Well Slam, I don't get to Richmond much anymore either. Used to have a gig in a living history thing in Henrico Co. Long gone now. If you do happen to head West, Lynchburg, Staunton, or something by all means, ping me, I'm glad to share my Alembic experience.
If you're shopping for your first Alembic, do yourself a favor and do it privately here... don't feed the flipper sharks another 30%. If you're going to pay that price, go ahead and pay the fine people who host this cool place a couple thousand more to build exactly what you want. I came here in 2014 with a stripped out bass an ebay rip-off artist stuck me with. They helped me restore it to better-than-new over the phone, at discounted cost, and treated me like I bought it new. It took me another 14 months of gig money to save up the deposit for a new Custom fretless, and another 23 months and 6 days to get it. Worth every nickel spent, and every minute waited. Thinking darn seriously about a guitar now.
*Brian; cool to hear your Shopnight project is almost done. I still haven't asked about my Series I > II conversion on #80-1684 but I figure they were pretty close. It'll just happen. I actually do need to check with Mica sometime about the pickups... I originally thought that the glossy unbranded version it came with would be better, but lately I think the more modern matte finish black with gold embossed letters is appealing. She'll know what to do. Nothing to play for a while anyway.
