That ad has to be pretty early 1980's... early U.S. version Distillate for sure, based on the pickup location and horn shape. They must have just taken off. I was thinking somewhere I'd read the first bunch issued were zebrawood topped, single pickup models, with the controls front-mounted on brass, made for export to Japan, the first Activator (non-Series) circuit, and had a separate sequence of serial numbers. Officially, that was supposed to be 1978-79. Here is one of those Eiji had/has, stamped
81-130 http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=9094.0I don't know when they became available as a two-pickup model, or available for U.S. dealers. (I'm guessing as soon as they saw them...) I'm not aware of any Distillates in the Showcase here older than 1981, though there must be a couple out there. The oldest one in the Showcase section is
81D-1855 here-
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=9102.0Anybody know... what/where is the first Alembic
D number? Perhaps only the Alchemist knows.
