Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: rv_bass on June 12, 2021, 10:45:12 AM
-
https://reverb.com/item/41027120-alembic-spectrum-cocobolo (https://reverb.com/item/41027120-alembic-spectrum-cocobolo)
-
This one has Elan style body and headstock, very nice :-)
Edit: Not noted on the build sheet, standard would be Europa body and headstock for these.
-
I really like the look of that guitar, and the cocobolo with flamed maple and vermillion is amazing! :)
I would add a 3-position Q switch
-
Funny how suddenly there are a bunch of Alembic guitars 'out there'... or maybe we're just noticing them, like in a game of punch-buggy-red. ;D
*weird note; the more I play SuperTele, the less I use the third position of the Q-switch. I thought I would use it even more than my basses, but that turns out to not be the case. Maybe it will change with time and experience, but right now it's either off or in the center position. I do find that soloing the bridge pickup, dialing the filter down to about 25-30% open, running the volume up to 95%, then flicking the Q-switch to 3 is... uhhh... well. There just isn't anything else much like that. It becomes AngryTele. Just lost-his-butt-in-a-poker-game Tele. Yeah. That just isn't where I am right now. I don't regret the 3-position Q-switch, because more choice is a good thing, but it's just not usable stuff, at least not at my current level of play.
-
This guitar has been around for a while and it is so close to what I would want from a custom alembic guitar. Still saving my pennies
-
Jazzyvee, the one currently posted is new, the other one ypu might be referring to was used, but still very nice!
Greg, I can see the 3rd position on the Q useful for getting the ‘77 Estimated sound: 3rd Q position, roll off the filter, engage octave, whah, and reverb pedals, then smile, smile, smile :)
-
They're both close together, 2019 models. Here is the other one. https://reverb.com/item/33483221-alembic-spectrum
-
I use the middle position of the Q on my guitars most of the time. Every once in a while, while playing a song, I’ll notice my guitar sounds a little muffled or just isn’t cutting through the way I want. In those situations, I’ll quickly flip the switch to the 3rd, 9db setting, then go back and futz with the filter and/or amp after the song ends. Conversely, if I feel the guitar is a little bright once the song starts, I’ll switch the Q down and, again, regroup after the song.
This is a pretty guitar, but is that really the price these days for a non-Series, non-custom guitar? Wow! The second one, posted by Gregory in the above post is half the price.
Bill, tgo
-
Hard to dislike any instrument made with Cocobolo and this guitar is another fine example of why. All of the Alembic instruments I have seen for sale at Eddie's Guitars seem to be offered at full list price. They have had some beautiful instruments including Series basses and I think they are the only vendor in the USA that "stocks" Series instruments. If you want a new Series bass NOW the only way to get one without waiting for a custom build is probably Eddie's or Station Music In Germany. Both vendors tend to order really well spec'd instruments but of course they have to find a buyer who wants the exact same thing.
-
I wonder if 0, 3 and 6 would be more practical settings for guitar.
-
I wouldn’t want to change the Q settings to 0-3-6. I would, however, love to have the filter recalibrated. I find the usable portion of the filter for guitar is contained in only about 20-30% of the pot’s movement.
Bill, tgo
-
This one has Elan style body and headstock, very nice :-)
Edit: Not noted on the build sheet, standard would be Europa body and headstock for these.
Actually, this is the official Spectrum body shape. Originally the Spectrum had the same shape as the Europa bass. We made a custom Europa bass with a shorter upper horn and longer lower horn, and based on feedback from customers about the Spectrum, decided that the shorter upper horn would be perfect for this guitar. It places it in a more natural position for a guitar. We also like the California Special inline peghead with the new shape. There's probably only 3 other guitars in this shape as of now.
-
Okay Greg. Educate an unenlightened one about what you mean by the “game of punch- buggy-red.” I assume there’s a punch involved and it’s more likely to be one delivered with a fist 👊 than a metal tool, but not sure where the red part comes in or why one is punching.
-
Okay Greg. Educate an unenlightened one about what you mean by the “game of punch- buggy-red.” I assume there’s a punch involved and it’s more likely to be one delivered with a fist 👊 than a metal tool, but not sure where the red part comes in or why one is punching.
Well. It may be a longer story than I should hijack the thread for, but you asked for it. LOL ;D
I had this buddy in High School. We're still buddies, (guitar player) just separated by a continent these days. Actually tried his level-best to turn me onto the Dead in 1986-87. Anyway, on the way to school or carpool to work after school, the game was, whoever saw a red Volkswagen first hollered PUNCH-BUGGY RED!!!!! and... delivered hard punch - anywhere between shoulder and elbow was considered fair game. It's freakin' amazing how many red VW's there were around here, or maybe how many times we passed that same one. It's also amazing we never broke truce and killed each other. That's the condensed version of me and Shaggy Gleason, and punch-buggy-red.
"Shag" Gleason is about the most adventurous dude I know, and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest while (making a flippin' fortune) cleaning up the Exxon Valdez spill, spent two years working on a crab-boat in Alaska (making another flippin' fortune), came home and was a bartender with a degree in photography for a minute, then pulled 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. These days, he works for some power conglomerate disassembling decommissioned windfarms, still takes amazing photographs, and plays a wine-red Les Paul Studio. Way ahead of the curve. Yep. He thought pot was eventually gonna' be legalized 30 years ago, but he had the foresight to change the verbiage a little... de-criminalize, he said, that's the way you sell that. Occasionally, he emails his old buddy in Southwest Virginia to catch up.
-
Greg, taking a very brief hijack, legalization and decriminalization are not the same. Decriminalization reduces criminal penalties, (like from felony to misdemeanor). Legalization removes criminal penalties.
Bill, tgo
-
It's funny the dumb stuff I remember. Maybe during one of those valedictions, I should have encouraged Shag to devote more study time to law than photography. I should've just quit with the punch-buggy story.
I'm actually interested in the Q-switch values for guitars now, for a reason. I assumed they were the same as for bass. Maybe not? 0-3-6 on both my basses. (requested) but something tells me the usual values are 0-6-9 or 0-8 for Q.
-
Yes, the guitar Q is 0-6-9.
Bill, tgo
-
We were less selective; any punch buggy would get you a smack (or the right to deliver one), regardless of hue.
Peter
-
I'd forgotten all about punch buggies and no we weren't particular about the color.
-
When I was at school that game was called "Punch Car" and the phrase you had to use when you hit someone after seeing any coloured VW beetle was "Punch Car - No Return".
"No Return" meant the person you punched was not allowed to punch you back . In my experience that was always honoured.
-
... this is the official Spectrum body shape ... There's probably only 3 other guitars in this shape as of now.
I like it.