Understated Elegance - Recovered by Bellingham Police

[power_engineer]

All,
 
Thank you for your watchful eyes.  Understated Elegance was recovered by the Bellingham police based off of leads from this club.
 
Since I was fully compensated by the Insurance Company, they will post the bass on e-bay to help recover payment against my claim.   Please realize that the bass is no longer considered stolen and can be purchased without fear of repossession.
 
Frank Kern
Former owner of Understated Elegance

[poor_nigel]

eBay - Just when you think you are out, they drag you back in!  I guess I will be attending just one more auction before I quit them forever . . .

[kungfusheriff]

Yeah, really! I would make a few phone calls to educate your insurance co. about the second-retail value drop of custom-made instruments, give Superbass Steve or Evan Sheeley from Bass NW the call as expert witnesses, then use the settlement funds to buy back your own bass for half the settlement cost!
You gotta figure, insurance companies have been putting the fear-screws to us since we were teenagers, so your karma will be spotless, right? Get them back. You have the power. Do it now.
Tom, don't be maudlin. What's life without adventure? If you get bored, set up a FedEx delivery account and I'll let you borrow the Little Bass, but only if you promise to dust her.
KFS

[poor_nigel]

Wow, the offer of loaning me your graphite necked jewel is incredibly tempting!  Be kind, I am old.  The responsibility would finish me off.  However, maybe next summer we can do an S II switch for a month or so.  That would be un-boring.  Seems a bit like wife swapping, but it is the new millennium.  
 
Prices on eBay for special Alembics have risen lately, mostly due to the retail price hike, IMO.  However, I also believe the level of appreciation for quality instruments and the willingness to pay for it has risen.  I remember Understated Elegance being on eBay a while ago for $5,000, with no takers.  That is actually the first place I saw this bass.  It will definitely go for over $5K now.  

[kmh364]

So what happened to those who purportedly owned this bass, like our EBAY friends the pawnbroker and/or the guy from upstate NY? Did they get off scott- free?

[bsee]

Must have been stupid thieves to fence it in the same town they picked it up.  Yeah, they waited a good while, but still....
 
These guys should be catchable.

[the_mule]

Frank, ever since this story unfolded I've wondered about your feeling about this. It's a beautiful and unique bass made especially to your personal specs, and although the insurance money must have helped, it really can't be replaced. Have you considered (if possible at all, maybe you've used the money for other purposes) to buy Understated Elegance back from the insurance company?
 
Wilfred

[flaxattack]

i'm flakempt

[apdavis]

Frank what was the neck spacing on U. E.? (Narrow, comfort, etc . . .)
 
     Adam

[bsee]

Wilfred-
If Nigel's statement is true, this bass was up for sale prior to being stolen.  That would either indicate severe financial difficulty, or more likely, that the owner and bass didn't bond as tightly as you imagine.  I don't mean to ask or to pry, but I would suspect that Frank ended up happier with the insurance settlement than with the bass.
 
-Bob

[poor_nigel]

I will admit to getting a bit thick and senile and being chronologically messed up to the point where I do not remember the month or year even (Was it in 2002???) it was put up for auction, but Nigel's statement is quite true.  You do not forget a bass like that being auctioned off.  I tried to scrape up the cash, but at that segment in time, there just was no way for me.  The auction had a link to Alembic's Archive of this bass.  I was quite blown away by such a major bass being auctioned off, and like I said, you just don't forget a bass like Understated Elegance.
 
Whether Frank wants his bass back at this point is irrelevant, and is probably his business.  The bass will go to the highest bidder, and to my heartbreak, I am sure it will not be me.  Then again, I have a room full of vintage sound equipment (Sunn, Fender, Gauss, JBL, Gibson, Steinberger, blah, blah, etc.) that I never use and seldom even know is there.  Hmmmm, nope.  If I sell that stuff, I will buy a custom to the exact specs to fit my tastes, talents, and deficits.  So, it will go to someone else who will treasure it more.  Let?s see if it sets the new record for highest price paid for an Alembic on eBay.  I do believe the ?featured? bass Goldilocks holds the current record.  http://alembic.com/info/FC_goldilocks.html

[bigredbass]

I think two big THANK YOUs are in order:
 
1) Hats Off! to the Bellingham PD for taking the time to do the legwork to knock this one off. In some PDs, this sort of thing would be waaayyy back on the list, but not these buys.  Well Done!
 
2) ALEMBIC for maintaining the Stolen Registry.
 
Frank, best of luck on whichever way you go.

[poor_nigel]

Since Thank You's are being handed out, I believe a large one should be presented to Bob See (bsee) who phoned Alembic (What 800 number?) and got it all started within 15 minutes of the bass being posted on eBay.  Thank you Bob!  Good catch and fast action.  I hope you are around if one of mine takes a walk with a stranger.

[bsee]

That was actually the second time I 'found' that bass since it was stolen.  It showed up at bassgear.com at the end of April within a week or two of the theft, but with bogus contact info.
 
There was another recent stolen bass that showed up and was reported to Alembic as well, but I never heard anything more on it.  Some new member posted looking for info on a bass and identified the serial number as 80 1636, which is on the stolen list.  I saw it and notified them, but he edited his message in the meantime to remove the number.  Since he didn't realize it was stolen when he started posting, I figured that his profile and email address would have been enough to track him down.
 
When you're actively looking to buy, you see a lot of information about available basses.  I guess Alembic has a policy not to get back to the reporter on things like this?
 
-Bob

[jlpicard]

Bob, I'm happy to report that serial no. 80 1636 has been recovered and is back in the rightful owners hands. I am a good friend of the owner and was able to see and play it yesterday! Thanks to the internet and the good people of this club, Tom is now sitting at home cradling his beloved lacewood series 1 in his arms much like the picture of Ron W. on the inside cover of the Alembic catalogue!  
Mike