About AlEmbiC

We started in 1969 with a simple idea to improve the quality of live music recordings. What began as the consulting team of Ron and Susan Wickersham turned into a lifelong obsession with this seemingly simple idea and grew into the custom guitars and basses we make today.

56 years later we're still in our Rohnert Park shop, handmaking everything like we always have. Every Alembic is built one at a time by our small team of craftsmen who have dedicated their lives to this endeavor.

We make everything we can in-house. All woodworking and design, inlay, finish, pickup winding, and electronics manufacturing are all done in our one location. Ron Wickersham invented active electronics, and the improvement in sound was so vast we have never looked back. Stanley Clarke, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Greg Lake, and Mark King aren't just famous musicians. They are co-conspirators whose input and observations helped to shape what Alembic has become.

We don’t mass-produce. We don’t cut corners. What we do build are instruments meant to withstand the rigors of touring and that will still be here in a hundred years.

If you’re here, you probably already know that an Alembic isn’t just another guitar or bass. It’s an extension of who you are both in the studio and on stage. It’s the clearest, most responsive voice you’ll ever plug in. And when you finally hold one in your hands, you’ll understand why some players say they’ll never play anything else.

Welcome to the family.