Just got back from a visit to the mothership with my son so that he could get to see, touch, and play his college graduation present ? a chocolate quilted maple Further. The look on his face when Mary walked out of the office, introduced herself to us, and then stated, ?So I hear you come to see your guitar,? was priceless. While the original plan of having Mica give us a full tour and then end up in the finishing room with a guitar to hand to him didn?t quite play out, the folks at Alembic did an incredible job in getting his guitar ready so that it coincided with his graduation.
As for Mica, what can I say?other than...the greatest. An in-depth 3-hour plus, personal tour of the process of building a guitar really opened my eyes to the art that goes in to this process at Alembic. All I can say is that I could never even fathom purchasing a bass other than from the folks in Santa Rosa. We ended our visit with my son getting about an hour to play his instrument while Mica and I discussed everything from the qualities of mid- and short-scale basses and the evolution of alembic body shapes, to the differences I might hear between a Koa and a Buckeye Burl Standard (hey, a father can?t have his son outdoing him in both talent and equipment, and though I can?t reduce the difference between us in the former, the latter is possible). At one point during our discussion, the music ceased, and when Mica and I looked at my son, he was caressing his guitar with a look in his eyes that I last saw when he introduced me to his girlfriend.
