THANK YOU JIMMY!
Since meeting my first Alembic, who’d think it’d be such an insane ride?! Lol I have been in contact with the owners of several Alembics, and some said flat out they’re not shipping to Osaka, and the others have asked for prices actually more than for this one, that are not Series electronics. In truth, a new Standard is going for this price; the used Standard I could try, the owner wants to charge the price of a new one for it! That is a dealbreaker, with no excuses. The Japanese market is often the epitome of VERY HIGH demand and VERY SHORT supply. The ones I saw for lower price just weren’t the look for me.
Reverb has this bass able to be shipped here: thing is of course, the tax, which will be high. A Series II with new components at that price in Japan would never happen; I’m almost of the mindset that risk could become a reward, given what it would cost new (completely unobtainable), and the sheer amount of sound possibilities at my disposal: better than going through more instruments that wind up costing as much as just getting this one would have, I think. “Settling” is the worst thing that could happen.
The shop owner has also been very cooperative: we’d talked a while back on another bass and he knows the dealers and Alembic distributor here and has a lot of experience shipping to Japan.
I’d love to see it refinished, but that would also be unrealistic IMO with logistics and costs.
You all must think I’m insane by now: yep, I have gone Alembic crazy but what fun it is!