Greetings from Chicago.
This board is really nostalgic for me.  I was in a college band and we modeled ourselves on the Dead, including their singing, unfortunately.  They played at our college strike in NYC in 68 and we all fell hard.
Then we all moved to Seattle in 1972 and when we heard about Alembic, we drove down.  Our Seattle friend went to college with Steven Smith, who was working there.
I bought a sort of breadboard six-string that they said they used to try out things.  It had beautiful wood but it was an unplayable shape, a tiny violin body and a monstrously long neck.  No fancy electronics and so hard to hold I doubt I played it more than a couple hours.  I didn't even put an upper strap peg on it.
Here's a picture on my facebook page:
http://tinyurl.com/6n6n2v6
It's in storage in NYC but I'll see if I can dig up some photos of it.  After surfing this board, I miss it!
Cordially,
Doug

Welcome and thanks for posting.
 
Very cool , An Alembic Peanut Guitar!

Oops, I thought I replied but I came back and it wasn't there.
Aha, is that the official name for the shape?
I googled peanut alembic and there were some pix with a bigger lower bout.  Are they all peanuts?
 
Thanks for the reply in any case.  See you around the club.
Cordially,
Doug

Doug, really cool picture! Thanks for sharing!Here's the picture for those who can't get to Facebook at work, like me!
 

Sweet looking guitar.  Museum piece or wall art?   Really cool picture.
 
Stephen
 
(Message edited by TNcaveman on July 16, 2012)

The picture is by a wonderful guy, Jerry Davis, photographer and friend in Seattle at the time, now living on Bainbridge Island.

A couple pix:
|

Oh well, I guess I can't post pix from my browser.  Sorry.
Here are some on Tumblr:
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/dougvanderhoof

Your Tumbler page asks for login info...

Wha...?  I...that is.
Oh wait...
Sorry, Rusty.
http://dougvanderhoof.tumblr.com/
Hulk not like think.  Hurt Hulk head.

OOooooOOOhh...love the back marquetry and hammered brass.  
 Braindamage..I mean Bainbridge is a good place to be. (except for all the lightning recently..wow )
 
Thanks for the extra pics...can't wait to see a new one with You, and number Five, with six strings again.  
 Do you still have the red Guild acoustic?
 
cheers

Thanks Doug! You have an amazing piece of history!

Hi Doug,  Nice old piece ! I found the Factory picture from "Rolling Stone" Sep. 27 73'.

 Please look right side !

  It looks like your # 5 !  Eiji

Wow, good eye, Elji!
You know, since I wrote that first post, I've been thinking that we didn't go down there so soon after we got to Seattle on July 4, 1972.  It may have been a year later.  I do remember the weather was nice.  I can't think why my memories of that whole era aren't clearer.  Must have been something in the air.
That does really look like mine. I didn't have the faintest memory of Steve (Steven?) Smith, except his name.  He was the friend of my friend Dennis Harrington, who went to Evergreen with him.
Maybe a decade ago I got in touch with a nice woman at Alembic whose name I've forgotten, and she recognized Steve Smith's name.
Has anyone ever seen another peanut with that small lower bout?  I haven't but I'm not immersed in Alembic lore like y'all.
And Elwood, yes I still have the Guild Acoustic D-25 Cherry, but it's been put out to pasture.  Warm thanks for the bit of shared nostalgia.  Ahhh.

One more impression of the workshop:  It didn't seem drenched in psychedelia.  I don't know what we expected but I remember being impressed about how it looked like a serious enterprise, not a hobby farm for people who were constantly seeing sounds and hearing colors.
Did anyone else see Tarot, the entertainment in NYC?  I think we were expecting something more like that.