Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: LMiwa on August 15, 2008, 07:20:40 AM
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170249947082
Anyone know anything about this one?
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Hmmm.. looks like a standard Rogue in terms of the tailpiece, neck laminates and headstock, but the top looks to be Cocobolo or perhaps bocate. Also a big ? are the electronics. It's really hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like it has the standard excel/epic setup of vol, pan, bass, treble (no Q switch or filter).
6's don't come up very often, but I'd say that if it has the excel/epic electronics setup then the price might be a tad bit high. Lots of folks really love those electronics, but quite a few choose to upgrade and add a Q switch and filter instead.
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It seemed like a rather interesting combination. It's a custom instrument by the serial number, but the combination of a nice Rogue body and Epic electronics seems strange. Would someone really pay for (and wait for) a custom instrument to REMOVE features?
I was wondering if the top might be wenge like mine. Hard to tell from the picture.
But then it has the downgraded electronics. Unless it has a filter with variable Q? Is that even available on anything but a Series II?
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Indeed standard Essence or Rogue features, with Epic/Orion electronics, but also a Europa body.
People mix-and-match when they order a custom Alembic, and the quote generator used to be very generous - you could start with a Rogue and upgrade that to Signature features at a lower cost than a Signature. I think sanity prevailed there.
Some people prefer the comfort factor of a simple set of V+P+B+T controls - for them it's not really a downgrade.
It's highly unlikely that it's a filter with a continously variable Q: when I asked about that, they said it is offered only with Series electronics. Presumably they tried adding it to non-Series electronics, with a lot of trouble.
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It's very similar to my 5-string custom. Mine also has a C serial number. It started in the quote generator as an 5 string Epic and then upgraded to 36 scale, burl walnut top, and Rogue body shape.
I like the vol-pan-bass-treb set up. I have this and a Brown Bass
with the Anniversary electronics. I find that I have to work a lot
harder to find my sound with the BB than my Custom Rogue.
The v/p/b/t is a set-it-and-forget-it approach. It is easy to tweak
the sound on the fly if I want to bring out a little more bass or
treb. But the Anniversary elecs take some work in order to get the
tone I want. And once I find it, it's not easy to tweak without
radically altering the sound.
That said, I've thought hard about upgrading to East-meets-West for my
5-String. But, the primary reason for my doing so is the resale
value. I don't think that adding a filter and Q would add a
tremendous amount to my sound.