This 8 strings bass was sold by Bunny bass few years ago.
Their coments is here.
Nobody who looks at this beautiful instrument will imagine the weird and convoluted history of this pretty 8 string, the narrative is a veritable theater drama (or soap opera!). It seems that in every great drama there is always a father figure, in this case it is Larry Robinson - custom made by Larry Robinson is printed in the electronics cavity. As you probably know, Mr. Robinson is today one of the most renowned inlay artists in the U.S. and makes incredibly beautiful inlay works on musical instrument for several high-end builders. There is also an excellent book about his work, The Art of Inlay by Miller Freeman books, which is really a joy to read. But back to the bass - it turns out that was completed back in 1979 when Larry Robinson was still working at Alembic, and interestingly enough, in its first incarnation this bass was a short scale 5 string bass (!) tuned EADGC, with wide neck and 3+2 mechanics on a zebrawood headstock. I'm sure it must have come out very nice and pretty with the incredible macassar ebony wood, etc., but for whatever reason the owner after a while decided that he didn't want it as a 5 string bass any longer and brought the bass back to Alembic to get it modified into a more normal 4 string bass. So the people of Alembic changed the bridge and nut, narrowed the neck, upgraded the electronics to Series II standards, inset side LEDs and thus gave the macassar beauty a new life - sounds like a good ending, but you've seen the 8 strings so you know this is not the end of the story! The following years must have been exciting ones, with lots of touring and stages, hands and cases, because the bass was then sold to a new owner and according to him the bass was not looking very nice when he bought it. Lots of dings, holes from extra strap pins, and some bad lacquer here and there. He also don't liked the look of this big beautiful shaped headstock with just 4 lonely, lost looking mechanics on it. So the bass went to a very skilled bassbuilder and finally got her present look and voice as a 8 string bass. The work is perfectly done, complete with custom-orderd parts from Alembic. The new macassar headstock veneer also exactly matches the grain and color of the rest of the instrument - perfect. Even under close examination, no one would ever think that anything on this instrument is anything other than what it was when originally born, and probably for the first time in the life of this bass the unique fan-like design is as functional as it is beautiful. The sound is so lush and lovely that I can hardly imagine it in any configuration other than 8 string, and the bass plays like a dream. ~harry.
In my opinion, the bass was born with narrow neck as my 70's 5 strings.
Fan head was standard for 5 strings at that time.
So the wood work is original, except the top and back veneer that I think.
I was very interested the bass, and I asked about it to Bunny bass.
But unfortunately someone got it.
Who own it now !?
Hi phylo,
Sorry for highjack as 5 strings thread.
But I think your opinion is How about the B string on short scale ?.
I can't talking about it.
I only said the sound of B is good on MSB.
Eiji
