| Author | Message | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 1 Registered: 7-2012 |
Greetings from Chicago. This board is really nostalgic for me. I was in a college band and we modeled ourselves on the Dead, including their singing, unfortunately. They played at our college strike in NYC in 68 and we all fell hard. Then we all moved to Seattle in 1972 and when we heard about Alembic, we drove down. Our Seattle friend went to college with Steven Smith, who was working there. I bought a sort of breadboard six-string that they said they used to try out things. It had beautiful wood but it was an unplayable shape, a tiny violin body and a monstrously long neck. No fancy electronics and so hard to hold I doubt I played it more than a couple hours. I didn't even put an upper strap peg on it. Here's a picture on my facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/6n6n2v6 It's in storage in NYC but I'll see if I can dig up some photos of it. After surfing this board, I miss it! Cordially, Doug | ||
| sonicus
Senior Member Username: sonicus Post Number: 2560 Registered: 5-2009 |
Welcome and thanks for posting. Very cool , An Alembic Peanut Guitar! | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 2 Registered: 7-2012 |
Oops, I thought I replied but I came back and it wasn't there. Aha, is that the official name for the shape? I googled peanut alembic and there were some pix with a bigger lower bout. Are they all peanuts? Thanks for the reply in any case. See you around the club. Cordially, Doug | ||
| rustyg61
Senior Member Username: rustyg61 Post Number: 643 Registered: 2-2011 |
Doug, really cool picture! Thanks for sharing!Here's the picture for those who can't get to Facebook at work, like me!  | ||
| tncaveman
Intermediate Member Username: tncaveman Post Number: 111 Registered: 2-2011 |
Sweet looking guitar. Museum piece or wall art? Really cool picture. Stephen (Message edited by TNcaveman on July 16, 2012) | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 4 Registered: 7-2012 |
The picture is by a wonderful guy, Jerry Davis, photographer and friend in Seattle at the time, now living on Bainbridge Island. | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 5 Registered: 7-2012 |
A couple pix:  | | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 6 Registered: 7-2012 |
Oh well, I guess I can't post pix from my browser. Sorry. Here are some on Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/dougvanderhoof | ||
| rustyg61
Senior Member Username: rustyg61 Post Number: 644 Registered: 2-2011 |
Your Tumbler page asks for login info... | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 7 Registered: 7-2012 |
Wha...? I...that is. Oh wait... Sorry, Rusty. http://dougvanderhoof.tumblr.com/ Hulk not like think. Hurt Hulk head. | ||
| elwoodblue
Senior Member Username: elwoodblue Post Number: 1424 Registered: 6-2002 |
OOooooOOOhh...love the back marquetry and hammered brass. Braindamage..I mean Bainbridge is a good place to be. (except for all the lightning recently..wow ) Thanks for the extra pics...can't wait to see a new one with You, and number Five, with six strings again. Do you still have the red Guild acoustic? cheers | ||
| rustyg61
Senior Member Username: rustyg61 Post Number: 648 Registered: 2-2011 |
Thanks Doug! You have an amazing piece of history! | ||
| room037
Senior Member Username: room037 Post Number: 461 Registered: 9-2003 |
Hi Doug, Nice old piece ! I found the Factory picture from "Rolling Stone" Sep. 27 73'.  Please look right side !  It looks like your # 5 ! Eiji | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 8 Registered: 7-2012 |
Wow, good eye, Elji! You know, since I wrote that first post, I've been thinking that we didn't go down there so soon after we got to Seattle on July 4, 1972. It may have been a year later. I do remember the weather was nice. I can't think why my memories of that whole era aren't clearer. Must have been something in the air. That does really look like mine. I didn't have the faintest memory of Steve (Steven?) Smith, except his name. He was the friend of my friend Dennis Harrington, who went to Evergreen with him. Maybe a decade ago I got in touch with a nice woman at Alembic whose name I've forgotten, and she recognized Steve Smith's name. Has anyone ever seen another peanut with that small lower bout? I haven't but I'm not immersed in Alembic lore like y'all. And Elwood, yes I still have the Guild Acoustic D-25 Cherry, but it's been put out to pasture. Warm thanks for the bit of shared nostalgia. Ahhh. | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 9 Registered: 7-2012 |
One more impression of the workshop: It didn't seem drenched in psychedelia. I don't know what we expected but I remember being impressed about how it looked like a serious enterprise, not a hobby farm for people who were constantly seeing sounds and hearing colors. Did anyone else see Tarot, the entertainment in NYC? I think we were expecting something more like that. | ||
| edwin
Senior Member Username: edwin Post Number: 1227 Registered: 5-2002 |
Now wait a minute. My wife sees sounds and hears colors (and smells them both) and has made a career out of it and has a very serious enterprise. Please don't give synesthesia a bad name! :-) Hippies have gotten a bad rap. Most of the people I know who I would consider hippies work a heck of a lot harder than the straight people I know. I don't know who all the great unwashed are who get called hippies, but they give the rest of us a bad name. | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 7814 Registered: 6-2000 |
I have this picture, but I don't know the source:  Where are those two strings?!  | ||
| terryc
Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1914 Registered: 11-2004 |
Nice TEAC 4 track in the pic too | ||
| dougv
New Username: dougv Post Number: 10 Registered: 7-2012 |
Mica, sorry about that. I was trying to post pictures and my first tries went into some parallel dimension. I guess you have contacts there. | ||
| tbrannon
Senior Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 1520 Registered: 11-2004 |
Doug, Mica is Mica Wickersham. Daughter of Ron and Susan Wickersham. She as a few connections at Alembic | ||
| jzstephan
Intermediate Member Username: jzstephan Post Number: 104 Registered: 1-2012 |
He meant connections in a parallel dimension. Its true. Part of the Wickersham DNA. | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 7817 Registered: 6-2000 |
I just had that picture on my hard disk for several years. I didn't keep track of where I got it. These aren't quite the same as on your link. Did you ever email me about this guitar? These "peanut" guitars as we call them were an idea of Bear's to have a completely minimalist guitar. The experiment as you know, wasn't successful as something that is fun to play. I really love the Bird's-eye Maple top on your guitar. Looks just great! | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 7818 Registered: 6-2000 |
Oh, and I can neither confirm nor deny the parallel dimension connections. | ||
| dougv
Junior Username: dougv Post Number: 11 Registered: 7-2012 |
Mica, That's the same blue bedsheet from the same shoot! Yes, I think I got ahold of (I guess the woman was you) you some years ago and you remembered Steve Smith from the workshop at the time. I think I had called Alembic and was on the phone with you briefly and then I guess I sent you the picture. Thanks for the bit of history. I didn't know it was a Bear idea. I guess that giant brain always a lot going on, huh? Cordially, Dv |
