It is a Guild Burnside offset flying V. They were imported from Korea, I believe (so it may not really be considered to be a Guild.) I was in a small pawn shop and saw the ax and took it down to play and noticed the Alembic logo embossed on the pickups. I had heard of Alembics most of my playing career (but I had only seen three in the flesh up to that point). I plugged it into the only small, very small bass amp in the store and was surprised at the variety of tone. Whoever rigged this one out did a fine job. It is a neckthrough bass and is very light. The light wood gives this one a very distinctive voice.
I had always convinced myself the Alembics were just hype and I could live without one. As I have said in previous posts after playing this one I said to myself, Self, if this bass sounds this good with Alembic pickups, just think what a real one would sound like.
My next Alembic was the Epic 6. A real player and the first six string bass I could ever do anything much with. Next the Mark King appeared and I needed a Five so she was added to the family. It has the Fatboy pickups. It plays like lightning and sounds like thunder. Next came the Series I bass. The extended horn is somewhat unusual, but if you look in the archives there are more of them around in posts than you might think. The bass posted with the Black Oak Arkansas post in the Artists section looks a great deal like this one. This Series I bass guitar is absolutely the best sounding and playing instrument I have ever had the pleasure to play. Then came the '78 six string guitar. I am still finding tones on this guitar. I consider myself to be a bass player first, but I do OK with the six banger and I am not held hostage to the whims of guitar players.
I have an Aria SB 900. That bass was my main ax through a good deal of the mid-1980s and I had considered it to be close enough for Rock and Roll to Alembic for me. About ten years passed and I got the opportunity to buy the Guild Burnside and I became addicted to Alembic. The Burnside bass to me is a throwback to some of my Glory Days of playing when many players wanted the most extreme (and, yes ugly) axes they could land. Sometimes I like to play it simply because it is so light and it has a few battle scars. I cannot tell my Alembic story without including this one in the mix. It's funny, I have posted this picture twice and about the only one of my guitars anyone mentions is the Guild Burnside.
