Author Topic: Really.You have never heard of this brand of bass? (Read 664 times)

smokin_dave · « **on:** June 02, 2013, 07:53:50 PM »

So there I was setting up for an opening slot for some local big wig blues band.Unpack my bass and set it on it's throne/stand and go off to fetch my briefcase.
I get back to find three or four stage hands and sound personnel surrounding my bass and commenting on it's looks and the inevitable question....
Who made this bass?
A couple of these cats were in their late 50's,been in the biz for most of their lives and have never heard of Alembic.EVER.
So I start in on the famous Alembic players we all know,a little about the history so on and so forth.
After a sound check they come over and start in on how great it sounds,how much,where to buy one bla bla bla.
I learned of Alembic when I was 14 or 15 and am now 52.It amazes me how this brand goes unnoticed.

tncaveman · « **Reply #1 on:** June 02, 2013, 08:14:48 PM »

Not including Stanley's bass, I have only seen 2 in the past 35 years. I'm actually not sure if I have ever seen a player use one live, other than Stanley. One was in a shop in the early 80's and one was at The Low End. Most of the people I know used to not know about them also. This makes having 2 that much cooler. I sure would love to run into a great deal on a Spectrum guitar. Doubt that will happen though.

Stephen

rustyg61 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 02, 2013, 08:31:07 PM »

Dave, you & I are exactly the same, I too learned of Alembic my freshman year of high school at 14 or 15, & I am also now 52. It bothers me when I read articles about high end basses with no mention of Alembic, but at the same time, I would not want Alembic's popularity to grow so much they had to expand their operations & the hand made quality could suffer. Right now every instrument they make is made by a handful of craftsmen & women with Ron putting his stamp of approval on each one. If they were better known that might not be possible. Alembic owners are part of an elite group that much of the world has not heard of, but that makes it even more special when someone does recognize your instrument & can appreciate how amazing it is!

jazzyvee · « **Reply #3 on:** June 03, 2013, 01:23:30 AM »

I'm learning not to be surprised and in a way quite pleased by that, as it is quite common for people not to know the brand. It's a good feeling knowing you are playing something different to the crowd and it still makes the music sound great. It's always good to be able to talk to other bass players about alembic basses. I have to say that if I am at a gig and see a bass that looks and sounds different I do try to have a chat with the bass player about their instrument as I have very little practical knowledgeable about non alembic basses.

From what I see and hear at gigs I go to though, most bass players are still playing with a Fender sound regardless of the bass they are using. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that as if it's a bad thing. So an engineer is always gonna hear a familiar kind of sound and not flinch until you plug your bass in and they hear something different. :-)

I hear what you say Rusty about alembic not getting too big and having mass appeal but you never know what the future holds. All it could take is another high profile, young influential bass/guitar player to discover alembic, turn down the big endorsement deals, and you could have a whole new generation of musicians looking for alembic.

In that case alembic would be crazy not to respond to the market demand. How they choose to do that is another thing. But could Alembic afford to let all that potential income go to sellers in the used market or worse.... to ebay scammers and fakes that could tarnish the brand as well?

Now if someone like Eric Clapton or Dave Gilmour started using a Spectrum instead of a strat on stage or even Keith Richards maybe started using a furthur that would change the ball game.

Jazzyvee

terryc · « **Reply #4 on:** June 03, 2013, 05:10:46 AM »

I am the only person to own one in Teesside(North East of England). I first learnt of them when I saw Stan on The Old Grey Whistle Test with RTF..say around 74/75. They were virtually unknown then. There are still many people who have not heard of them as Fender still sell huge quantities and are so well known

jazzyvee · « **Reply #5 on:** June 03, 2013, 06:08:09 AM »

Hi Terry, Old Grey Whistle test must have been the first time I saw an alembic too but had no idea what it was so didn't really take much notice of it. It was a few years later when I joined a band as guitarist and the bass player was raving about Stanley Clarke that the alembic name became known to me. However I was just stunned that anyone could play the double bass like Stanley did.

I only know one person who had an alembic where I live and that was only because I remember seeing a strange non-fender shaped bass at a jazz gig in the mid 80's but didn't know it was an alembic because I only thought alembics were like Stanley's or the large body ones. So it was only when I joined this forum about 10 yrs ago that I realised that shape I saw back then was an epic. Interestingly I now know who the bass player is and actually met his brother-in-law at the california meet last year. Small world.

I'm sure there are a good few dotted around our country but not many at gigs that I go to.

Jazzyvee

Jazzyvee

811952 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:02:42 AM »

Growing up just down the road a bit from Smokin Dave's stomping grounds, we had access to the first Alembic dealer (Vic Zinn Music in Noblesville, Indiana) so it was not unusual for the big Indianapolis bands to be seen with an Alembic bass (I'm thinking of Ralph who played with Henry Lee Summer, for one). Of course, I knew what they were by then from Stanley and Entwistle. I believe the first time I ever saw an Alembic was on a video clip of Manfred Mann on perhaps The Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. The first time I ever saw one in-person was at a Harry Chapin concert in '76 or so, with Big John Wallace playing bass. There don't seem to be many Alembics floating around the area anymore, but occasionally someone knows what mine is and the drooling commences in earnest. I'm 51, so it seems we were all quite impressionable (and recognized quality when we saw/heard it) at about the same age. :-)

John

5a_quilt_top · « **Reply #7 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:32:55 AM »

My story is similar.

The first Alembic I ever saw (and heard) was #1 shown in the fuzzy back cover photo and more clearly in a few of the inner sleeve photos of JA's 30 Seconds over Winterland. I was 12 when that album was released.

Shortly thereafter, I acquired Europe '72 and saw and heard the Godfather.

I was mesmerized by the clear, articulate and massive bass tones on both albums and played them until they were worn out.

A little later in the mid-70's I saw Stanley Clarke perform on Saturday Night Live using an Alembic. That sealed the deal - one day I would own one.

gtrguy · « **Reply #8 on:** June 03, 2013, 10:53:14 AM »

I remember the first one I saw was a guitar new in the 70's that was selling for some amazing amount of money. I did not see another one for years.

Paul Reed Smith had to make hard decisions early on after his first guitars were so well made and Santana started to use his gear onstage and many people wanted them and he had to expand and still keep the quality up. Alembic partnered with LD Heater years ago to help sell the brand to a wider audience, but that must not have worked out.

It is a niche market. Many companies choose to carry a lower price 2nd line to help support the upper tier products (think Porsche and the 914 years ago or PRS and the Korean guitars).

Expanding a business is often stressful and expensive and does not always work out. Look at Leo Fender and how his products got away from him after CBS. Outside investors can rapidly end up with a controlling power in the original company and it becomes all about money.

I bet the Fender plant in Mexico puts out more guitars in a month than Alembic did in a decade at first.

funkyjazzjunky · « **Reply #9 on:** June 03, 2013, 11:47:24 AM »

I was a fan of 70's Funk and Jazz so I remember the Brothers Johnson, Lakeside, Rose Royce, Brick and Jermaine Jackson and a few other groups that had Alembic Bass players contribute to the groove. Marvin Isley of the Isley Brothers had the first Series II bass that I heard live.

VMG

lbpesq · « **Reply #10 on:** June 03, 2013, 05:25:36 PM »

I first heard of Alembic through the Grateful Dead. Then I played in a band (Cripple Finger) in Pasadena around 1975 with a guy who had an Alembic guitar. It was like nothing I had ever seen before what with the blue box and 5 pin cord, and it sounded amazing!

Bill, tgo

tncaveman · « **Reply #11 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:12:55 PM »

oops - almost forgot about Andy West (Dixie Dregs) and Greg Lake (ELP) These were the actually first Alembics that I had head of but I wasn't lucky enough to see them when they toured.

Stephen

rustyg61 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 03, 2013, 08:28:47 PM »

The first time I saw Stanley was in 1979 & the Dixie Dreggs opened for him, so I got a full night of my first Alembic sighting!

smokin_dave · « **Reply #13 on:** June 04, 2013, 12:58:14 PM »

Well after all's said and done I'm just grateful to be able to turn people on to an AMAZING bass and guitar manufacturer whom may have gone on to never even hearing about Alembic or seeing one in the flesh so to speak.

smokin_dave · « **Reply #14 on:** June 04, 2013, 01:05:33 PM »

Oh and John,I do remember Vic Zin very well and going up to Noblesville from time to time in my youth and drooling over the latest Alembic acquisition they had to offer and wondering to myself if I would ever be able to come up with enough scratch to purchase one for myself one day.