Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Showcase => Series I Basses and Guitars => Topic started by: OJ Dorson on May 25, 2021, 07:46:14 AM
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Hi folks... Mica suggested that everyone here would enjoy seeing this bass, and talking about it. I'm pretty in love with it. The buying experience was not great and I've already dropped it off for a complete re-fret (details below), but it is a beautiful Series I with a lot of custom choices that make it really interesting to me.
Here's what I know about it:
1984 Series I, 30.75" scale
Spoiler Body requested
Seven-piece neck requested (looks like Vermillion, to me)
Kahler tremolo bridge requested and installed by Alembic at build-time
(https://i.imgur.com/jXLXnLL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Wj7liCr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aSSFbFW.jpg)
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It was described as "Very good used condition" with only "minor nicks and dings on the bass as would be expected from a 34 year old instrument." The seller even went as far as to say "The frets are in great shape overall." Well, they weren't anything like "great shape"... They were all flattened, rather than crowned, and the ends were all chewed up. Worse, yet, there were gaps between the frets and the fingerboard as if all the frets were trying really hard to get out of this bass. When I got the bass unpacked (after leaving it in the case for a day to acclimate), there was really gnarly buzz everywhere above the 15th on the D and G strings, and those frets were really high out of the board.
I've dropped it off to Chicago's finest fret shop for a full re-fret with EVO Gold. I asked them to shift to a narrower fret above the 15th and they were happy to do so. I imagine my fingers will feel a little more room up there with the tight spacing. I was tempted to have this one Plek'd like I did to my '79 Ibanez Musician, but the Plek shop near me doesn't do the EVO Gold and I wanted this bass to enjoy some handcrafting love.
(https://i.imgur.com/JoYBdtI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/klbtd7j.jpg)
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No photos included in either of your posts. We would love to see your bass.
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Welcome! Is this your bass? Nice looking bass, certainly a unique custom! :)
I’ll bet it is fairly light for a Series bass and balances well. You must be psyched! :)
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i thought this looked familiar:
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=26022.0
beautiful bass. too bad your buying experience was less than pleasant. i've banned that particular seller from my approved vendor list for past antics.
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No photos included in either of your posts. We would love to see your bass.
@Hammer - can you refresh and let me know? Or anyone else? I'm seeing the pictures across three browser, private mode, and two computer (Mac and Windows).
Here's a link to the Google Sites page where the images are hosted: https://sites.google.com/thedorsons.com/alembic-s1-spoiler/home
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Welcome and congrats!
I'm not seeing pictures in your first two posts.
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i thought this looked familiar:
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=26022.0
beautiful bass. too bad your buying experience was less than pleasant. i've banned that particular seller from my approved vendor list for past antics.
It really is a beautiful bass. I'm not really sure whether I'll keep the tremolo... I'm not a very good bass player to begin with and might never use it. The old Kahler Bass tremolos were rumored to be able to be locked with a set-screw... I'll have to take a look at mine after getting it back from the re-fret and see if it does. If not, I'm going to look into shaping a thick brass plate to go in the hole below the Kahler, which I can then mount a proper Alembic bridge and tailpiece onto. I did speak with Mica and they'd have to spend some time with it to do it right, so maybe it's best to save up and bring it back to the mothership for a bridge install, electronics tuning, case made, and a DS-5. At the moment, it's really well balanced and sounds wonderful.
I'm really not sure where this seller gets all those incredible basses. If he'd described it honestly, I would've been happy to make a deal based on that because I think this bass is rather special. He also pictured the Boogieman power supply, but avoided mentioning it in the text and so I assumed it was a proper DS-5... he was definitely being dishonest about that (IMO), but my fault for not looking more closely. The frets, on the other hand, couldn't be seen and he should've mentioned them... anyone selling that many high-end basses knows the difference between well done fretwork and frets this bad. I think you're wise to have banned them. I'd already fallen in love with the bass...
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Welcome and congrats!
I'm not seeing pictures in your first two posts.
Thank you - I switched the images to Imgur and I think they're all working now. I hope they are.
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Yes, the pics are showing up now.
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Congratulations & Compliments! Too bad about the bad dealin', but glad you ended up here.
You're going to love those Evo gold frets. I have them in both of my Series basses, and an old Gibson F-5 mandolin too.
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Congratulations & Compliments! Too bad about the bad dealin', but glad you ended up here.
You're going to love those Evo gold frets. I have them in both of my Series basses, and an old Gibson F-5 mandolin too.
Thank you! What's the bass in your profile picture?
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Very cool bass. Curious who is doing the re-fret as I'm in the Chicago area.
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Very cool bass. Curious who is doing the re-fret as I'm in the Chicago area.
I'm having them done at Chicago Fretworks. This is my first time with them, but when I was looking into having my '79 Ibanez Musician re-fretted, I read some of their articles about the Plek vs. human artistry (https://www.chicagofretworks.com/2012/05/01/discussion-the-plek-machine/). I had the Ibanez' fingerboard completely resurfaced/planed with the Plek, new frets put in, then crowned/leveled with the Plek at The Music Gallery north of Chicago (https://musicgalleryinc.com/pages/plek-machine) - the work was amazing and that bass plays wonderfully now and I'd recommend a Plek to anyone. For this bass, though, I really wanted the EVO Gold frets and handcrafted artistry. The Music Gallery's website says they only do "Nickel Silver Frets ONLY, no Stainless Steel"... maybe they'll do EVO Gold, but I didn't ask because they wouldn't fulfill the handcrafted artistry part.
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Very nice looking bass other than those frets. It actually looks like someone filed them flat in the photo you posted.
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Thank you! What's the bass in your profile picture?
It's a Hyak, "Scroll" body fretless bass, made by a former Alembic employee. I won't clutter up your thread with too about much it, but here's a link to my Shop Thread. It's a very cool work-in-progress. https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=25569.0
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Thanks for the info, I'm not familiar with them. I had my Ric re-fretted at Third Coast about 10 years ago and they did an amazing job. I was told that the guy who did the work used to be at Tobias and had worked on Chris Squire's basses. Two years ago, I had my Guild 5 string re-fretted at Fat Cat in Elgin and he also did a beautiful job.
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Thank you! What's the bass in your profile picture?
It's a Hyak, "Scroll" body fretless bass, made by a former Alembic employee. I won't clutter up your thread with too about much it, but here's a link to my Shop Thread. It's a very cool work-in-progress. https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=25569.0
Thank you - it's beautiful!
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Very nice looking bass other than those frets. It actually looks like someone filed them flat in the photo you posted.
I agree - they look flattened on purpose... it's not from wear. Definitely should've been noted in the listing.
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Here are some photos after I had the fretwork redone. I asked for Jescar EVO gold and don't regret it a bit! I also asked for them to switch to thinner frets after the 15th fret and I think that's really brilliant on a short scale... I wish I'd asked them to switch after the 12th.
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And for those of you curious about the Kahler tremolo - here are pictures of its routing and everything. It has three heavy-duty springs and I've found it to be rock solid. And, a bonus picture of the little battery blanket I made of thin craft foam - I got it with paper towel wrapped around the batteries.
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Good Call on the EVO Gold... I think it looks sharp on an Alembic with gold and/or brass hardware. 8)
And there is nothing like a good setup after some new frets. Enjoy that cool Custom Spoiler.
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Nice!
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Yes, Mica was right, I'm loving this thread. Thanks for sharing.
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... If any of you have any questions , I will be happy to talk privately ...
(moderator's edit: this post was a copy of a post made to a related "seen on ebay" thread and can be referenced there as the moderators wish to keep this showcase focused on the instrument.)
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(At a member's request I have locked the "seen on ebay" thread related to this bass; however, I do not wish to lock a showcase thread since a showcase features a particular instrument or instruments and their owners. Those of you who would like for me to edit your posts so that this showcase is focused on a beautiful bass rather than animosity between members, please email to me the edits you would like for me to make. As a reminder, we do not remove posts or threads; but I'm happy to help clean up this showcase with a few edits if requested.)
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I've since moved this one along to its next caretaker for just what I had into it. I believe they're incredibly happy together, but I do miss the bass. I'm posting it's serial number (853115) here in this thread so that it's history can be more easily tracked.
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Super happy with this bass. I've been searching for this tone much of my adult life.
I am in awe. The tremolo adds a whole new dimension to playing the instrument, and it stays in tune quite well.
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Here is 853115 next to my 100% original 1975 Fender Precision. I'm a lucky man :)
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Happy story! Kahler really makes a fine trem unit.