Author Topic: Fake Alembic on ebay (Read 433 times)

zappahead · « **Reply #15 on:** August 12, 2004, 09:50:30 PM »

I like that guitar a lot, never seen anything like it, Alembic or not. Its probably a good thing you didnt see the listing before....

Like I said though, I think it was an honest mistake and he changed his posting very quickly.

alemboid · « **Reply #16 on:** August 12, 2004, 10:06:27 PM »

Darn!

I thought Alembic finally made a cool bolt-on!!! :~)

...somebody take my wife...

Alemboid

bob · « **Reply #17 on:** August 12, 2004, 11:38:13 PM »

This is really getting confusing... so let me try to recap.

1) The first eBay link is to a bass, which is an obvious fraud.

2) Mica was on top of this, and (give or take a couple of hours) was working it before it was mentioned here.

3) Mica/Susan/Alembic in general are extremely proactive in dealing with these things (one of my visits was interrupted by a series of phone calls on just such a case), and they really don't need a bunch of us to play policemen for them.

Noble as it may feel to play knight in shining armor, it seems the best approach is to simply contact Alembic and let them deal with it directly. (Sorry, flax, but I just don't see any reason for you to have contacted the seller and eBay hours after Mica said she was working on it, unless there was some issue with the timestamps here.)

4) Now, the second eBay link is for a guitar... and if I read Mica's post correctly, there is a good chance this one is legitimate. Having studied the pictures, everything except the bridge looks pretty good to me, and Mica suggests they did make exactly one with this shape.

I think the question about the missing backplate is just because the guts are exposed, and maybe they did that to show the interior. So even though she talks about fakes in the same post, my interpretation is that the guitar referred to here is probably the real thing.

(But still pretty beat up, for $3500...)

5) No reason I can see to be so mysterious here: the earlier posting on this guitar had a parenthetical reference of (now deceased) to your dad, Mica, which has since been removed.

Obviously that was wrong, or you wouldn't have been posting later in the day - you would have missed him at lunch :-) And please say hi to Ron for me, it's been a while.

Just trying to clear things up and restore a sense of balance, hope I'm not off base.
-Bob

bracheen · « **Reply #18 on:** August 13, 2004, 03:15:34 AM »

I've seen many guitars with vibrato bars missing back plates due to someone along the line adding or removing springs. I just assumed that was the case with this one.
Sam

zappahead · « **Reply #19 on:** August 13, 2004, 02:19:45 PM »

I dont recall there being a question about that guitars authenticity. The guys got a serial number even in one of the picks.

There also wasnt really any question about the bass either, that thing was beyond an obvious fraud. I think the bidding was at like 25 bucks when it was closed.

As for people from here or wherever reporting frauds to ebay, to me its your responsiblity as an ebay user to report fraud. Surely Mica and Alembic carry more weight than a club member, but the the more people who report fraud the quicker the persons account can be shut down. To me I just cant see the harm in someone taking time to report such an obvious fraud. I dont think anyones trying to be knight in shining armor or whatever, and to be honest I dont understand why that would bother you. The guys a fellow club member and he was trying to help out, kinda perplexed as to why you felt the need to call him out.

somatic · « **Reply #20 on:** August 14, 2004, 05:12:08 AM »

Zappahead said Im sure he was just misinformed and probably made an honest (albeit pretty terrible) mistake.

Whilst that's likely true for this auction, recently I saw an auction come up (from a 'searches' email; I check them all out), and when I clicked on the link, there was a bass I'd bought not long before. I emailled all the bidders, and the seller, and the seller and I then emailled eBay. The auction was pulled about 24 hours later. The pix and the text, which was only slightly modified, were stolen directly from the previous auction. Some of the response I got from the bidders on the 'fraud' auction were, well.... let's just say they were rude (about the seller, not me for telling them).

The fortunate thing with it being an Alembic is that Mica and gang keep a registry, and it's a small enthusiast community where we're more likely than most to know of / pick up a fraud or mistake.