Well bust my buttons. Didn?t think that I?d ever see this beauty again. As paexplorer requested in his original post, here?s a wee bit of odd history regarding 74-55.
I owned this guitar for a few years in the early 1980?s. At the time I was building and repairing instruments in New York City, and one of my customers, Scott Hamilton, a fine young jazz player needed to sell it as he had just arranged to purchase a new guitar from Jimmy D?Aquisto. Though my main focus was on building flat top steel string guitars, I?d have been extremely foolish to ignore the electric guitar market if I wanted to stay in business, so took the opportunity to purchase 74-55, and for a few years I had the pleasure of playing and examining her, and using what I learned when I began building solid body instruments. In fact, the first bass that I made had woodwork that was directly inspired by this guitar, but I used Bartolini electronics in lieu of Alembic Series 1 parts.
While I was confident in asking for good money for my building and repair services, I?ve never felt that my playing was ever worth paying to hear. Thusly, when I?d gleaned what lessons that 74-55 had to offer me, I sold her to another, more worthy musician. At that time, she was the only Alembic that I?d ever seen with 6 tuners on a side, and I never thought that I?d see one with an identical phallus shaped headstock. Then, a few months after I sold 74-55, Carlos Alomar called me to inquire as to wether I could refret his Alembic guitar, and repair his blue box. I was more than a bit surprised to open his case and see a virtual twin to the lovely instrument that I?d previously owned and appreciated so well. If I get the time, perhaps I?ll go rooting around and see if I can?t uncover my copy of his receipt from about 30 years ago, and try and find that guitars? serial number.
