In the CME ad, it looks like the floor was custom made for the point...
I guess that's one way to do it... just chisel out the floor.
*sigh* When that bass was still for local sale/pickup in New York, I went as far as to look into taking the Amtrak from here to there and doing an in-person deal, then taking the train back home. It would have been a very long day, but I'd have ended up with a very restorable vintage Alembic for pretty cheap. I thought hard about buying it and just putting it away for safe-keeping, restoring it another day.
Here's the thing(s): While it at least isn't hacked up, you can't just put modern Series or AXY pickups in this bass without routing it out. It was made for the older two-tab type pickups. The ones that come with it (presumably the originals) are cracked, and I doubt they are any good for anything other than Christmas Tree ornaments. If you had a working set of them, and a full set of Series electronics, you'd be in bizniss, because the rest of the bass looks to be in darn good shape. And it's The Zebrawood. One of the best slices there is.
I didn't do it, because;
1.) My inclination would have been to send it to Alembic for a full electronics restoration. Which would've been expensive but in my opinion, well worth doing if the price of the core instrument was kept within limits. Still, a new set of Series I electronics and the surgery required to install properly seriously impacts the bottom line. 2.) I already have a Starfire bass project with a full set of Alembic East-Meets-West electronics waiting on my workbench
right now. 3.) I have another Alembic project I haven't told you guys about yet. It came along at about the same time I was thinking about this one. It required much less work and a shorter trip.
All that said, CME is a little bit dreamy with that $5k price tag.
