Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: mb94952 on March 22, 2020, 10:25:34 AM
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Seems nice, but I'm no expert.
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/ALEMBIC/Vintage-1976-SERIES-I-Electric-Bass-Guitar.gc?rNtt=alembic&index=4 (https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/ALEMBIC/Vintage-1976-SERIES-I-Electric-Bass-Guitar.gc?rNtt=alembic&index=4)
(https://i.imgur.com/L6uOYad.png)
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Updated logo pickups, non-original master volume knob, extra strap button hole, chewed up peghead. Medium scale?
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I didn't know any of those things. Like I said, I'm not an expert and wouldn't even consider buying it because I can't afford it and it's not my cup of tea, but I'm glad you're educating those who may be interested and are also not experts.
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The updated pickups may indicate that this bass has had the electronics upgrade to deal with RF noise. While the master volume is not original I consider that an "added value". I have never seen a black power supply before. For some reason the overview does not mention the master volume.
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The added Master Volume knob might be just the larger size, but still correct. All 4 knobs on my '77 are this size, I just didn't realize the difference until I saw them next to the next-size smaller ones. (or maybe all 4 of mine were replaced?) The logo looks right for a '76... hand-cut silver. Those phase out (of regular use) sometime in early-mid '77 replaced by a cast bronze with more surface detail. (hand-cut silver logos are still available as a Custom option, and so-help-me, my next Alembic will have one)
Right on about the pickups Keith, those are too new. And what the ham-sammich happened to that headstock?! It looks to be all there though. If someone can strike a deal that bass needs some lovin'.
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Could the master volume be original? 73-43 has a master volume, but then they were not common on 76 basses. Very nice, bass!
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edwardofhuncote, that peghead action is puzzling, for sure; kind of a dichotomy. The top on that bass looks pretty nice. This bass has the newer version nut, too. Looking closely at the peghead, the fitment of the newer adjustable nut is only ballpark--not too well done. Someone also added a truss rod cover (missing)--the holes for it are seen.
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I think it has an adjustable nut too, so perhaps some work was done at the mothership?
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I don't know what the beginnings of Master Volume as an option were, but just for trivia's sake, #73-27 didn't come with one. Someone, (I'm guessing McVie) had it added pretty early on, and it appears again on his '76 Custom Series I with the stainless steel fingerboard, as well as the '76 graphite-necked small-body he had. That Penguin & Porpoise bass with the crazy electronics has what must be a Master Volume too. No idea when that one came through the shop. Total mystery.
I bet it's one of those little extra things that they would always do for you, and sometimes it was noted in a file, and sometimes not. I would definitely consider it an upgrade as long as it's done properly.
If we knew the serial number, it'd be fun to look this one up Keith. I bet you're right. It may have been back home for service and gotten some of these newer parts.
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The answers are here gentlemen... this is #76-564.
Showcase Thread- http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8395.0
Serial Number lookup- indicates she has indeed been back to the Mothership. http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=5572.msg63466#msg63466
The hard part is forgetting stuff I really need to remember.
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It's a long scale. When I first saw this bass my radar went up; I felt that this could be a really good sounding bass---the owner in the link about this bass said it sounded incredible. Not surprised. It has the maple/purpleheart/beech neck recipe like my '77-624 MSB. My bass sounds incredible, too; I attribute it to the neck woods. My 100+ year old German carved bass has a beech neck/ebony board and sounds great, too.
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Quite the detective E of H! :)
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The serial number lookup link states:
scale: 34 long
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We gotta' get 621 & 624 together sometime Keith. Mine has that exact same neck layup and of course is medium-scale too. They had to be made/finished literally days apart.
Oddly, or rather coincidentally, my German upright (gig bass) has a beech neck too, but I think it's more common on European instruments.
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Interesting.. 621/624 have the original feature set that changed soon in '77: single truss with no cover, channel bridge, silver logo. Jerry Buffa of Lemur (RIP) had my upright bass on his bench putting in a Full Circle a few years ago. He finished the install and put my bass out on the floor in the racks with his other great basses. I picked it up a few days later and he said he couldn't keep customers from trying to buy it! He found the beech neck to be not that common. My bass is a very manageable 40.5 mensure. It was played so much that the fingerboard was too thin and was replaced, and there was a deep valley in the back of the neck in thumb position. I had John Carruthers bring down the back of the neck so I would stop falling into the valley at thumb position! Even with the material removed its still a medium size neck. I'll tell you right now...that bass has a couple of ghosts in it! A very traveled bass. lol
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I really like the meaty tone of the channel bridges.
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Oooh, I'd like to see that sometime. I'll have to find our Upright Showcase thread and bump it back up.
So, if we find any takers for #76-564... that's a pretty unusual wood combination- top and back; Peroba Rosa, on a Koa core, new pickups in 1995, apparently a modern adjustable nut too. She needs some tlc, but don't they all?
*I'm not sure what the last channel-type bridge was, but #77-637 had one, and I think #77-640 probably did too. (no pictures, but the owner was having trouble breaking strings from squared-off saddles) There can't be many more after that. Lots of changes came that year. They had come a long way since #72-001 rolled out. Think about this a minute - by the end of 1978, just a year later, they had made another 624 instruments, and then some. That's a quantum leap for a guitar-maker, especially when you consider what they were building.
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That's a lot of instruments in one year! Hard work done at high level! Just another year at Alembic :)
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Either way, someone bought it already ! Must've been a really nice bass... Congrats to you !