A Masterpiece!

The Grateful Egg Custom Tribute

Unfinished wood for Gregg's custom Tribute

When Gregg came by Alembic in February 2004, he stayed and visited for an extended time. Susan watched and listened as he played a Tribute guitar in our showroom. Anyone could see it was love at first sight. He knew he would own one, but wanted to add something with special meaning to his Tribute.

Gregg's family business got its start in 1948 with his grandmother's egg ranch. This was the inspiration for his requested design to have inlays that would be cool, classy and Jerry-esque, reflecting his family roots without being tacky or detracting from the instrument in any way. Gregg wanted a chicken or egg motif, and after seeing just the initial concept sketch, he gave us the go-ahead.

Gregg was involved while the guitar evolved.  The instrument when viewed as a whole shows balance between the medallion and the fingerboard inlays, both utilizing the same materials and each featuring a "Deadish" flair. Since Alembic's roots are firmly anchored in our early association with the Grateful Dead, it's only natural that we present the Grateful Egg guitar and introduce the Little Dead Rooster to you.

Original concept sketch

Little Dead Rooster line art

It's hard to imagine that a Little Dead Rooster could be so full of life, but somehow Susan's artistry gave this guy a personality and an animated stance. Even those of us that were skeptical about the initial idea, had to admit this guy found a away into each of our hearts. We really love this one! LDR's skeleton is mother of pearl. When Mike was cutting out the individual bones, he temporarily mounted them on an Ebony slab for safekeeping. You don't want to put that puzzle together again! He also asked Susan if he could change the beak and toes to golden mother of pearl - she said, "sounds good to me." The grass under LDR's feet is laminated abalone. The egg is an exceptionally vibrant piece of mother of pearl. Around LDR's neck is a 14K gold necklace with a silver lightning bolt medallion. The red and blue are custom cast acrylic with intense color. The comb and rose are inlaid in the same acrylic. For the stem and leaves of the rose, we used a malachite colored acrylic.

Inlays in process

The bones are all cut, but just loosely laid out on an Ebony board. They are not in their finished arrangement. The toes are in yellow mother-of-pearl.
 

Rose inlays

Medallion with finish

Rough sketch of eggs for fingerboard

The egg and grass area of the medallion inlay

Inlays not yet "laid"

Fingerboard hatchlings

The "hatchlings" are just too cute. Gregg wanted a series of eggs up the fingerboard, and they look very natural considering the usual inlays are ovals. Each piece of mother of pearl was carefully selected and hand-cut (no lasers here). It's hard to appreciate unless you see it in person, but many of the eggs have a 3D appearance owing to the artful selection of material. Starting at the 24th fret, GR.EGG is carved from a single large chunk of mother of pearl. It has to be thicker than usual since it spans the width of the board, and the curve of the fingerboard must be considered. To cut the letters, Mike drills a starting point in each letter then completely cuts the letter out through and through with a fine jeweler's saw. Before the piece is inlaid, a mirror image of the art is visible from the back. This means that even if the guitar is later refretted, none of the detail will be lost. There are also a few puns embedded, GR.EGG can be many things... Grateful egg, Gregg's Egg, or just Gregg. Notice that the tiny egg at the 22nd fret is just starting to crack, and that crack grows and grows until just the little tip of the wing peeks out at the 7th fret. By the 5th fret, he's nearly hatched and by the 3rd fret, our little friend is ready to greet his new day, complete with his very own Captain Trips hat.

24th fret in mother of pearl

Peghead laminations

From the side, the peghead laminations are:

• Ebony
• Maple
• Purpleheart
• Maple core pack
• Purpleheart
• Maple
• Coco Bolo

Wood backplates

Never miss an opportunity to preserve precious wood. Continuous wood backplates may add to the price, but anyone that has enjoyed this feature on their own custom agrees they are worth it.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Tribute 6-string guitar
• Carved Coco Bolo top
• Western Flame Maple core
• Vermilion accent laminates with Maple pinstripes
• Coco Bolo back
• Continuous wood backplates
• Side LEDs in red
• Inlaid silver logo with shell
• Western Flame Maple, Purpleheart and Cherry set neck
• Custom medallion inlay "Little Dead Rooster"
• Custom hatching eggs fingerboard inlay
• Custom GR.EGG 24-5 inlay
• Polyester gloss finish with satin neck feel