Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: Songdog on November 18, 2021, 04:17:55 PM
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A beautiful bass on Reverb:
Alembic Series 1 1978 Figured Walnut $8,364.26 + $246.01 Shipping (Reverb)
https://reverb.com/item/46952298-alembic-series-1-1978-figured-walnut
This is my dream bass: small body, 30.75" scale, Series electronics. Do I have to wake up? It's a wee bit over my budget, and in the UK, I'm in the US :(
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Nice. The tuners say '78, but the bridge says '77 or earlier.
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Oh, that's interesting. I'm striving to increase my Alembic knowledge, can you educate me about the difference between '77 and '78 bridges?
Does Alembic typically have well-defined boundaries between model years? Or are they a little like another American instrument manufacturer (hint: starts with R), who have over the years had a habit of using up old parts while also building basses with the new, revised parts?
I probably should be asking these questions (and maybe doing more research) in a topic in a different section. Which one?
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That bass has a bridge style which ended mid year 1977. Look at the bridge of another 1978 or newer Series 1 and see the difference in bridge construct. The tuner screw is mostly on the bottom, not the side on pre-1978 basses. Look at this 1978 bridge: https://reverb.com/item/6753703-alembic-series-1-medium-scale-omega-cut-1978
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Oh, that's interesting. I'm striving to increase my Alembic knowledge, can you educate me about the difference between '77 and '78 bridges?
Does Alembic typically have well-defined boundaries between model years? Or are they a little like another American instrument manufacturer (hint: starts with R), who have over the years had a habit of using up old parts while also building basses with the new, revised parts?
I probably should be asking these questions (and maybe doing more research) in a topic in a different section. Which one?
This section is as good as any. ;D
Your question about model years is easily answered: that's never been the Alembic way. A large part of the instruments are bespoke pieces, but the hardware is mostly in the base design of the period. On the 1970s instruments you see changes in the hardware as its design moves forward (single to dual truss rods, the U channel bridge gets replaced with the rails based design, the adjustable nut starts around 1981,... ) and as the tuners are not built in-house you will see the effect of Schaller changing their design (the ears on the Gotohs changed sometme in the 1990s.). Finally, some instruments take longer to finish, so some features may appear to be out of date.
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That bass is about 1/2 hr from me so if anyone is seriously considering buying it, have a chat with the seller and if they will let me look at it for you. I will pop over and have a look.
I have a 1980 one and at that price it is not of interest to me personally.
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I do not believe that there are well defined boundaries of when certain features officially stopped or started. I am pretty sure that if you want a channel type bridge or 1 truss rod, they will happily create that for you.
If I am not mistaken some time in the 90's they made a run of 'retro' instruments for the Japanese market with single truss rods and channel bridges.
Michael
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Michael is correct that we will still make a channel type bridge, but we really prefer not to! To make them perform well they take a ton of labor. The Retro ones we made for Japan did have a channel mount, but they were a hybrid because they had an intonation screw and a stabilization pin - the channel was decorative and performed no bracing function.
Single truss rods are okay too - but there are some instances where we have to decline that.
Michael is also correct that there are no firm boundaries when one styling ends and another begins, you can't pin it down to a certain serial number when something changes.
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Thanks for all the answers! I looked at a similar but newer bass (https://club.alembicguitars.com/index.php?topic=23287.0) and the difference in the bridge is obvious. I see why the old one is called a "channel" bridge. And given the way Alembics are individually hand-crafted rather than mass-produced in batches, it's easy to understand a very fuzzy boundary between "model years".
I have a 1980 one and at that price it is not of interest to me personally.
I get the impression that on Reverb some sellers ask "crazy prices" - as in "if anyone is crazy enough to pay this much, I'll gladly accept it."
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Let's not forget the "one-in one-out" agreement with "senior management" that some musicians have at home, so they may be overpricing the one they have to offload hoping it won't sell so they can keep both. Yes I am very cynical :-)
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Another thing to keep in mind is that some 70s era Alembics have had parts such as bridge, tailpiece, and nut replaced with newer versions over time.
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Wondering how this figured walnut looks so different from my Signature Deluxe. So much lighter and truly a different color.
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Is there something about this bridge style (from the listed Alembic in the OP) that is less desirable or less reliable than later bridges? I too have been shopping for Series 1 short scales so this one is on my radar too but I'm struggling with the asking price. Alembics are like bitcoin, when you first learn about them you want it but the price seems high. When you're finally ready to pull the trigger, the price is even higher and you find yourself wishing you pulled the trigger initially! I'm happy with my Spoiler but I want a Series 1.
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.....this one is on my radar too but I'm struggling with the asking price.
making an offer is free. the worst that can happen is the guy can tell ya to go jump in a lake. or if he's like a certain j@ck@a$$ i dealt with on ebay, ban ya from bidding on his auctions. in which case he can go jump in a lake.
imho of course, ymmv, etc. and so forth
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Is there something about this bridge style (from the listed Alembic in the OP) that is less desirable or less reliable than later bridges? I too have been shopping for Series 1 short scales so this one is on my radar too but I'm struggling with the asking price. Alembics are like bitcoin, when you first learn about them you want it but the price seems high. When you're finally ready to pull the trigger, the price is even higher and you find yourself wishing you pulled the trigger initially! I'm happy with my Spoiler but I want a Series 1.
The newer bridge style is more robust in holding the string saddle in position and holding intonation. If I was looking for an early instrument I would not let a channel bridge stop me from buying.
The bass in this listing is in the UK. That price doesn't seem unreasonable for Europe but IMO is high for the US. The listing doesn't state if the electronics have been upgraded or not. If not the bass might be susceptible modern RF interference. The upgrade would be another decent chunk of change added to the cost not to mention lost use while it is in the shop.
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For some people the channel bridge is more desirable because of the vintage nature. Personal taste for sure.
Brian asked about the Walnut top - I'm not entirely sure this is Walnut. And while Walnut does get a good bit lighter over time, this doesn't quite look the part to me though wood can be very trixy! My guess would be Narra, also considering the age of the bass. But this a mutant piece of wood, grain directions all over the place, a pithy branch on the edge. The shape of the flames is more like Eastern Maple but it's so much darker than the neck wood so it's not Maple. Could even be Myrtle. and it *could* be Walnut. Wood is funny like that!
Also consider that the finish has yellowed a good deal, so you only have the difference in color on the bass to consider, I won't match other examples.
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Just out of interest, would it be possible to switch the channel bridge for a later bridge or are the dimensions and routing so different that it's not straightforward? Also, could the tailpiece easily be moved further away from the bridge?