I am happy.  As expected, Diamond-Eyed Jack arrived Friday afternoon!  It had been on the local UPS truck since 8:20 AM, but didn’t get to my house until 6:27 PM.  Opening that case for the first time, the long wait seems negligible, and certainly worth it.    It truly is the finest instrument I’ve ever had the privilege to play.  The feel, the sound, the build quality, the attention to detail – they have all surpassed my expectations (and those were quite high).  I’ve been spending the last few days making some fine adjustments to the string height and intonation, as well as just getting used to playing this exceptional guitar.

Among the many things the folks at Alembic excel at is listening to their customers.  They stayed true to my vision and intensions, and made fabulous suggestions along the way.  A great effort was made to ensure everything was just exactly perfect upon arrival.

I can never adequately thank them for building this masterpiece.  The best I can do is play it as best I can, and make sure they get plenty of pictures and recordings to remind them of our journey together.

The long journey to Nanuet may have come to an end, but this surely won’t be the last post to this blog.  I will be posting a detailed photo gallery (by the way, Jason – we need to do a photo shoot – soon), complete specifications, thoughts on the guitar as I get to know it better, and whatever else I feel might be interesting and pertinent.

This guitar is without question an appropriate and inspiring tribute to Dad.  It has all the right materials, quality, precision, and is a fine example of  the “doing things the right way” ethos he so valued.

Thank you for coming with me on this adventure.  I hope you all stay on the bus for a while… it’s going to be quite a trip!

A wonderful day for a guitar to be born, indeed!  Alembic assigns all their guitars a “birthday” the day they leave their shop and begin the journey to their new homes.

Could it have been scripted any better that today is the day for mine?  Yes – on what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 70th birthday, Diamond-Eyed Jack is now on it’s way home.  It doesn’t get much better than that – it really doesn’t.

So here for the first time, is a picture of the COMPLETED guitar!  The gold-plated knobs, Ebony pickup selector cap, and black mini toggles are now in place.  Also, there are two custom made Coco Bolo MIDI scroll buttons, which look really smart.  If you look closely, you can see the beautiful custom Coco Bolo oval connector plate that houses the 13-pin Roland connector, and that the pickups are now housed in plain black casings.  Amazingly – but not surprisingly – a vision almost four years in the making is now a reality.

It has been 1,302 days since I first contacted Alembic about building my guitar.  I’m not one to buy into the idea of divine intervention, but If you would have told me that TODAY would be the day it would finally ship… well let’s just say I didn’t see that one coming.

1,302 is also the number of days between my birthday ( in 2009, the year I ordered my guitar) and December 21, 2012, the day the Mayan calendar ends, and all hell breaks loose.  More than likely just a coincidence, but just in case, I better get to playing this thing soon… got to be ready for that great gig in the sky!