Michael Dolan Custom Red Trans

Michael Dolan has been building custom basses and guitars in Sonoma County, California since 1977. As a former employee of Alembic he learned the craft of fine instrument design and construction. He now brings that knowledge of top-of-the-line craftsmanship to his own line of custom made boutique guitars.

We love this instrument, and almost want to put next to the Alembics in the museum. To us it looks like Mr. Dolan took the traditional principles of Alembic design, put them through a Picasso blender and came out with an angular reflection of Alembic-like curves. We think the curvy parts, including the cowlick point are actually improved, but at least modernized with elegance. Meanwhile, we've never seen a guitar that combines straight edges and curves so successfully. (You might think we're violating our anti-hype principle, but consider that we're art majors of one sort or another. So design at this level means a lot to us.)
Nice digression, but back to guitar land...
Tonally, you get crunch from the bridge, and clarity from the neck. There are hints of Garcia in the highs, a more articulate Les Paul with both pickups, and stellar humbucker purity when only on the bridge.
The neck is five piece straight through so think sustain like an Alembic, medium dimensions, pretty quick, but also relaxed. The burled top is just gorgeous under the deep red stain, hard to photo, but we think we captured it pretty well.
Condition is nice for an older guitar. Some wear. An occasional very minor ding which we tried to capture in the detailed pix.

All in, a unique, generational and creative piece by an excellent builder and designer. And it's a great player.
She came in without a case, but out of respect, we'll ship her in a gig bag.