that scale factors in and how a string oscillates on that length, I know it matters a lot... I need help with that.
The set-neck construction gets me into Les Paul land. But for voicing, do we go with mahogany or ash for the core? That's a big decision with huge ramifications. I wonder if there is something in between them? Alder? Vermilion? I don't want to give away too much twang here. I don't want mush or clang either.
Moving on...
Definitely flame/quilted maple top, with a wineburst finish. That's a done deal. And I don't want to see it until it's done. Seeing a sunburst finish for the first time is like opening a present. It should look like a California sunset into the Pacific Ocean, while the Pinot chases.
Accent pinstripe layers? Meh... maybe, maybe not. Not sure how well they'd show up. That depends a lot on the core wood chosen, and how dark the 'burst terminates to the outside edge. Skylark has that double-thick top carve too.
Does the neck go with the standard maple w/walnut pinstripes, or mahogany w/ maple laminates? That could be a pretty big deal too, in terms of how the sustain of notes carry/decay. I'll need more expert advice here.
Headstock; standard Crown... or maybe Orion? Whichever shape, I'd like the front face of it to match the maple top. The reverse can be black, or whatever. Inlaid logo? Old-school hand-cut silver one? Or just the standard surface-mounted bronze? No wrong choice to be made.
Instead of ebony, I think I'd like a pretty piece of rosewood for the fingerboard, with abalone inlays. Since this is a Custom, there exists the possibility I may do a small personalized something, either at the 12th or 24th frets. Frets by the way... Jescar Evo Gold fretwire. I love it.
Electronics: I think Spectrum comes the closest to what I'm envisioning here... a simple Volume/Filter/Q and 3-position blade switch on a brass plate. If possible, I'd also add a bass and treble boost/flat/cut function in switches. This would be somewhat like the old Distillate (or Europa) circuit. The pickups are what I'm hedging on. I'd like to have an HG in the neck position and an STR at the bridge, angled. Position of these to be optimized, based on decided-upon scale and layout. Not leaving a lot of ambiguity about the goal here, but I agree that may sound like a weird configuration for a Skylark.
It's a custom Fender Telecaster pickup arrangement, built around a Gibson Les Paul design, on an early C.F. Martin & Co. scale... melded into a Dream Alembic.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz....
