Last week I was on vacation in California starting at The Mothership, then driving up the Pacific Coast Hiway seeing sights along the way. We made a stop in Carmel By The Sea & I saw on the map that there was a vintage guitar store in town, so I decided to stop in & see what they had. To my great surprise they have a custom Alembic guitar that was built for Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers! The guitar was built around '73/74, but I couldn't find a serial number, so it may have been a one of a kind custom hand made by Rick Turner that had no serial number. Mica can probably shed more light on the origins, but they did have a letter from Rick Turner talking about the build & in it he says there would be no record at Alembic of this guitar. on the same letter there is a hand written note from Dickey Betts telling how he got the guitar & what he did with it. The binding around the guitar is all brass & the headstock doesn't look like any Alembic I've ever seen, but it does have the Alembic logo. It is a Series I guitar & the owner of the shop said he has the DS5 & cable & that everything works on it. Currently the guitar is not for sale, but he said if he did ever sell it he would ask around $30K. The shop is Rumble Seat Music in Carmel. Their number is 831-293-8299 if you want to call & ask about the guitar. They have a nice selection of guitars & basses, so I recommend checking them out if you are ever in Carmel.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great that you got to see this guitar in person; and great pics too!
 
Roger posted a couple of threads on this guitar a few years ago; here and here.

Thanks for the history lesson. Very interesting story.

The 2nd pic in the 1st thread Dave links is in Gregg's autobiography (Dickie showing me his Alembic guitar); nice to see more of it!  (An Alembic with the TRC on the headstock!  I wonder how few of those there are.)
 
Peter
 
(Message edited by coZmik_cowboy on July 07, 2014)

Awesome find Rusty!
Thanks for sharing the pics and info.
She is a beauty.

Great looking guitar, something I'd imagine Bill tgo would like the look of too. Did you get a chance to plug and play?
That mushroom on the back of the headstock looks familiar for some reason. I must have seen it on another guitar or logo.

The mushroom is an Allman Brothers logo.

Thanks for the links Dave. I figured there was probably something on here about the guitar, but at least we know who the current owner is now & where it can be seen if anyone happens to be in Carmel.

Jazzyvee, I did not plug the guitar in, but I did play it a little. The action was a little high by Alembic standards, but it played very well!

Correction on the binding, I was told by the shop owner that it was brass, but according to Roger it is sterling silver. The finish has yellowed so it looks like brass now.

That's beautiful, Rusty. Thanks for sharing the pics and the story. Very interesting.

Looks good on you, Rusty. I say you go back and snap it up. You don't have to tell the wife, it will be our secret.

Thanks Edwin, but my wife was nice enough to let me have a custom Europa being built now, so I'm not going to push my luck!

Rusty, thanks for this cool thread! Man, that guitar looks REALLY good on you.  Next time I'm in Carmel for the Pebble Beach Concours I'll make it a point to swing by, myself...

Glad you liked it Sam!