Author Topic: California Special on eBay (Read 546 times)

artswork99 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 19, 2009, 01:24:33 PM »

Auction ended early by seller...

Link above that is...

(Message edited by artswork99 on March 19, 2009)

artswork99 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 19, 2009, 01:26:04 PM »

Ah, new listing...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-California-Special-Electric-Guitar-w-case_W0QQitemZ370175925475QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item370175925475&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

David Houck · « **Reply #17 on:** March 19, 2009, 03:39:31 PM »

The description has been changed.

It now has a brass nut instead of graphite.

The controls are now properly described.

Shipping is now $60 instead of $45.

The words very heavy have been added to the description of the case.

lbpesq · « **Reply #18 on:** March 19, 2009, 03:52:10 PM »

It still lists: One Humbucker and Two single coil pickups. When will they ever learn? I again placed the initial bid.

Bill, tgo

olieoliver · « **Reply #19 on:** March 19, 2009, 07:19:31 PM »

I SURE thought about bidding on this Bill but won't bid against a brother.

OO
(Whew, thanks Bill. You probably saved my marriage)LOL

bsee · « **Reply #20 on:** March 19, 2009, 09:08:58 PM »

Generally, when there are multiple of us interested, I prefer for people to discuss, privately, what they're willing to pay. For example, if Bill will go to $3000 and Olie will only go to $2500, then it would be nice for only the one is is planning to go highest to bid. Olie can't win, and it can save Bill a few bucks.

Of course, when the seller is one of ours, it should never get to eBay and a private deal should be worked out so all are happy and things like this don't matter. I would hate to see two or three of us force the price up on a family member when we can't win anyway.

Personally, I'd go to $2K on this one, but I would believe it to be worth more than that and that one of you is willing to go higher.

ajdover · « **Reply #21 on:** March 19, 2009, 09:25:34 PM »

I have a friend I've been trying to talk into getting an Alembic guitar. He has a company called Lava Cable. He makes custom cables, and he's a guitar player.

He's had a lot of boutique instruments over the years, but never an Alembic.

This might be his opportunity to at least try one.

I've let him know about this, but would like to have him hear from Alembic guitar owners what an Alembic guitar is all about. I have his email, but ... if any of our six string brothers have any insights as to what it means to play an Alembic guitar, please send it to me and I'll forward it to him.

Who knows? Maybe he'll pick up this California Special and become one of the faithfull ... ;-)

Alan

jazzyvee · « **Reply #22 on:** March 20, 2009, 02:11:11 AM »

I've think that California is a great looking guitar but one of the things that would put me off bidding on it and for that matter any guitar with a locking nut is the delay that would be encountered if a string broke during a gig.

I'm not a heavy wammy bar user and having to find the tool for unlocking the nut and being unable to take up the slack with the tuning peg from pre-stretching the string before tuning to pitch would be cumbersome and time consuming.
I often wonder why a roller nut like on the Strat Ultra wasn't used instead on these wammy bar setups.

Educate me. What does a locking nut offer that a roller nut doesn't in terms of maintaining pitch after wammy bar use?

Yes, I know taking more than one guitar would be a solution but for me when touring that has rarely been an option due to weight & space restrictions placed on the band.
Jazzyvee

bsee · « **Reply #23 on:** March 20, 2009, 08:34:35 AM »

The locking nut was the precursor to the locking tuner, and possibly a little superior in performance. At the tuner end, your string is held in a perfectly locked position. If the tuning key loosens under the pressure of the string, it doesn't matter because the lock eliminates that segment from the performance. Likewise the string slipping or tightening on the tuner. You end up with a fixed length of string that is anchored at both ends and the only thing that should pull you out of tune is the actual stretch of the string.

A locking tuner also locks the string, but it is possible for the tuning key to loosen under string pressure over time or as a result of whammy use. That's the trade-off for the easier string changes.

You could always live without the locks and/or replace the tuners with a modern locking set. Skipping the lock shouldn't be a bad thing if you aren't using the whammy.

As far as a second guitar goes, a steinberger-style stick makes a good backup because of the small size. I carry one to gigs just in case. You never expect a problem from your Alembic, but who wants to have a gig screwed up because of one? You can get a Hohner or cheaper model Steinberger for a few hundred bucks and, if you have to, replace the guts. As an emergency backup, a set of cheapo EMG Selects sounds a lot better than dead air.

-bob

lbpesq · « **Reply #24 on:** March 20, 2009, 09:47:32 AM »

Gee, I feel sorry for all those strat players who played guitars with tremolos and no locking nuts or tuners for over a quarter century and didn't know that their whammy bar didn't work! What a tragedy. And how did I ever survive without bicycle helmets, shoulder harnesses, or airbags when I as a kid?

I too have never liked locking nuts for the string change hassle reason.

Bill, tgo

mica · « **Reply #25 on:** March 20, 2009, 10:01:03 AM »

While this guitar has a Floyd Rose tremolo (vibrato), it has a Kahler finger lock nut. There's two strings for each lever - no tools needed to change strings.

Now we would use a graphite nut (strings won't bind like is possible on a brass nut) and locking tuners.

On the short list of things we just won't do is install a Floyd Rose locking nut. The idea of drilling two holes through the weakest part of the guitar makes my mom ill.

barryr1 · « **Reply #26 on:** March 20, 2009, 11:18:59 AM »

I'm no expert on whammy bars, shit I just took one (bigsby) off of a guitar and made it a hard tail. But I do own one nice conventional strat with a whammy bar, and have owned number of them in the past. One was the Jeff beck super deluxe with the roller nut and the locking tuners. What my experience is is that the reason that guitars go out of tune while playing more often than not is because the nut is not cut properly and the string hangs up. It rarely slips at the tuner if the string is installed properly (or the string stretches) from doing acrobatics or was not properly stretched in initially.

jazzyvee · « **Reply #27 on:** March 21, 2009, 07:36:58 AM »

I get what you are saying Mica and I have seen a Red California on ebay a few years ago with a finger lock nut, but unless my eyes are playing me up, that California on ebay now sure looks like it has locking screws at the nut.