July 1999

Sweet Sea Dreams

You can tell from first glance this is a special guitar. If the bloodwood top wasn't a giveaway, the fabulous sea-faring mammals inlaid up the rosewood fingerboard might be a tip-off. From the first fret:
  • Humpback Whale
  • Killer Whale
  • Pacific Right Whale
  • Sperm Whale
  • Ball Porpoise
  • Common Dolphin
  • Right Whale Dolphin
  • Susu (Ganges River Dolphin)
  • Lesser Rorquel
  • Narwhal
  • Blue Whale
And on the peghead, a silver porpoise with an abalone skeleton.

We recently refinished this guitar. The original polyurethane finish yellowed and made the strawberry-red color of the bloodwood look brown. With a fresh clear polyester finish, the guitar is now restored to its original beauty.

Henry's Guitar The day this guitar was born back in 1975
inside horn In this detail photo of the inside lower horn, you can see the triple veneer accent laminates.
The tailpiece of this guitar is actually a sheet of solid sterling silver over a shim of ebony. The only wood screws on an Alembic anchor the strap holders and the tailpiece. shim tailpiece
pegehad front The porpoise is cut from a sheet of sterling silver with a delicate inlay of its skeleton in abalone. The front veneer of the peghead is coco bolo. See the solid sterling silver nut? It is one of the few non-adjustable nuts found on an Alembic.
The back veneer of the peghead is lacewood. pegehad back
backpaltes Henry hired an artist to embellish the solid silver backplates with extremely detailed silver carvings. This modification is not included with the specifications listed below. They sure are beautiful.
Here's those inlays one more time...
inlay 1 inlay 2 inlay 3 inlay 4

SPECIFICATIONS

  • 6-string custom Series II guitar
  • Bloodwood top and back
  • Purpleheart, Maple and Walnut neck
  • 25.50 scale
  • Vermilion Core
  • Standard Omega body shape with softly rounded horns
  • Rosewood fingerboard with custom inlays
  • Sterling silver bound fingerboard
  • Solid Sterling silver backplates, later modifed
  • Red side LEDs
  • Silverplated brass hardware
  • Shim-stlye tailpiece
  • SC-1G pickups with silver binding around HX
  • Series II electronics with "Mellow Filters"

Price available on request

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