Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Serial Number / History Requests => Topic started by: tx196059 on November 19, 2016, 12:31:51 PM
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Hey Mica, I know you are busy, but when you get a chance could you check out my Series I. It should be a tribute to the longevity of Alembics. It looks and shines like a new bass. I am sure it has been to the mothership, because no way a 40 year old guitar can look this good. Thanks a million!
Joe
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Beautiful Bass!
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Beautiful bass! I wonder why the pickups are that cool color?
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Wow I like it!
Looks like it might be from "the Zebrawood" log?
The nut also looks like it might have been replaced with it being adjustable.
I love these old Basses, I have SN#215
Best wishes,
Pete
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Beautiful bass! I wonder why the pickups are that cool color?
Those are the old caramel colored pickups from that era. They are nice looking aren't they?
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My bass, which is 15 units away from this one, has black pickups.
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Oh my, that's purdy!!!!
Peter
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With all the shiny bits sparkly, it does look like it has been refurbished and refinished. As well as the nut, the tailpeice is also a more modern version that you would expect from a1976 bass. I would also expect if it's been back for a refurb at alembic there is a good chance it has the noise cancelling system upgrade. If you are unaware of that, it's worth knowing that some of the older series basses can pick up modern electronic interference that wasn't around back in the 70's and if you can't cancel it out using the humcancelling procedure you might need that done back at base.
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I've been in shock for two days... Golly, what a fine bass.
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Thanks Guys. And some interesting points made. So I checked under the hood, and not really sure if any changes were made. Cheers!
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It looks like someone installed the inserts for the cover plate. Mine is a later '76 that does not have them.
Further evidence of a visit to the Mothership?
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Agree that the tailpiece looks like it was replaced. When I took my 78 Series up to Santa Rosa earlier this year to have a master volume installed they put the inserts in for the back cover plate so I suspect those were not original on this bass either. Nice looking instrument!
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It certainly has the correct old style looking molex connectors for the pickups. It is a great looking bass!
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Beautiful bass! I wonder why the pickups are that cool color?
Those are the old caramel colored pickups from that era. They are nice looking aren't they?
They are nice looking and great sounding!
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I think the fingerboard could have been replaced too. There are 2 truss rods!
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So I didn't find a file for this bass, just an index card, so the information is scant, and I think a little inaccurate from what is in the photos. Here's what the card says:
top and back: Zebra
core: Cherry
neck: Maple and Walnut
peghead veneers: Walnut
fretboard: Ebony and mother of pearl
sold to: LDH
But, that center laminate on the neck sure looks like Cherry to me. The two truss rods looks unusual to me too - can we see a closeup of the truss rod area? The tailpiece is certainly a decades newer than the bass. While I don't have a record of the repairs, that doesn't mean we didn't work on it, but since these are paper files, things do get misfiled and misplaced from time to time. For now I don't know if we did the rework or not.
The file says mother of pearl inlays, and these are paua abalone, so I think we can call the fingerboard a replacement, and probably those 2 truss rods along with it. I'll keep my eye out for any repair records for this bass.
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Whatever the story turns out, that is a beautiful instrument. Wow. :o
I'm curious of one other detail... the pickups look like the older brown or caramel-colored ones, but they clearly are the next generation version with four mounting holes made for the concealed height adjustment screw. ??? Maybe/probably it's nothing more than incidental, but all the brown pickups I've seen were the kind with wings, made to be mounted with two screws.
Definitely extra points for brown pickups though! ;D
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This is the one that was at Lark Street (you beat me to it!) :) Maybe they have contact info for the previous owner who might be able to provide more information about work done on the bass. Very nice looking bass!
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Yes, I got this one from Lark Street. The owner or manager of Lark Street was selling this one and an Essence 6 (00 K 12399) for a friend. I ended up with both, as the owner was moving to Florida that weekend, and offered great terms for the sale of both. The story on these two basses were that they were both sent back to the mothership. They were used as rentals of sorts, for acts performing in the New York area. I guess with the new CITES agreement, we will see more of that from foreign acts. I have seen someone from Lark Street post on the club before, so any more info would be appreciated. Here are pictures of the truss rods, and close ups of the wood recipe. Whether the work was done by Alembic or someone else, they did a fantastic job, as they both look new. Thanks!
Joe