Building an Alembic style guitar

blazer · Post by **blazer** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:21 pm

Last week I got myself a couple of Bodyhalves from a former luthier and I'm now making them into guitar and bass bodies. In one of them I declared my love for Alembic.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0181.jpg
This is my selfbuilt double neck, made using those bodyhalves I just mentioned. I love the style of that double neck so I decided to stick with it.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0223.jpg
The rough bodies in a row, at the time I took this picture I had just glued them together.
From left to right:
Body 1. maple sides with a meranti mid section, destined to get the full BC Rich treatment with ten strings, dimarzio pickups and varitone.
Body 2. All maple, the ugly duckling from the bunch, so far I haven't got any ideas on what I'll do with this one.
Body 3. Same as body 1, this one will get strat pickups and a whammy bar.
Body 4. Padouc sides with a maple midsection. Definately the best of the bunch

This thread will be about that last body in the line up. Here what it looked like when I just glued it together. I sawed out the point very roughly.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0225.jpg

Today I did a lot of work on that body, I planed the whole thing, carved the point more neatly and sanded the whole thing smooth, now it's ready for the neck pocket routing and the pickup cavities.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0235.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0236.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0237.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/100_0238.jpg

My Initial plan was to make it a bass but the mid section is too short, so I'll turn it into a guitar instead.

squirefan01 · Post by **squirefan01** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:40 am

Looks great! Keep us posted on the progress. I love my Alembic...

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:21 am

Looks gorgeous.
Wish I could do that.

I still haven’t pulled the trigger on a new 32” scale bass yet, and would love to design my own.

mgauction · Post by **mgauction** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:35 am

I am also a fan of Alembics. Wouter. I was at the factory last year in northern California and got a tour! Keep us posted with your progress!

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:29 pm

Shari and I were there this past May.