April 2003 Plum Pudding Paul didn't know when he was curating a guitar show at a Sonoma museum that one of the guitars in the collection would inspire him to have his own custom Alembic built. That guitar was the Bloodwood Guitar , and its influence is reflected in every major part of this instrument.

	Since the guitar that inspired this one was made in the mid-seventies, Paul chose a more softly carved point than we use today to evoke the vintage vibe. Series I guitars from our early era did not have accent laminates, but we decided to use veneers of Maple as accents on this instrument because as the Vermilion and Purpleheart age, the contrast will lessen. We felt the thicker 1/8 inch accent laminates we typically use for this body shape would compete for attention with the already bold contrast of the Maple and Purpleheart neck, and the thin veneer looks so sharp.

	The central feature of this guitar is the Purpleheart, used throughout the instrument. The neck is straight grained, but the body front and back are nicely flame figured with a large amount of dance when moved. We made the facing veneers of the peghead from the same piece of Flame Purpleheart. A guest in our shop while this guitar was under construction noted that the side of the peghead was a shock to him - it looked like a negative of what he's used to on his Flame Maple Series II.

	An early decision was to keep the brass hardware without plating. The polished brass hardware is in keeping with design consideration for a vintage feel.

	While Paul was selcting the top and back for this guitar, he saw the fingerboard Yahya chose for the March Featured Custom and made the decision to forgo the inlays and use the streaked Ebony fingerboard. The fingerboard dimensions are a replica of the wide spacing on the Bloodwood guitar.

	Even before he ordered this guitar, Paul knew his next guitar would use these custom machine heads. He procured them from the maker, Rodgers Tuning Machines in England. The machines are truly beautiful, and their clean design looks great with the classic Alembic Crown peghead. We decided to not use the Alembic script on this guitar.

	Peghead	Peghead lams	Machine head	Side	Point	Entire guitar

SPECIFICATIONS 6-string Series I guitar Flame Purpleheart top and back Soft Point body carving Vermilion core Purpleheart and Maple neck Continuous Wood battery plate Vermilion Wood backplates Streak Ebony fingerboard Ebony button Rodgers machine heads Price available on request.

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