Ron and Susan Wickersham founded Alembic, Inc. in 1969. Originally, it was conceived as a consulting firm that worked closely with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and other bands to help improve the quality of their sound systems and live recordings. Rick Turner also joined the company in that first year, becoming a shareholder in 1970.

Ron Wickersham and Rick Turner designed low-impedance pickups and electronics with greater bandwidth than the high-impedance pickups typical in electric guitars and basses of the time. To boost the low output of these pickups, Wickersham designed an active onboard preamp. In 1969, the first active electronics designed by Alembic were installed in instruments owned by Phil Lesh, Jack Casady, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia. These were the first true active electronics to be installed in musical instruments. (UK manufacturer Burns introduced active tone controls on its TR2 bass in the '60s, although without the low impedance pickups essential to modern active electronics.)