Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: dela217 on December 07, 2018, 06:45:11 AM
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I stumbled across this one on Instagram this morning. It looks like it was posted a couple of years ago from the Arlington, TX guitar show. If I were there I would have bought it on the spot! Very pretty. Anyone know this one? I am crazy about this zebrawood. Looks like a maple core. I suspect that it is a 1975.
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I know nothing about it but the grain pattern looks great with the aging.
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That’s lovely!
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Wow, that’s freaking beautiful!! :)
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I need it.
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I need it.
You have my blessing to go for it assuming you can locate and convince the current owner to part with it. ;D
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Having spent a fair amount of time myself over in the Series Showcase Threads, I gotta' think Michael and Rob have to be at the top of any list of guys to judge any Alembic beauty contest. One of you two definitely needs it! ;D
(I do too, but priorities man... ::) )
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Well after some deep internet searching. I found the bass. Now the hard part is convincing the owner to part with it. I am sure that won't happen. But the worst thing about it is that it may as well be on Jupiter or something. The bass that was sold in Arlington, Tx now lives in Japan.
I am curious about what happened around that era when they were making these basses. It seems that there were several made just like it that were quite similar. That bass, (which I do not know the serial number of) is almost an exact duplicate of 75-217. Same woods with a zebrawood front and a koa back and maple core. And yes, that bass is what started my search for Alembics and my username to this site! If you look in the showcase at 75-215 you will see that the bass was made again, but the top and back woods were switched. Even the grain pattern is the same on the koa with the two bookmatched dark spots. And Poor Nigel's old bass 75-219 is another one. Although that one has a zebra top with a zebra back with that same grain pattern on the top. It is as though Alembic used consecutive cuts of zebrawood for these basses as all the wood matches.
By the way there are 2 basses made with the serial number of 75-219. And you guessed it, same zebrawood pattern. On the duplicate serial number that I know about, the zebrawood matches the grain pattern of Poor Nigel's old bass but the top and back grains are switched. That one was sold new here in New Orleans and now lives in South Carolina.
So this bass in Japan could be 218? 220? I really would love to know.
I know, silly stuff.
Michael
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Here are the pics of the top and back from the Arlington guitar show. You can compare it with Poor Nigel's 75-215 in the showcase.
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I have noticed this before too Michael, and the only thing I can attribute it to is that by 1975 or so, they were trying to build in batches more to get production numbers up, and they did though it took a couple more years to see that happen on a larger scale. You can build 6 or 8 basses just alike in about the same time as it takes to build 1, if you're tooled up properly. It also creates opportunity to goof with duplicate serial numbers when you have nearly identical twins in front of you to stamp a number into. Just my guess.
But I'm right with ya' on the minutiae'... you have a very sharp eye, and a keen memory for the numbers. I've memorized a good many of the first 200 myself. ;)
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I have read that somewhere around that time they had signed a distribution deal with L. D. Heater, a Norland subsidiary.
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Yep,
Sn215 sure looks pretty in my living room. ;)
Had her about 6 years now? Real acoustic/ woody sounding.
Unlike my other classic sounding Alembics.
That Bass posted is Stunning! Good luck on your quest Michael!
Here's the 215 post
Pete
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8357.0
Wow! Those pictures are a mirror image of my Bass!
Do you know the SN? Cool!!!!!
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Michael, I'll sell you mine!