At long last, the electronics compliment is complete.  Ron had been tweaking the circuitry design until it met his exacting standards, which is the only way things leave his shop.  This picture shows the final design, attached to the Maple template.  Using a 1-to-1 guide like this allows Ron to ensure that all the electronics will actually fit inside the guitar, with the wires thoughtfully cut and routed for a neat, orderly presentation.

Later today, James will transplant these electronics into the guitar.  Once onboard, the knobs and buttons will be installed, and the entire system will be tested and calibrated.

Today is the day the guitar makes its first sound.

These images are two of six I received while attending the Furthur concert in Brooklyn this past Friday.  As you can see, the guitar is basically done – pickups have been installed, the solid brass hardware has been mounted, and yes – we have strings!  There will be some small changes, though… Alembic installed pickup casings that have gold ‘ALEMBIC’ lettering on them, and I am swapping them out for black, unmarked casings.  Also, the black plastic pickup selector toggle cap will be replaced by a hand-cut piece of Ebony.

The only components that are missing outright are the Alembic electronics.  As of Friday night, Mica informed me that “Dad is still working away with the switching for the pickups, he’s trying to avoid adding another buffer to pull it off. He took a break this afternoon and will return to his bench this evening.”  I’ll be checking in with her later today to find out the status.  Either way, I think the electronics will be transplanted from the bench to the guitar sometime today.  Once that happens, the knobs, buttons, and switches will fill the holes on the front, and the guitar will be visually complete!