(x) Serial number request 94CS8220 USA

[wess Cockrell]

Guitar purchased from family member whose husband passed away. Any help regarding the guitar will be greatly appreciated, the year what type of wood was used. Thanks so much for any help you can provide.

[keith_h]

Sorry to hear about the story behind the guitar. It is a great looking instrument and has aged beautifully.

While waiting for Mica to look up the build info here are some things I can tell from the information you provided.
The first 2 digits of the serial number designate the year so your guitar was built in 1984. The 'C' stands for custom and looks to me it might be a California Special but I'm not the most knowledgeable about guitar bodies. The rest is the actual serial number which indicates it is the 8220'th instrument built by Alembic.

The top wood is quilted maple and it looks like it might have purple heart accent veneers. It is hard to tell from the photo but the core looks like it might be mahogany. The neck is maple with I'm guessing walnut veneers. A closer shot more to the side of the arm cut that would let us see the sandwich better and allow us to give better idea of the woods used.

The control layout can be found here, https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=229.0

The product page is here, http://www.alembic.com/prod/casp.html

[wess Cockrell]

Side view

[FC Bass]

This is a newer instrument, pretty sure the first two digits should be 94. (so 1994)

[wess Cockrell]

My mistake , it is indeed a 94. Thank you for the heads up.

[keith_h]

Thanks for the additional shot. It does look like a maple top, purple heart accent layer and mahogany body.

Good catch on the serial number Flip.

[wess Cockrell]

Thanks so much for all the information that has been given to me so far.
keith_h
FC Bass

Wess

[mica]

Here's what I was able to find out about this guitar:

model name: California Special
top: Quilted Maple
accent: Purpleheart accent laminate
body: Mahogany
neck: 3-piece Maple with 2 Purpleheart pinstripes
scale: 25.5" long
fingerboard: Ebony
inlays: Pearloid (plastic) ovals
pickups: Alembic SSH
controls: volume, filter, on/off for each pickup, mono output
originally made for: Ace Music, Miami
birthday:March 4, 1994

in 1998 it was registered to someone in Florida. The original owner never registere.