This Beautiful Alembic Distillate Bass is in MINT condition. It was custom made for me in 1988 and i have been the only owner and it has been babied since then (literally). It has been kept in the hard shell case when not in use and comes from a smoke-free, pet-free home. Gigged only in churches and protected very well. The price includes the hardshell case pictured. The case does have some honest wear, but is in excellent condition.
There is a slight bit of knuckle wear under the G string which is inperceptable except when examined very closely under very bright light. There is also a small ding to the finish on the inferior edge, unseen in playing position. minimal fret wear. some very minor scratches on the back brass plate. Otherwise the finish is in perfect condition and the electronics are also in perfect condition. I've tried to capture all of these minor imperfections in the photos.
And the tone? Well, suffice it to say everything you expect from Alembic is there: lots of sustain with clean, clear tone. With this onboard active pre-amp and control panel you can get the sound you long for. But then there's more: this particular combination of woods makes for an extremely responsive bass with a very fast attack. With Alembic's bridge and fully adjustable nut, and double truss rods, you can get this bass setup to play with the lowest, fastest action you desire.
Needless to say, it is an emotional event letting a bass like this go, but i just don't play it enough to justify keeping it anymore. This is a GREAT DEAL! To get a custom bass like this, of this quality, you will typically spend in the ballpark of $6000-9000.
TOP: Birds-eye maple, Purpleheart accent laminate, Maple pinstripe, Mahogany body
BACK: Mohagany. (see the photos)
NECK: 5-piece Maple and Purpleheart with DOUBLE TRUSS RODS ; High gloss polyester finish, satin neck feel; 32 standard scale, Rosewood fingerboard, mother of pearl oval inlays, 24 frets
HARDWARE: Alembic tuners, Alembic brass 2 piece bridge, Alembic's adjustable brass nut
PICKUPS: Alembic MXY, with Active on board pre-amp
CONTROLS: volume, pickup selector switch, low pass filter, Q switch, bass boost/cut switch, treble boost/cut switch.
The quick tone switches are bass and treble and are not individual switches for the pickups. Each switch provides 6db boost, flat, and 6db cut.
The filter control adjusts a low-pass filter tunable from about 350Hz - 6KHz. Where you tune the filter is the cutoff frequency. Only frequencies below the cutoff frequency are passed.
Q switch is on when you flick it down while playing. When the Q switch is on, it boosts the cutoff frequency of the filter by about 8dB. You can hear the effect by sustaining a note while rotating the filter back and forth with the Q switch is on. You should hear a distinct wah-wah.
The rotary switch is a 4-position pickup selector. The settings are:
1. standby
2. neck pickup only
3. both pickups
4. bridge pickup only
Note, the standby position is not the same as off. So long as you have a cable connected to the output jack, the battery is draining. The standby is useful for when you have an extended rest period but later want to return to your original volume setting.
There is an onboard preamp, so the circuit is active and requires a 9V battery to operate. There is not enough output from the pickups to use them without a battery since they are low impedance.
Internally, you will find 2 small trimpots on the circuit board that control the gain of each pickup. You can set the height of the pickups without regard to output. This means you can set the pickups' height to either where you like the way they sound or for your comfort, then go inside and correct the gains so that your pickup selector switch has the same volume for the neck and bridge pickups.
Price includes hardshell case
All Items are from a Pet Free, Some-Free Home.
THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL INSTRUMENT. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY PLEASE.
PAYPAL only. Shipping by UPS will be approximately $50 FROM MARYLAND.
Please contact me directly if interested: justin@fathoms.org
photos available on photobucket:
http://s405.photobucket.com/albums/pp134/woodsonjt/Alembic%20Bass/ (Message edited by woodsonjt on January 05, 2009)
(Message edited by woodsonjt on January 05, 2009)
(Message edited by woodsonjt on January 05, 2009)
