Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: paulman on August 03, 2018, 08:35:02 AM

Title: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: paulman on August 03, 2018, 08:35:02 AM: Rolling through YouTube I came across an Eric Johnson performance from 1975. Bass player is using an Alembic umm...Brown Bass? I had no idea Eric was even a player in 1975!
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: Philip-M-Bass on August 03, 2018, 08:58:09 AM: Very Cool , Thanks !
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: adriaan on August 03, 2018, 09:43:04 AM: Confusing opening sequence where you hear Stanley's recording of Lopsy Lu (played on either the Brown Bass, or the one before it that got stolen). Kyle Brock is playing what must be a 74 or 75 small body Series I, with what appears to be a maple neck with darker laminates, where a Brown Bass would have a mainly mahogany neck with no maple.
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: hieronymous on August 03, 2018, 11:35:17 AM: The fingerboard is interesting too - rosewood perhaps?

Thanks for sharing this - I heard about them while reading guitar magazines in the late 80s/early 90s but never got to check them out. Very Mahavishnu/Return to Forever
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: gearhed289 on August 03, 2018, 02:42:42 PM: You guys notice the "strap extension" running toward the headstock? Interesting way to combat neck dive!
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: rv_bass on August 03, 2018, 03:27:07 PM: Looks like a series bass, it has a hum cancelling pickup in the middle
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: adriaan on August 03, 2018, 07:32:10 PM: Quote from: rv_bass on August 03, 2018, 03:27:07 PM
Looks like a series bass, it has a hum cancelling pickup in the middle
Before the Distillate came around, all Alembics were Series instruments. On the earliest ones, the humcanceller would be stuck in the electronics cavity, and there would be a battery cavity between the pickups.
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: keith_h on August 04, 2018, 05:58:01 AM: It's hard for me to tell for sure but it looks like one of the elusive long scale small body basses.
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: mavnet on August 04, 2018, 06:28:07 AM: I've got 2 of those elusive basses (fretted and fretless), and the proportions on his look pretty much the same. Nice catch!
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: gtrguy on August 04, 2018, 10:35:17 AM: Neck Dive!!!
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: keith_h on August 04, 2018, 03:28:18 PM: Quote from: mavnet on August 04, 2018, 06:28:07 AM
I've got 2 of those elusive basses (fretted and fretless), and the proportions on his look pretty much the same. Nice catch!

The Steve Fossen bass is a long scale fretless as well. I thought member Mike Delacerda owns/owned one or two LS small bodies as well. I talked to him about the longer neck when I was planning my Series 1 as had concerns about reaching the low frets. In the end I decided to stick with a short scale due to not having the longest arms in the world and have been happy with that decision.
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: mario_farufyno on August 05, 2018, 04:42:06 AM: Great playing
Title: Re: Alembic Sighting - 1975
Post by: David Houck on August 05, 2018, 07:32:17 PM: Back in the mid to late 70's, the Electromagnets would come through Chapel Hill from time to time to play the Town Hall bar. We were big fans, as we were of the Dregs. Saw them again in '79 in Phoenix where they were opening for Roy Buchanan. Then at some point Eric Johnson became the Eric Johnson.