Brian,
I think it is kinda magic. Ron's super-hi-fi, no-holds-barred, cost-is-no-object electronics design is unique to the industry.
I'd also say that the Alembic sound that WE all love is not what everybody is looking for. (I know, what's wrong with these people?). I'm a longtime believer in the wide-open, full-range, natural, organic, almost acoustic sounding instruments that Alembic makes. Compared to "normal" guitars and basses which usually have a ... how should I say it ... narrower audio footprint (??) often further manipulated by pedals, amps and speakers, our ultra clean hi-fi sounding instruments are unusual.
Don't get me wrong, great music is made on everything from a cigar box with a rubber band to a Stradivarius and everything in between. These are just tools that musicians and Artists use and the specific instrument that they play is often only a small contributor to the end product.
So while it's possible somebody could start from scratch building nice solid instruments, winding their own pickups, building some crazy class-A onboard preamps with external power supplies, etc. I'm not sure there is a wide audience of players that would come running. Anybody seeking this kind of sound ends up right here! And Alembic has many years of experience to draw on because they were the first to take these relatively new instruments to the level they did. And they're still the only ones IMO!
Yay!
Jimmy J
