Alembic started in 1969 when Ron and Susan Wickersham met at Pacific Recording Studio in San Mateo, California, where Ron was creating the first multi-track mixing console and Susan had been hired to paint a lighting controller At the time, Ron’s main job was design engineering at Ampex, with audio recording being a side interest. He eventually left to fully dedicate his efforts to the emerging field of multi-track recording.

Together, Ron and Susan formed Alembic and started working with the Grateful Dead, a band known for their interest in enhancing the quality of their sound. Alembic then relocated to Novato, where they shared office and rehearsal space with the Dead.

During this time, Alembic helped the Dead keep their gear in shape for both road and studio performances, specializing in electronics. Ron Wickersham even invented the now widely used active guitar electronics and installed them in Phil Lesh’s EB bass. Mica explained:

He thought he was just solving a problem for one person, but he ended up making active electronics a thing. So, if you ever need to put a battery in a guitar, you can thank my dad. He did it first.

Additionally, Alembic began to work on live recording, believing it to be the best way to capture the true essence and electricity of the music. Notable live recordings include the Grateful Dead’s Live/Dead and Europe 72 albums. Alembic was also hired to provide the sound system and record the soundtrack for the infamous 1969 Altamont concert, which was filmed by the Maysles Brothers and featured artists like The Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, and The Jefferson Airplane.

Alembic moved to San Francisco in 1970, continuing to focus on customizing guitars and refining their electronics package. Additionally, the company’s live recording and PA work became a significant part of their business during this period. Ron Wickersham also served as chief engineer for the Grateful Dead’s legendary Wall of Sound sound-system.

We asked Mica to explain how a guitar gets designed and built at Alembic:

Everything starts with a pencil here. And not just because I’m talking to Blackwing—it’s how we’ve always done it. When we design a custom shape, we’re gonna put pencil to paper. If we’re doing custom inlays, my mom and I always start with pencil on paper. Even when my mom is selecting where we actually place the templates for where we’re gonna cut out the top wood, she’s gonna mark that with a pencil.

We use machine tools and hand tools. We have band saws for cutting the wood out. We do all of our clamping by hand. We had a CNC [Computer Numerical Control] machine before any of the large guitar companies did. And it wasn’t to make a lot of guitars, but to make them more precisely.

We use it to make the slots on the fingerboard for where the frets go, especially for making custom scale lengths. That machine, her name is Nancy. Everything is custom to her, she doesn’t know the difference between a standard and a custom fingerboard. But, each one is slotted precisely. So if somebody needs a 33-inch scale, we can make that and we don’t even charge extra for it because we set up our whole shop to believe that ‘custom is normal.’

By 1971, Alembic had a state-of-the-art 16-track recording studio in San Francisco, a customizing business for guitars and PA equipment, and a small music store. The studio saw many famous artists such as Stephen Stills, Jerry Garcia, Santana, Gordon Lightfoot, Hot Tuna and even the San Francisco Symphony.

Throughout the 70s, Alembic continued to innovate and expand. In 1973, they began manufacturing a standard high-end instrument, marking the advent of an entirely new genre in instrument building. In 1974, they left San Francisco for Sonoma County. By 1976 electronics engineering and instrument production were consolidated in one facility in Cotati, CA. In 1976 they began producing the first graphite-neck basses and guitars, first played by John McVie, John Entwistle, and Stanley Clarke, who acquired his first Alembic bass in 1973.

As a custom shop, Alembic has always been attentive to the specific needs of its customers. The business has adapted over the years, but remains true to its original purpose:

Our purpose is to make finely-crafted tools for people who need them. As long as there are musicians who need to express their ideas, we’ll be building them guitars.

Learn more at the Alembic website.

The post A Conversation with Alembic, Legendary Custom Guitar Shop appeared first on Blackwing.

Garcia’s journey into visual arts began at a young age and was nurtured at the San Francisco Art Institute, but his focus shifted to music after a life-changing car accident in 1961. Despite this shift, Garcia never abandoned his passion for visual art. Much like his approach to music, Garcia’s art was characterized by spontaneity, playfulness, and a spirit of exploration. His preferred mediums were watercolors and ink, both of which allowed him to express his creativity freely and directly.

In his watercolors, Garcia’s use of vibrant shapes and saturated colors created pieces that radiated warmth and vitality. His landscapes, often representing sky, earth, and water, conveyed a rich and generous spirit. Garcia also favored the immediacy of ink, a medium that leaves no room for corrections. His ink works, characterized by brief, lively strokes, demonstrated his talent for creating powerful art with minimal elements.

Garcia’s visual art was influenced by Picasso, Ernst, Klee, Van Gogh, and the Expressionists, yet his work was undoubtedly his own. He filled sketchbooks with notes and drawings, creating pieces that were light-hearted and uninhibited. “A line on paper is like a note in the air,” he once said. Once it’s out there, there’s no taking it back. Garcia’s secret, apparently, was to just keep creating.

“A line on paper is like a note in the air.” —Jerry Garcia

Despite his modesty about his visual art—Garcia once quipped, “I hope no one takes them too seriously”—his work began to gain recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, Garcia’s visual art is part of several major public and private collections, testament to his enduring artistic legacy.

Blackwing Volume 710 is our tribute to Jerry Garcia and his fusion of visual and musical expression. A slice of his painting “Curves & Lines” is printed on each pencil, which features our soft graphite that is ideal for both drawing and songwriting.

Learn more about the Blackwing Vol. 710 Collection

The post Like a Note in the Air: The Visual Art of Jerry Garcia appeared first on Blackwing.

Growing up amidst the vibrant arts scene of San Francisco, Garcia was exposed to a wide array of music, from the soulful rhythm of blues to the experimental melodies of West Coast jazz and early psychedelic rock. This eclectic mix of influences seeped into his own imagination, helping to shape the distinctive sound of the Grateful Dead—a sound that would come to define an entire era of American music.

Garcia’s house at 710 Ashbury Street marked the heart of the enlightenment and expression that pulsed through the city. It also fueled Jerry’s profound exploration into painting and visual arts, marked by the same spirit of experimentation that characterized California’s counterculture movement of the day.

Throughout his career, Garcia and the Grateful Dead played countless gigs across California. They were a quintessential part of the San Francisco sound, a psychedelic movement that emerged in the mid-1960s. The band frequently performed at iconic venues such as the Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom, venues that were the beating heart of San Francisco’s thriving music scene. Their legendary “Farewell Concert” held at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1974 is still remembered as one of the defining moments of their career.

Garcia also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a landmark event in California that is often considered the beginning of the so-called “Summer of Love.” This social phenomenon converged at San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood—Garcia’s stomping ground—and spread a culture of hippie music, hallucinogenic drugs, and anti-war sentiment along California’s west coast and beyond. Above all, the Summer of Love was about “exploration,” said Bob Weir, fellow guitarist for the Grateful Dead, about “finding new ways of expression, being aware of one’s existence.”

Garcia’s impact on the California music scene is hard to overstate, even as he became a global star. Along with the other members of the Grateful Dead, he played a pivotal role in defining the sound and ethos of the countercultural movement. Garcia’s innovative blend of rock, folk, bluegrass, and experimental music, coupled with his commitment to communal values and artistic freedom, left an indelible mark on the California music scene and beyond.

Blackwing Volume 710 is our tribute to Jerry Garcia and his fusion of visual and musical expression. A slice of his painting “Curves & Lines” is printed on each pencil, which features our soft graphite that is ideal for both drawing and songwriting.

Learn more about the Blackwing Vol. 710 Collection

The post Jerry Garcia’s California Roots appeared first on Blackwing.