Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Showcase => Spoiler Basses => Topic started by: fmm on September 15, 2003, 06:05:53 AM

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on September 15, 2003, 06:05:53 AM

My first Alembic.  Picked it up on Saturday:  
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/6016.jpg)
 
(Message edited by fmm on September 15, 2003)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on September 15, 2003, 06:15:16 AM

Perhaps more pics later...
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/6021.jpg)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: elzie on September 15, 2003, 01:24:48 PM

Oooh! That is nice! Those two little burls on either side of the neck pickup look like eyes....
 
You must be very happy!
 
 
Paul TGO

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: mattheus on September 15, 2003, 02:09:08 PM

Just wondering:
Why call this a 'spoiler'..
 
Great bass, I enjoy my Spoiler every day.  
 
Mattheus tDo

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: stoney on September 15, 2003, 04:40:57 PM

You're gonna love that bass and the endless tone possibilities she will present. Congrats.
 
Stoney

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on September 15, 2003, 05:24:17 PM

So far it's been great.  I brought it home Saturday.  It had been hanging in a store in Golden Valley MN for over a year.  I went in to look at it at least twice a month.  The store dropped the price, and I got a raise at work, so I decided to take the plunge.
 
I teach bass out of my home, and all of my students want a chance to play it.  I think this week?s lessons will be on the construction details of superior basses.
 
I think it?s time to retire the Yamaha BX-1.

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: jet_powers on September 16, 2003, 06:23:47 AM

Congrats on your pick up! It's a beauty.
 
I think it's called a Spoiler because once you've played it it spoils your appetite for any other manufacturer's basses!
 
BTW, my Persuader has the same body and neck. Can anyone tell me what differentiates a Spoiler from a Persuader? Is it the electronics?
 
John Paul

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: valvil on September 17, 2003, 02:30:06 AM

You got it. The difference is in the electronics, Spoilers like yours, have two soapbar pickups, Persuaders sport a jazz/pbass style pickup combination. The controls are a bit different too, I believe the Persuader has volume, filter & pan, the Spoiler has volume, filter w /q switch, and pickup selector. Both are generally medium scale.
 
Valentino

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: David Houck on September 17, 2003, 07:22:01 AM

Val and John Paul, yesterday I was wondering about Persuader controls and ran a search finding the following thread.
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/1126.html (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=2784)
 
In the thread Mica describes a Persuader as:
essentially Spoilers with our Activator electronics.  Most of the Persuaders we made did not have the Q switch. There were one and two pickup versions, some with AXYs, others with P or JZ pickups.
 
The thread is quite interesting.  The bass that is the subject of the thread has the P and JZ pickups and the controls are volume, volume, and filter.  Mica says of this setup:
The P pickup is one of our loudest pickups, and the JZ is one of the softest. Add that to the positioning with the poor skinny JZ pickup back where the string doesn't move much, and without a separate preamp for each pickup, there will always be a volume difference between the two.
 
In the thread Mica makes some suggestions for hot-rodding Persuader electronics.  Interesting read.
 

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: stoney on September 17, 2003, 10:59:38 AM

Here's a nice example of a Persuader.
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2557609570&category=4713 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2557609570&category=4713)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: jet_powers on September 17, 2003, 12:37:28 PM

Guys, thanks for the responses...
 
That is a nice example of a Persuader. Mine's nicer though, it has strings!
 
I'll try to get some pics posted in the not too distant future.
 
JP

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: palembic on September 17, 2003, 02:41:41 PM

What all reminds me that I still have an Alembic PB/JB PU combination somewhere in a drawer!!! It came with volume, pan, filter and Q switch. My friend Koen once build it in his Fender light fretless ...o-oh!!!
 
Anyway ...I have plans with those kids ...you'll see! Maybe next year I'll be pregnant too from myself  (huh ...euh ....b?f ...that doesn't sound right but anayway ...you'll be surprised!
 
Paul the bad one

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: valvil on September 17, 2003, 03:25:07 PM

Thanks for the correction Dave, I had one of the volumes on the Persuader confused with a pan.
 
Valentino

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on September 17, 2003, 04:13:55 PM

By golly, it is medium scale.  I would never have known if I didn't measure it.

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on January 17, 2006, 09:06:47 AM

oops
 
(Message edited by fmm on January 17, 2006)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on January 17, 2006, 09:13:11 AM

I'll be selling the Spoiler to help finance this: (http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/24164.jpg)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on January 31, 2006, 01:21:54 PM

It's on the way!

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: dadabass2001 on January 31, 2006, 01:30:01 PM

Congtraulations Michael,
Going from one maple beauty to another - very cool. I keep waiting for a lotto winner (or at least a raise) to make my move to Series brotherhood.
Mike

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on February 01, 2006, 10:31:03 AM

it's here.  holy crap!  more later.

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: jlpicard on February 01, 2006, 11:16:29 AM

Enjoy! You'll be in hibernation for quite some time with your new baby I'd imagine!

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: fmm on January 29, 2009, 05:28:10 AM

Happy Birthday!  My bass turns 24 today.

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: David Houck on January 29, 2009, 06:25:04 PM

Nice to revisit this thread and these pics!

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: crobbins on February 02, 2009, 06:06:02 PM

Nice geetar. Enjoy.....

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: edwardofhuncote on January 04, 2015, 07:25:12 AM

Wondering where this Spoiler 89S5560USA is now?  
 
After tracking down this old serial number request thread,
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/4692.html
 
I believe she is the twin sister to my Persuader 89P5559USA. And in looking closely at the figuring in the quilted top, I think they may even have been cut from the same board. Those same little eyes also appear on mine, but in a flip matched position. I won't hijack the thread, but here is the thread where I was restoring her, in case someone's looking.
 
http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/193837.html?1410204563 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=601)
 
(Message edited by edwardofhuncote on January 04, 2015)
 
(Message edited by edwardofhuncote on January 04, 2015)
 
(Message edited by edwardofhuncote on January 04, 2015)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: spumoni on January 31, 2015, 10:37:53 AM

No way! Hey fmm and edwardofhuncote!  
 
For some reason, I had the urge today to do some research on my 1989 Spoiler. I googled the serial number which led me to this thread; that's the pic of it! When I got to the end, boom!, there was your msg edward with the serial number! So you decide to post a note on a thread from 6 yrs ago, then I randomly decide to do some research 3 weeks later. How weird is that?
 
Anyway, yep, I have your bass's sister here near Chicago. So how did I get it? It was a gift for my 50th birthday back in 2011! My family (about 20 people) all kicked in to buy this bass that my brother found online. Totally stunned. Needless to say, the best present ever. :-)
 
I signed up for this forum today just to respond because it was so coincidental. Ha, ha! Happy playing!

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: slawie on January 31, 2015, 01:33:05 PM

Wow the universe aligns itself to produce a episode of Kismet
 
slawie

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: pauldo on January 31, 2015, 07:30:14 PM

Hey Joe,
If we ever pull together another Chicago Alembic Gathering you are most certainly invited. Maybe the kismet here will create superficiality momentum to make a second Chicago Gathering happen.
 
Here's a link to the last one we had (pics are far down the page) - it was an epic event!
http://club.alembic.com/Images/65124/38384.html?1317081984 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=9808)

Title: 89 Spoiler
Post by: edwardofhuncote on February 01, 2015, 09:42:38 AM

Welcome to the forum Joe, pleased to meet you!
 
What a very cool coincidence you found my post in such a timely way, but if you hang around here a while, you'll see things like that happen a lot.
 
I'm glad to see my Persuader's sister went to a good home where she's getting played. We should get them together for a photo-op one day.