Others here can provide more on the history, but I've heard an amusing story (from Mica) about how the ebony neck lams came to be, and have never seen it posted before...
Once upon a time (i.e. I have no idea what year it was, but relatively recent in Alembic history), our friend David Fung ordered a custom with ebony for the neck laminates, primarily because he thought it would look cool (perhaps not his exact words).
When Ron had it on the bench, they noticed on the oscilloscope that there was a much stronger contribution from the fundamental, and the first and second partials were more even in level and tended to reinforce each other - which of course seemed like a good thing, and since then they have been a special option.
Since people are always thinking about how wood sounds, stiffness, and so forth, it's hard to believe there wasn't some consideration of that, but it really seems that it was originally done for looks more than as a conscious choice or experiment for tonal character.
There's some chance my memory is a bit fuzzy, and it might have actually been Wayne, but I'm pretty certain it was David - and I'm sure that like myself, many of you are quite thankful!
-Bob
