Anyone With All Black Alembics?

[alembic83]

Yes, my black Spoiler:
 


 
 
And not to veer too off topic, but I also have a thing for black Aria Pro basses - two of which have been Alembicized:
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd117/vintagejapanbass/Aria%20Pro%20II%20Black%20n%20Gold%20II/arialineup.jpg

[dannobasso]

The bass came like that with the slant pups. It does have a deep sound for a smaller scale. A better blackness shot of Kay.

[slammin]

Perfect Blossom

[clarkybass]

I have an all black '88 Spoiler that looks identical in all respects to alembic83's. I have a couple of questions - first, mine weighs in at 11 pounds whereas my previous '82 flame maple Spoiler weighed 9.5 pounds - why such a big difference ( does the chrome hardware contribute)? And second, there are a fair few surface scratches on my bass above the playing area (I presume a previous owner wore a metal watch band on his right wrist) and I wondered if there's a way of removing or reducing these? To be clear, none are deep but there are so many it's slightly matte on that part of the bass. Thanks, as ever, for your thoughts

[FC Bass]

Take a look at the truss rods cover (and I bet yours has the alembic script under the logo) ;-) Lots of differences :-)  The newer Spoilers are thicker (at least the headstock is) than the older ones, hence the weight difference.  Here are my Black beauties:  '83 Spoiler, refinished by myself:  

 (Weight: 4,180 Kg, 9.2 lbs)   And still under construction, Custom Elan 5:  

[clarkybass]

Mine has a bigger TRC but no Alembic script underneath compared with yours FC Spoiler. Guess it's just down to thickness of the wood as you say. Any ideas about removing fine scratches? I don't trust myself sanding but wondered if T- cut or a similar product would work here (and save me the exorbitant cost of a re -fin!)

[clarkybass]

Ps. Beautiful Elan 5 FC Spoiler. I saw that on your website when I was reading up about Cliff and Jason's Alembics (thanks!) I have an incoming Elan 5 in walnut which I am tempted to re-fin in black, although the wood fans will cry sacrilege!

[mario_farufyno]

I remember reading somewhere about using Polishing Car Wax to remove fine scratches on gloss finishes...

[mavnet]

Had this made in 77. Rick Turner told me back then that the ebony was from the same log as one of Stanley Clarke's basses they'd just made.  

 

  (Message edited by mavnet on September 14, 2010)  (Message edited by davehouck on September 14, 2010)  (Message edited by mavnet on September 14, 2010)

[elwoodblue]

Wow, that's some dark wood.
I can only imagine how good she sounds,

[serialnumber12]

Wow beautiful SC bass,whats with the toggle switches?

[mavnet]

The rotary switch by the master volume chooses pickup - neck to one preamp and bridge to the other, reverses which pickup goes to which preamp, both neck, or both bridge. The toggle closest to neck is switchable hi/band/lo pass for one of the preamps (the other is just low pass, and small rotary between the volume and freq on each preamp is a variable Q), next switch puts the preamps in series for some interesting tone shaping, third takes the filter out of the second preamp, and the last one flips between stereo or mono (summed) out.
 
I've got a fretted bass also made at the same time, same small scale body, long scale neck, but very different body woods.
 
They both sound great. Recently using black nylon wrapped flatwounds on the fretted, and am going to try them on the fretless, which will increase the black factor (and also sound different).

[David Houck]

Very cool electronics on a beautiful bass!

[hieronymous]

Wow - very cool! I've thought myself that a high pass filter on the bridge pickup would be very cool. Are the electronics original by Alembic or did you have them altered later?

[mavnet]

It's a very special instrument (at least to me). Ron asked what I wanted and suggested this config based on that. In hindsight, I probably should have asked for each preamp to be switchable hi/band/notch/low, and then all the other modded stuff, but I opted for the low-pass only on the 2nd pre. So they're original, and still working and sounding great (although I wonder what it'd sound like with new capacitors; some things don't necessarily age well). The basses probably could use a tuneup and lube - if I could figure out how to set up a service visit, I'd do it. Can't find that info online. Might have to, gasp, make a phone call