Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: hasadari on March 18, 2006, 02:34:23 PM

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: hasadari on March 18, 2006, 02:34:23 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-Essence-nice-natural-no-reserve_W0QQitemZ7399996904QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: hydrargyrum on March 20, 2006, 06:49:27 AM

Hmm,
 
This claims to be a mahogany body with a neck of maple and walnut, but I think they are mistaken.  Looks like possibly an ash body, and definitely no walnut lams.

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: adriaan on March 20, 2006, 06:59:47 AM

Looks like an all-maple one to me, perhaps the body is ash - never in the world mahogany.

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: bigredbass on March 20, 2006, 06:33:34 PM

Ash, for sure, and when did Mica say they began adding the pinstripes?  Seems like a nice axe, I like the 'white' woods.  The Ash wings would sure save you some wight vs. all maple.
 
J o e y

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: bassjigga on March 22, 2006, 09:08:57 AM

Looks like maple to me too.

Title: Essence 4 on eBay
Post by: David Houck on March 22, 2006, 05:27:13 PM

Hmmm ... I'm thinking it might not be a '99.
- First, if you take the front body pic and play with it some, focusing on the truss rod cover, it looks to me like the first two digits are 90; which would of course mean that it's a '90.
- Second, look at the placement of the controls.  The early Essence basses had a longer body; and the controls were located beside the bridge.  On the later models, the body is shorter, the bridge is closer to the end of the body, and the controls end up being more beside the pickup than the bridge.
- Third, the rest of the serial number looks like it might be something like 6239; which would place it in 1990.
- Fourth, as already established, the listing states that this bass has a Mahogany body, which it clearly does not.  It has been my observation that many if not most 1990 Essence basses had Maple bodies.
- Fifth, as already established, the listing states that the neck has Walnut pinstripes, which just don't look like they are there; and it's been my observation that early Essence basses did not have Walnut pinstripes.
 
I could be wrong.  I'm squinting at the serial number on the truss rod cover; it's not easily read.  And the bass is sitting in a case, which makes it hard to tell just how far the bridge is from the end of the body.  But my guess is that it's a '90 with a Maple body and Maple neck.