Just spoke to Mary.  I have a "New Bass Day" scheduled for Friday!

It will be a nice 1,500 mile round trip to sunny NoCal in October....,,my favorite time of year to be there. 

Will bring an old favorite along too. Need James, or Ron to evaluate a 48-yo dodgy switch.  Goliath hasn't been to the mothership in 30 years. 

Might even go to the Charles Schultz museum again.  Go see The Great Pumpkin. 🎃 

I got a rock.

Enjoy!!

Congrats, Gary!   Delivery day is a big deal.   

Bill, tgo (whose band is playing Friday night, only a 2.5 hour drive from the Mothership, in case you want to celebrate with some good ol' Grateful Dead music.)

Great news, have a safe trip!

Congratulations...

Have a safe drive and enjoy New Bass Day!

I guess it's okay to reveal the story... it's actually my old bass, about to be Gary's.



He saw, and played it a couple years ago at the Mothership and asked me about it. I had sold it to another Club Member after having the electronics RF upgrades done, CVQ's replacing the Q-switches, and having new pickups installed to replace the broken originals. That bass though, still had problems. The short of it was, the guy I sold it to returned it to Alembic, I refunded him, and it went back to the repair queue... with someone else's name on the case. Oops. It ain't my nature to hassle. Time goes by... when it finally gets discovered and winds up back on Ron's workbench, he discovers some very odd problems. It takes quite a while to find and fix intermittent trouble. What Mica told me he found at fault was a solder joint, a crimp, and a trimpot... none of which were totally failed. They required a lot of testing and re-testing to locate. I think the way he put it in a note was; "unusual, unexpected, and surprising." Take from that what you will - I believe it. The main thing is, it got fixed. These things require patience. After all this time and effort you'd think I'd just be happy to have the bass back... and I would have. 

Retirement from public service, the need to pay off the mortgage on my home, starting up a business, and serious health issues, all these events conspired to make me drastically reduce the size of my instrument collection. Eight Alembics have passed through my hands and I enjoyed every single one, including this one for the year or so I had it. I'm just as happy it's going to another Club Member now, having done my part to make it the best it can be. I have kept only the Persuader 5-string I started with and the Custom fretless it inspired.

So hopefully Gary has a safe Road Trip to Rohnert Park with "Goliath" there, and gets his glitchy switch issue sorted. While there, he gets to pick up a new/old Series bass [80-1684] and pending approval, it's all his... we'll square up later. I've already sent the old power supply and a set of red canare cables I had made up by Butch at Bayou Cables, and even the road case it came in that had been taking up space in my shop for ages. (I bought a new G&G hardshell case for it years ago.) That should be the whole set reunited there.

Dang Road Trips!  I never get a full night of sleep. Completed 600 miles yesterday by 3:30PM. Ate a sandwich and fell asleep at 6:30pm. Woke up at 9:30pm and have been up ever since.  Couldn't shut the mind down about questions to ask today. Mostly about Goliath.  It probably needs an RF upgrade as well as the wonky switch.  I say wonky because I don't really know what it does.  Something about splitting the signals on the 8-string neck.  Ron will know. I have a rudimentary drawing but I don't know for sure.  Had to do the Alembic shuffle with all the trimpots and switches. Got the 8 bridge pickup working again. I thought it was the DS-5R.  Directional hum on the 8 too. That seemed to lessen after the shuffle.  I was also thinking of doing the Series II upgrade that Gregory did to his bass. I think I'll live with Gregory's upgrade to see if Goliath needs one. I'm of a mind on this as I kinda think Goliath is already iconic and should only need work if something is broken. The job of a caretaker....not an eternal tinkerer. Hey, if Series I is good enough for Entwistle......

So. I have a three-hour drive to Santa Rosa this AM.  This really isn't a sight seeing trip.....I wouldn't dare to leave 2 Series Basses in the car and wander off somewhere.  Also have to wing it for lodgings depending how much time I spend at the mothership. October can be good for that BUT I might be looking for a room in Wine Country on a Friday night. You ought to see the weekend rates there vs weekday rates!  A $61.00 rate at the Rodeway Inn is $151.00 on Friday & Saturday.  I'm using points for the rooms.....and gift cards for food so my only expense is fuel. Looks like it's going to be $100.00 each way for the 775 mile trip.  New car (suv) getting great mileage.  It was 52 degrees when I left home. Arriving at Red Bluff, it was 93!  I packed fall clothes.  More to come.

I've gotta' make a run to the store to drop off and pick up work later today Gary, but I'll have my phone if y'all need to get in touch with me. Mica has my number. Mary may have it scribbled down there too. We have some fun conversations from time-to-time. 😊

Well.....it's 3:30PM now here in Santa Rosa, CA and I've been awake these past 18 hours!  Got on the road at 6:30AM and took the "Rollercoaster ride" to Alembic. (Avoiding the Bay Area freeways but taking the "Mr Toads Wild Ride" through the mountains!.....with a late Fall Sun blinding you at 9:30AM. Thank goodness the guy in front of me was riding his brakes so I had some sort guidance.  Got to Alembic just as Nova C. Showed up and we hauled Goliath and his attendants. (Power supplies (2) cables, custom stand, etc.). The young bucks lifted that 75lb monstrosity (including a 1970's Anvil boat anchor) onto a work bench!  James had a go on the 3-position switch and found 11 detents instead of three.  Braver man than me as I didn't want to cock-up anything myself. About 1/2 the detents produced some sort of sound.  Got to see the build file regarding designs / inlay templets.  No mention of the electronics.  Ron is coming in later and will poke around overnight and give me the definitive skinny on that switch.  There was some mention of Stereo pickups. I also went over Gregory's bass and realized why I bonded with it....its the First Alembic I've played with TI Flatwounds!  (Of course, the Classico are flats of a kind). I left both basses at the mothership overnight.....safer there than my Motel room. Went to lunch with Nova C. And had some fantastic Mediterranean food!  Oh the subjects he's fluent in!  By 3pm, the lack of sleep was kicking in. I got a room for the night and will wait for Mica & Ron's report tomorrow.  Did you know besides the build file.... There is an Electronics file?!  Stay Tuned!  This has been the highlight of my crappy year dealing with medical issues.   AND, I have leftover Gyros for dinner!

That Mediterranean place was legit.

Keep me posted on what the 11-way switch does. I wish we'd been able to run it in stereo to see if it was splitting the signal that way.

Well... clearly, it goes to 11. 😎😆

Yes, those TI Jazz Flats should still be fairly fresh Gary. I had just put them on there. They are famous for longevity. 

I had an alternate set of those for my older Series bass, but I really enjoyed the TI Jazz Rounds on that bass. One thing to remember; I had to make a small intonation adjustment whenever I would switch them. Eventually I just left the Rounds on it, but when I sold it, I sent the alternate set of Flats along too. Can't remember if I gave instructions on the intonation adjustment or not. I wanna' say it was just the D and E needed a tweak. 

Well, it's day three of the road trip. Mica texted me last night. They'll need another day. I'm fine with that.  So far, with motel points and gift cards, it costs nothing to stay longer....and besides....you gotta admit, it's pretty exciting. 
Wide awake at 3AM!  But....i got 8 hours in. Decided to go out and search for a phone charger cord at a 24 hour truck stop store. NONE on Hwy 101!  I'd have to go almost to Sacramento!  I only brought a cable to charge in the car...and it only charges while running. With the charge at 12%, I might not get the call from Mica. Anyway, there was Shell station that had one.  Santa Rosa is replete with "nocturnal citizens" like everywhere else.  Funny how they all seem to be working on their bicycles....no one sleeping.....is that how they avoid getting hassled?  No lieabouts....only industrious bicycle repairmen!  was a bit hungry too.....I was reduced to the breakfast burrito case at the Seven Eleven. 
Up again with a day to kill.  I might head up the road to eyeball this:

https://reverb.com/item/50686129-alembic-zebrawood-4-string-bass-w-bag-pre-owned

That serial number looks dodgy. Shouldn't there be. "D" as the third digit?

States it's one of the first 300 distillates made in 1981. I don't follow Distillates so anyone more versed chime in please.  It also states "an Alembic Employee" removed the 32" scale neck and replaced it with a 34" neck. No easy feat....no neck screws!

So....a closer examination is needed....the store just opened. 

Expecting a call from Mica Sunday morning. 

And No Worries on a possible 3rd bass in my car. It's Way overpriced with a dodgy neck story. 

More to come. 

Quote from: garyhead on Yesterday at 11:32:07 AMWell, it's day three of the road trip. Mica texted me last night. They'll need another day. I'm fine with that.  So far, with motel points and gift cards, it costs nothing to stay longer....and besides....you gotta admit, it's pretty exciting.
Wide awake at 3AM!  But....i got 8 hours in. Decided to go out and search for a phone charger cord at a 24 hour truck stop store. NONE on Hwy 101!  I'd have to go almost to Sacramento!  I only brought a cable to charge in the car...and it only charges while running. With the charge at 12%, I might not get the call from Mica. Anyway, there was Shell station that had one.  Santa Rosa is replete with "nocturnal citizens" like everywhere else.  Funny how they all seem to be working on their bicycles....no one sleeping.....is that how they avoid getting hassled?  No lieabouts....only industrious bicycle repairmen!  was a bit hungry too.....I was reduced to the breakfast burrito case at the Seven Eleven.
Up again with a day to kill.  I might head up the road to eyeball this:

https://reverb.com/item/50686129-alembic-zebrawood-4-string-bass-w-bag-pre-owned

That serial number looks dodgy. Shouldn't there be. "D" as the third digit?

States it's one of the first 300 distillates made in 1981. I don't follow Distillates so anyone more versed chime in please.  It also states "an Alembic Employee" removed the 32" scale neck and replaced it with a 34" neck. No easy feat....no neck screws!

I almost hate to do this... but here ya' go. Valentino [valvil] was an Alembic employee. That was his Distillate.

https://club.alembicguitars.com/distillate-basses-and-guitars/1980-distillate/

I was thinking there was an FTC thread too.

*I can't find the Distillate thread, but here's one of his Custom fretless basses. https://club.alembicguitars.com/factory-to-customer/valentino-s-custom-bass/45/  BeenDown139 has another one of them.