Quote from: VicDiesel on October 25, 2026, 10:46:53 AMWould love to see some pictures of this Goliath.

There are a few pictures of it in this thread- https://club.alembicguitars.com/alembic-basses-guitars/john-judge-alembic-doubleneck/ 

More here- https://club.alembicguitars.com/miscellaneous/the-john-judge-story/

There are more threads with some candid pics. 

Just do a club search for John Judge :  Superwound strings : Goliath : 781000 or 78 1000  Lots of photos.  Even more if you google those words.

Thanks for the links @edwardofhuncote . I read it all with interest.

V.

Here are a few internal photos taken by a previous owner of the internals.
1. The 11-detent stereo selector switch located between the neck pickups. Also notice the 5/pin pickup connectors.
2. Bottom knob - Master Volume. Middle knob - neck selector. Top knob - above mentioned stereo selector. Only the 8-string neck is stereo.
3. Goliath's sub-basement...below the removable pickup mount / height adjustment screws.  Notice the LED wires going to the necks.
4.  With / without pickup height adjustment block.

A few more photos.

The inlays were a tribute to animator Ray Harryhausen. From "The Seven Voyages Of Sinbad."  Skeleton warriors fighting a Dragon in front of a maiden tied to a post. Larry Robinson did the inlays. The dragons eyes used to light up. Alas, shorted out decades ago....to repair would destroy the inlay. The side LEDs still work on both necks. 

Goliath has a Brother....Leviathan 2 years younger.  It will go to Alembic next when Goliath is finished...(and if I still have a bank balance. )

Bought a stand to hold these beasts in their playing positions.

In some of the older photos, Goliath had a toggle switch as pickup selector. It now has the original rotary pickup selector switch. 

How stable are those stands, i've seen them on stage a few times but the base doesn't seem like it would stay upright after the slightest knock. 

Quote from: garyhead on October 26, 2026, 03:12:55 PMGoliath has a Brother....Leviathan 2 years younger.  It will go to Alembic next when Goliath is finished...(and if I still have a bank balance. )

Bought a stand to hold these beasts in their playing positions.

I don't think I'd realized before seeing them in the same frame, but the the bodies of those two (four?) are quite close. Might be a good question to ask; was the pattern for Leviathan an adaptation of Goliath's? I remember well when it was for sale not far from here... I must have looked at that thing a hundred times. It would be incredibly impractical for most to deal with, but a Series bass and a Series guitar would have broken two windows with one rock for me. The end all of practice instruments. Epitome of "set it and forget it."

Quote from: jazzyvee on October 26, 2026, 11:58:58 PMHow stable are those stands, i've seen them on stage a few times but the base doesn't seem like it would stay upright after the slightest knock. 

Pretty darn stable.  It's a Beefy stand....not like your usual guitar stands....German-made and spendy  $350.00  I had that guitar in that stand in the living room for 4 months and no problems.  Roomba took pot shots at it every morning.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on October 27, 2026, 02:31:45 AM

Quote from: garyhead on October 26, 2026, 03:12:55 PMGoliath has a Brother....Leviathan 2 years younger.  It will go to Alembic next when Goliath is finished...(and if I still have a bank balance. )

Bought a stand to hold these beasts in their playing positions.

I don't think I'd realized before seeing them in the same frame, but the the bodies of those two (four?) are quite close. Might be a good question to ask; was the pattern for Leviathan an adaptation of Goliath's? I remember well when it was for sale not far from here... I must have looked at that thing a hundred times. It would be incredibly impractical for most to deal with, but a Series bass and a Series guitar would have broken two windows with one rock for me. The end all of practice instruments. Epitome of "set it and forget it."

Yes....and maybe....  I think the genesis of all this is Harry's instrument.***  It is a Series I fretless 4 and a 6 string baritone guitar.  John Judge was shown a picture of Harry's instrument as a "mock up."  and I think Gerald was shown John's instrument.  Leviathan, being two years younger, looks a little more refined than Goliath.  It has a satin (oiled?) finish that makes the grain really pop.  The Gloss on Goliath is too glossy  The controls are not between the necks anymore and down with the rest of the knobs.  The smaller bird tailpieces look better too.  Notice the two chrome toggles on Leviathan.  They are not hooked up to anything...I need to revisit but I think they were never in a circuit because I saw no solder residue.  I need to make contact again with Gerald.  He was on FB and I am no longer on it.  Last I saw, he is an author now (search on amazon) and living in Las Vegas.  I do not know who did the drilling.

I'm a little at a crossroads with the switches.  Leave as is?  Replace with Alembic-correct switches and not hooked up?  Remove the switches and replace with inlays.......like dragon eyes!.....if I really want to go full-blown Alembic....add LED or Lazer eyes!  This instrument doesn't have side LED's.

A funny story in Larry Robinson's book. "I cut my first inlay in 1975 after I had been building guitars for three years.  Having been trained in acoustic guitar construction, I thought that building electric solid body guitars would be comparatively easy; so in my first week at Alembic, Inc., I managed to drill completely through two $2,000** basses while installing pickups.
While I mentally started looking for a new job, I called my boss, Rick Turner over to the bench and showed him what I had done.  To my surprise and everlasting gratitude, he shrugged and said, "Just put an inlay over it.  Then we can call it a custom and charge more for it."*

Your comment of "set it, and forget it" is not the case with Leviathan.  Once all tuned up, the guitar easily goes out of tune.  I do not know if its the 46 year old tuners? or maybe the mass and vibration of the bass neck causes it to go out of tune.  Mica thinks it could be the tuners.  I'm not a guitarist so I do not know if this is a common problem with guitars.  All my other Alembic basses are "set & forget.

I must admit I'm getting a little Gregory-brained as I seem to have A Lot of info in my head regarding these two doublenecks.  I'm thinking of getting a hold of Larry Robinson to find out if he has any recollection of Goliath's build.  There is an inlay on the headstock of Leviathan but I do not know the years he worked at Alembic.

*The Art Of Inlay by Larry Robinson 1994 Pg. 11 - 12
** $2,000 in 1975 is $12,526 in 2026
*** 75-025AC (Canada Export)  Thread: 1975 Series I doubleneck

If I were guessing, (which is usually where really expensive trouble starts);

I'd expect the John Judge "Goliath" bass originally came with Sherwinn Williams Polane finish. A bunch Alembics finished in that stuff after the formula changed checked very badly. Some, way worse than others. My '77 was very mild, I thought attractive. Some of them it just flaked off in chunks. Could be that's why it needed a refinish, and thus wound up with a high gloss? I think it looks nice in pictures.

The other, Leviathan... being a 1980. Study the satiny finish on that walnut Series bass you just brought home. I believe this is the first polyester finish and rubout after the earlier iterations. I love that finish and degree of gloss... had it on that bass, and two Distillates. I loved it so much that I asked Mica to replicate it on my Custom. Your 'other' doubleneck there is just a few numbers off 'Joy'... who knows, they may have been sprayed with the same bucket of paint.

That's curious about the tuning. If it's just the guitar neck, I'd go insane figuring out why or how. I would first try isolating it from the bass neck to make sure the guitar neck pickups weren't receiving any sympathetic frequencies from the bass strings. Try to dampen all four strings first. Use a block of foam under the strings as a mute. (like that stuff I posted in Rob's thread) Failing that, loosen the bass strings a half-step, so they can't be an open pitch that's an octave below anything on the guitar. I can't imagine a physical reason beyond the tuning machines that it won't hold tune. They should be Schaller M'6's... check the tension screws. I'll think about this some more. I just can't think of what else would influence the guitar part. My Series guitar was a rock, setup-wise. 

*You're on your on with those switches!

QuoteYour comment of "set it, and forget it" is not the case with Leviathan. 

FWIW i have kinda the same issue with the ebony amazon.  this bass has its quirks, one of them being that i can't just pick it up, tune it and play it.  if i do that, after about 5 minutes i'll find that i'm noticiblyoutta tune.  there's not always a good time for that to happen.  so now i do my finger warm-up exercises on it, then tune it and it seems to hold its settings after that.  tuning the B and E strings is particularly tricky, i think partly because the neck is so resonant and has so much sustain that it takes a while for the out of tune note to die out which fools my tuner clip.  i think i recall from earlier discussions about this bass the hipshots were chosen to help with the neck dive.  not so sure it made a lotta difference.  i like the action of the alembic tuners on my other instruments better.

i kinda thought about making a play for goliath the last time it went up for sale.  sorta glad i didn't. 

cheers!

Quote from: BeenDown139 on October 27, 2026, 09:58:09 AM

QuoteYour comment of "set it, and forget it" is not the case with Leviathan. 

i kinda thought about making a play for goliath the last time it went up for sale.  sorta glad i didn't. 

cheers!

It's been 11 months now and I have no regrets.  Once I saw it in person I knew I could live with the quirks of a 48yo instrument.  I think the main problem is dirty contacts in the 11-detent switch.  And that switch is still used as the pickup selector switch in Series II basses.  It can be configured for 2 to 12 positions so it's still in production.  The stereo pickup is a different story.  Alembic still makes it own pickups so skill still available.  The main thing is it's not a "practical" instrument to perform with.  It has it's own voice and history tho......  
I will probably never perform on stage again.  I do enjoy playing here in the house experimenting with effects and loops.  And I'm surrounded by Art that makes Sounds!
I'm with Gregory on the tension screws on the tuners.  I bet that is the trick.  My Essence & Orion are Very tight and those are the two basses that are like a rock for intonation.  I have a Korg rackmount tuner.  I remembered most of the comments from folks at performances about "that wandering light."  

I just did a search for Larry Robinson and found a podcast at Luthier On Luthier:

https://www.fretboardjournal.com/podcasts/luthier-on-luthier-larry-robinson/

It's an hour long but it passed by so fast.  Lots of talk on the craft.  He did inlay work on the Millionth Martin.  Said his bit took 2 Years.  Talked about CITES restrictions and stuff he can't get anymore.  About 35 minutes in, he tells the story about starting / getting hired at Alembic.  Was told to report to Cotati Monday morning.  Hitchhiked from San Francisco to Cotati on Sunday and slept in a field to start Monday morning.  His first day was 13 hrs long.

Discussed NAMM.  By putting inlays on Guitars, it attracted folks to the booths looking at a sea of instruments. Something was different about them and they came closer to check it out.

Something else for gathering information on Goliath.