How many strange Alembics can show up this week?

[alembician]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Series-1-Alembic-Bass-/182029615173?hash=item2a61cf8045:g:KrAAAOSw~OVWxLUU

[alembician]

Excellent mint playable condition.
 
Huh.  What a complete misquote of instrument condition.  

[sonicus]

Indeed !   Now this poor creature surely has a story to tell , yet she holds her head high and sings  I will survive  !    !_________________She is an Alembic after all .  
 
   Wolf

[gtrguy]

Mint playable condition, now that's a phrase for you!
 
What's with that big chunk of wood in the body? Wow!

[keith_h]

Looks like the body cracked or something over the upper cavity and they cut it out and replaced the wood. Not a very good job. I also wonder if it still has the original electronics and DS-5. It might make a good project bass but not at the current bid of $2K.  
 
Keith

[ed_zeppelin]

The 5-pin has been improved with an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. The pickup uppy-downy doodads have been updated with bolts from a Fry-o-later basket-holder assembly, the dome knobs are off a Tele and the pickup selector knob is from an 80s Sansui receiver.
 
Other than attempting to move the electronics cavity cover to the front (I'll bet they did it to cover a whorl in the wood grain that appeared to a previous owner as a all-seeing eye mocking his existence), that puppy is cherry!  
 
Does the phrase mint playable seem contradictory to anybody else?
 
(Message edited by Ed_zeppelin on February 19, 2016)

[jalevinemd]

Plus, there's no way that upper horn is original. I don't even want to know how much this thing neck dives. Real shame...

[edwardofhuncote]

I like a project where anything you do is an improvement. ~my Dad, a long time ago...
 
I could totally restore that bass, upper horn and all, but at a starting point of more than $2k, just can't see it. It would be a very big job with an awesome result, but cost-wise, no way you'd come out, so we're talking purely a labor-of-love project.  
 
However -and this is a big however- provided this bass still has her Alembic Series electronics, I  would totally play what's left of it as-is until such time as restoration was convenient.

[edwin]

Ill give him $500.
 
Yikes.

[sonofa_lembic]

That neck may be Alembic, but those body halves look like they are homemade.  The headstock logo is also wrong for that year.  I would hate to see what the circuit looks like!  I think it is likely a faked up bass.

[keith_h]

Trevor,  
You might be onto something. Looking at the dummy hum canceller cutout the workmanship does not appear to be up to Alembic standards.  
 
Keith

[elwoodblue]

The body edge bullnose looks too sharp also.
Good eye Trevor

[sonofa_lembic]

I also see an uneven glue joint where the body meets the neck.  The round over on the body as well as the carved transition at the cutaways is just plain wrong.  The hum canceller looks completely wrong.  The patched area on the upper half looks like a filled control cavity from the backside of body.  The switches are not standard Alembic, and the faceplate looks wrong.  I would guess the neck to be Alembic, the two pickups to be Alembic, the hardware to be Alembic, and the fingerboard to be Alembic, but everything else either highly modified, or more likely added?.and poorly I might add.

[FC Bass]

Side dots (or smudges) on the treble side of the neck...
 
Used as lefty or maybe even started life as a lefty?

[edwardofhuncote]

I think both Flip and Trevor are onto something... it seems plausible Cletus attempted a left-to-right conversion by switching or replacing body wings. Also note the pickup routes are a little sloppy.  
 
I sent the seller a request for more details, and pictures of the back and electronics cavity... we'll see what he says. They aren't a very active ebayer, no recent feedback, but been registered for a good while.