Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: Yarr on March 20, 2024, 05:12:50 PM
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Stubled upon this beast for sale on a Russian classifieds site, never even knew those exist.
Not that it's a terribly good price or a blindingly good idea to go after, considering the location, but still, here it is (https://www.avito.ru/vladivostok/muzykalnye_instrumenty/fernandes_fab_fag_alembic_dvoynaya_gitara_3980425789).
Judging by the tape labels, I think it's this very same bass from this thread on Tokai forums (https://www.tokaiforum.com/threads/insane-thru-neck-double-neck-fernandes.26202/), original ebay listing is long dead, but it has better pics and a longer description including some flaws (that may or may not have been fixed since then).
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My back hurts just looking at it, but I still like it!
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Thanks for posting that! I'm a fan of doublenecks - even have one myself - this looks very cool! What's with that paper (?) on the necks? Fun visiting that site you found with the old listing!
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Thanks for posting that! I'm a fan of doublenecks - even have one myself - this looks very cool! What's with that paper (?) on the necks? Fun visiting that site you found with the old listing!
Enjoy! The newspaper is probably just packaging to protect the frets? I got no other ideas. The writing on it is definitely hieroglyphic, so looks like it was used by original seller back then. So annoying to see it still there. And the controls cheat sheet as well.
My back hurts just looking at it, but I still like it!
There's a headless graphite Status Mark King coming, to balance this behemoth out.
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That looks really cool, but I promised myself not to buy another double neck unless the guitar is on top. I had a Steinberger for a while (guitar on bottom). I had recently acquired a set of original Moog Taurus pedals and had this fantasy that I would learn a bunch of old Genesis, but that never materialized and I sold it. There's a Shergold 12/4 on Reverb that's been tempting me.
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That looks really cool, but I promised myself not to buy another double neck unless the guitar is on top. I had a Steinberger for a while (guitar on bottom). I had recently acquired a set of original Moog Taurus pedals and had this fantasy that I would learn a bunch of old Genesis, but that never materialized and I sold it. There's a Shergold 12/4 on Reverb that's been tempting me.
Yea, I feel you, bass and guitar are already ergonomically ghoulish istruments as is, and this layout looks nerly prohibitive for the fingerstyle bassist. That Shergold looks neat, I'm honestly still in awe of the string trees on the thing, didn't see those before. I never saw myself using a doubleneck since I observed Steve Howe just using a stand mount for the second guitar, and that was even before spinal issues, but they are suck a sight to behold when done right! There's a very nice 1970s Hoyer (https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/vintage-double-neck-gitarre-von-hoyer-12-string-und-4er-bass/2699444764-74-5608) in Germany right now, if you'd prefer being tempted with a fairly cheaper thing.
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Here’s my 6/12 Doubleneck:
Bill, tgo
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/blob:https://club.alembicguitars.com/0c405947-1e95-408c-bd7a-e3b3e98acf8d)
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Hoyers are so interesting.
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That's a beauty Bill!
I know the name Hoyer, but I'm not familiar with them at all. Looks decent at least.
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Bill, I am working on one like yours now. I am going to use it for Tom Petty songs in a cover band after swapping out the pickups.
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Yup, David, same guitar. Cort, (and their more rare sister label "Targa"), made some really sweet Alembic-like instruments back in the day. Does yours have the onboard preamp between the bridges? Mine has the switch and LED, but no preamp. (I believe they came with and without). Someday when I have the time I plan on building a Blaster and mounting it there.
Bill, tgo
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No, it was extensively rewired and I have yet to trace it out. No case either. If you know what the wiring was supposed to be or any more info I would love to hear it.
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I should have time this weekend to crack mine open and take some pics if you think that would help. I suspect it's stock, or close to it.
Bill, tgo
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I would be eternally grateful. I pulled the pickups on mine yesterday. One original and 3 aftermarket. It's one huge goose to work on and it has miles of well done non-stock wiring.
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BTW, I want to share an extremely helpful trick to use when stringing a double neck (or any electric guitar). Especially a Cort, which has a poor design where both string ball ends share the same through-the-body back side ferrule.
To help get the 2nd string in, (this is also an especially handy trick when reusing old strings on any electric guitar) insert the straight end (may be bent some if reusing the string) of the string into the plastic spray tube pulled from a can of WD40 or something similar. A hemostat is a handy tool here to help the inserting and some close up glasses or eye ware if you are older like me. Then you can push the tube up through the ferrule from the back of the guitar and carefully grab it from the front above the bridge and tug the string up and out.
The hemostat is also useful in inserting the string into the tuner.
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Bill, is that a Lado I also see in your photo?
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Well, creating a living dead thread, I am now the happy owner of the double neck in the original post. Getting it from Finland to the US was interesting as US Tax IDs are required multiple times on goods over $2500... So I guess I'll have to bulk up my identity monitoring/protection... Strange world...
Anyhoo- Spending the day setting it up I must say that the build quality is very close to my Distillates. The major difference is the necks are single rod each. Very nice playability.
I did read from a previous sale that one of the pickups on the six string might be dodgy. So I'll have to tear into that at some point if it's still a problem.
What's interesting is the power supply is 100v so I'll have to use a step-down transformer (I have one because of my love of late '70s Victor turntables...).
So now the bass/guitar is stateside :-)
Cheers!
StillLurkinAbout...
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Congratulations!
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Yep - wow, that is a rare instrument indeed! I have both the guitar and bass version, but now I'm trying to imagine them stuck together as a doubleneck... :o Wow
I wonder if it's the only one ever made? Maybe no way to know, but there can't be that many.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
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Wow, I totally forgot about this thread. Answering belatedly, yes, David, that's a Lado in the photo. Have since sold it. As for the Cort double-neck, would you still like a pic of the wiring?
Bill, tgo
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Thanks Bill, but I completely rewired the thing after putting replacement pickups in it. BTW, it sounds amazing!
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Did you include an on-board preamp?
Bill, tgo
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No but I did some other interesting stuff.
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Here is a San Fran listing for another Cort 1982 double neck, The listing says Rick Turner worked for Cort back in the day, but I don't know about that.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/d/pleasanton-1982-cort-doubleneck/7904135273.html
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Here is a San Fran listing for another Cort 1982 double neck, The listing says Rick Turner worked for Cort back in the day, but I don't know about that.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/d/pleasanton-1982-cort-doubleneck/7904135273.html (https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/d/pleasanton-1982-cort-doubleneck/7904135273.html)
Never heard that one either. I do know he was working with PGM Japan (Professional Guitar Manufacturers) on some level of organization about this time. A couple of his guitars and basses have shown up with necks stamped PGM. It's a little bit tough to ask him now. It wouldn't surprise me... Zoowicky needed a new gig.
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Well, I always told my students "Wikipedia is not a source!" - but.......
As it's the only "source" on this I have at hand, I took a look. The "Career" section of Rick's page mentions Alembic, his eponymous company, Westwood Music, and Highlander Musical Audio - but the only other company they credit him with time at is President of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division, '88-'92.
My guess is that he "designed guitars for" Cort in the sense that that is a copy of an Alembic........
Peter