Contacting Alembic?

[Artgeckko]

Hello Alembic Club,

Quick update on 86S4221...
I have finished sanding the entire bass down to wood, and applied a few coats of Danish oil.
It looks outstanding just as is, but plan to do a few more coast of Danish, and later apply poly to protect it.
In the process, I really have a tremendous appreciation for the build of these basses, which was kinda covered up with later refinish and possibly age.
Been searching the net for possible solutions to the problems from the poorly executed after market pot routing and replaced electronics.
My goal is to replace the electronics with genuine Alembic preamps and pots, and once acquired, figure out he best way to mount because of the difference in hole size.  It appears that previous owner drilled all holes to be 3/8" with the exception of the one hole reduced with epoxy?
I have called Alembic a few times, and sent an email, but so far no response.
Hope to hear from them.
In the interim, another Spoiler was for sale, and still longing for a true Alembic experience, I bought myself a little early bday gift...

 

[Artgeckko]

Talked to Mary.
What an awesome company.
Hopefully will get a chance to talk to Mica soon!
pictures of 5 string in mid process...Grain really clear now, and divots, cracks, and sanding marks removed.

[David Houck]

Looks good!

[pauldo]

Looks really good.

[hammer]

Wow! Beautiful. Hard to believe someone covered that up with paint (and removed the electronics)

[edwardofhuncote]

Looking good, Ed... that flamey koa is hard to beat.   

[edwardofhuncote]

Given the hole pattern you have, and the reduced-size hole, one electronics set you might consider installing is a fairly simple Volume/Pan/Filter + Q-switch. Put the Q-switch in the smallish hole. This is essentially what I did with my Persuader 5-string when restoring it. Other than the pan function replacing the 4-position pickup selector switch, it will function and sound much like your other Spoiler.

[Artgeckko]

Thanks  Club!

Well, not so much paint that covered it up, but a very dingy, and poorly done clear thick lacquer? which kinda obscured side position dots, part of the fretboard, and the crack by the rear pot had me concerned, plus a lot of digs and scrapes.
Appears no sanding between coats, or just poor application.
Ed, thanks for the suggestion! Well, the hole in the rear made smaller by epoxy has been drilled out to make all holes 3/8, which should accommodate the new potential pots.
Waiting on a phone call from Mica, after talking to Mary to decide final components, but there is no rush as I'm still cleaning up finish.
The body cleaned up great, with exception of the epoxy hole. Will get some updated pictures next week.  4th coat of Danish oil, body and neck,  frets leveled, and half crowned...24 frets takes a while.
One blunder so far...In an effort to remove damage to tip of headstock, I got overzealous and sanded through top Koa veneer...Ugh. many expletives!
Ordered some flame koa veneer, and have re-veneered the headstock. 
A bit of a setback, but think the new veneer looks pretty sweet after clamp removal, trimming, and initial sanding.
The veneer cam in a 9 ft roll, so have plenty, if anybody needs some...
Break time from this project for a bit.  3 days to let coat cure.
Each day a bit closer to playing the bass...

[StephenR]

Great to hear how much TLC you are giving this bass. As far as choosing electronics IMHO what defines the Alembic tone are the low pass filter(s) and q-switch(s). The variable bass/treble boost/cut sounds excellent too, very useful and musical, but doesn't give you the same ability to tailor the response and sound of the pickups. Whatever you choose is going to sound amazing, can't wait for you to be able to take it for a spin!