Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: FC Bass on July 31, 2025, 05:24:07 PM
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Lowend is selling a Yamaha bass and claim it has been built by Alembic??: https://reverb.com/item/91298802-yamaha-alembic-4-string-bb1000
This is from their facebook post:
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Those aren’t even Alembic ovals on the frets.
Bill, tgo
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Indeed... He has plenty experience with Alembics, sold many and has a couple in the store now. (incl the SII Spoiler I had to sell) Yet he writes "Note the Alembic Inlays in the Ebony fingerboard!"
There are more pictures on the LowEnd Facebookpage, nothing resembling Alembic on those either: Bolt on, dark grey shielding paint (no Silver paint) Made in Japan on the neckplate...
https://www.facebook.com/share/1BunbniPex/
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Maybe made by the same person/company that made the Japanese Alembics?
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From the Alembic History - Long Version (http://www.alembic.com/family/history.html), under 1979, "Yamaha was our distributor for the Pacific Rim countries. They wanted to promote us in a very big way and so we signed a $990,000.00 contract with them, all based on the purchase of the Distillate bass and guitar. They were pretty fond of the F2B preamp as well and ordered hundreds of them.”
That's about the length and breadth of it.
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Never trust an AI Overview!
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I saw this, and did a little digging in Japanese web, and came up nothing.
But then again, Tune used to sell a line of bass that was advertised as "woodworking done at Alembic" (Tune TNX).
The truth can only come out from the people at Alembic.....
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I think with Tune they only gave advise and maybe supplied some wood.
With the Yamaha A.I. overview the numbers don't add up, Alembic made a little over 2400 instruments since between 1971 and 1982. I don't think it's possible they made 2350 Yamaha's between 1979 and 1982... :-)
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But it has a brass block under the bridge. Doesn't that alone make it an Alembic :-\
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I talked to Brian today. He's all squared away on the matter. He said this was listed in his shop a few other times (originally before the addition of the bridge pickup), and has always listed it this way as it was the story he heard about these basses long ago. There's a lot of misinformation about Alembic out there, even recently published books that the authors spoke to us directly get huge chunks wrong.
Brian's a good guy - Google's AI overview is full of it!
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We didn't advise Yamaha on their instruments - you're thinking of the Pan company where advised. One of the very few builders we provided wood or wooden parts to was Doug Irwin. We did make the some basses for Tune, and I'm 99 and 44/100% sure they are the only people we have done OEM builds for.
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Thanx for the clarification. Now Tune basses are way up higher on my gas list :-)
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Thanx for the clarification. Now Tune basses are way up higher on my gas list :-)
Off topic but here's a tempting Tune in Japan for under 2000.
https://www.digimart.net/cat03/shop5155/DS09862389/
I am not affiliated with this.
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And I think this is the Alembic built by Yamaha:
https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1182625040
I am not affiliated with this.
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I have an ARIA bass with Alembic pickups and electronics. The fellow whom I purchased it from thought that it had been one of Rudy Sarzo's types from ARIA.
This is from an early Alembic Club verification of such ;
http://www.alembic.com/club/messages/393/156138.html?1368639510
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He was in the Activator pamflet :-)
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Mica-san,
Thank you very much for the clarification!!!
And Yes, Brian is a super nice guy. I've known him since my college days :)
Takeo
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I would greatly enjoy having an ALEMBIC jacket as shown in the image so kindly provided by FC Bass :)
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I've owned Yamaha BB1200's, a 2000, a 3000, and all three versions of the 5000 (5000, 5000A, and the 5000A2), and like all 80's Japanese basses, you can see the Alembic influence in so many of them. The 80's BB's were special for off-the-rack instruments, but I never had any inclination to think Alembic had anything to do with them save for influencing their design, which actually came from a group of Yamaha staffers in Cali including John Carruthers. These brainstorms also yielded the mighty SG range, and the SA semi hollow guitars, the best 335-style guitar you've never played. We stocked SG2000's, which would come out of their case when we received them with the action low enough to check with rolling papers.
Evidently I was right.
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And I think this is the Alembic built by Yamaha:
https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1182625040 (https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1182625040)
DistillaMatto, this is the Alembic model made in Japan, but it was made by Rokkomann, who was our distributor after Yamaha. The only thing Yamaha did was buy instruments and sell them - and they did a great job!That Tune bass isn't the one we made. It was the Greg Lake model. We did supply lots of pickups and electronics to Tune that they installed themselves, including a bunch of custom made high impedance pickups.
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I have never seen another tailpiece like the one on the Electrum (?) guitar Mr. Ron is holding in the ad FC posted.
(FC is waaaaay better than AI... IMHO...)
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The Aria RS850 guitar was not Alembic built but was certainly inspired by Alembic.
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That Tune bass isn't the one we made. It was the Greg Lake model. We did supply lots of pickups and electronics to Tune that they installed themselves, including a bunch of custom made high impedance pickups.
Any further info on this?
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That Tune bass isn't the one we made. It was the Greg Lake model. We did supply lots of pickups and electronics to Tune that they installed themselves, including a bunch of custom made high impedance pickups.
Any further info on this?
https://reverb.com/item/66062652-tune-tnx-501-signature-s-n-112913-02-19
this model is suppose to be the one "wood working done by Alembic"
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There is a twist in the neck, but the frets have been rubbed together and the effect on the performance is minor at this time. It will be delivered as is.
wtf? somebody took a big chance on this one!
🗿🐕
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The Daion Power Mark XX guitars and XXB basses, built at the Yamaki factory 1978-1984, were heavily influenced by Alembic.
Bill, tgo
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this model is suppose to be the one "wood working done by Alembic"
mmmmmh... I don't think Alembic did any woodworking for Tune, as Mica clearly states they only supply pickups and electronics to them. I've seen some early '80s Tune TB-01 ("Bass Maniac") models with Alembic PJ configuration and they seems legit. My question is about the "Greg Lake model" Mica pointed to, as Greg used a standard TWB-4 aka "King Bass" model in the period of the EL&P reuinion in the early '90s
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I always wondered if there was some Alembic connection, or just a fair amount of inspiration behind this one.
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this model is suppose to be the one "wood working done by Alembic"
mmmmmh... I don't think Alembic did any woodworking for Tune, as Mica clearly states they only supply pickups and electronics to them. I've seen some early '80s Tune TB-01 ("Bass Maniac") models with Alembic PJ configuration and they seems legit. My question is about the "Greg Lake model" Mica pointed to, as Greg used a standard TWB-4 aka "King Bass" model in the period of the EL&P reuinion in the early '90s
Mica-san just said in her post that they did build for Tune.
**Mica-san's post***
We didn't advise Yamaha on their instruments - you're thinking of the Pan company where advised. One of the very few builders we provided wood or wooden parts to was Doug Irwin. We did make the some basses for Tune, and I'm 99 and 44/100% sure they are the only people we have done OEM builds for.