Curious Persuader

[kumimajava]

Hi all - my first post here, so I hope i'm not asking something silly.

I'm considering buying my first Alembic, and I'm based in Japan. A quick search as to what's available here brought up a listing on something that was labelled as a 1988 Persuader. However, it has 2 Jazz style pickups, and the neck pickup is angled towards the bridge. The body shape also doesn't look like most other Persuaders I've seen.  I hope it's ok to link back to a photo on that listing (below):




Could this indeed be a Persuader? Or some other Alembic model that I've not previously seen? Either way - could that be a sensible introduction to the Alembic family, or should I search further?

Many thanks in advance for any input

[edwardofhuncote]

That is a Persuader, but with a variant on the body shape called "Vector". It's a little bit more Fender-ish in shape, but it's a genuine Alembic.

Pretty bass... 

[hieronymous]

I've seen at least one or two other similar ones listed in Japan - I think one was blue or purple. Google "Alembic" & "Vector" and some pretty cool stuff comes up!

[slawie]

If you know the serial number you can request a build record.
It does sometimes take a while to get the info as the chief elf wears many hats.
Looks like a very nice bass

[kumimajava]

Thanks for all the input.

Have any of you heard how the angled neck pickup sounds?  My current bass is a warwick thumb (please don't judge me too harshly  ) which has an angled bridge pickup,  and that works well.  But I don't recall seeing an angled neck pickup like this one before.

Thanks again

[mica]

It's the right way to angle things, but I don't expect it to have a dramatic impact. The G string is always thin sounding since there is so much less mass in the string compared to the other strings. By scunching the pickup closer to the end of the fingerboard on that side, it would make the G string sound a little "bassier" compared to if it was straight across. BUT, it's not a huge difference, of course, all of us are good listeners at the club, so I'm sure WE could hear it!

[kumimajava]

Thanks for the quick answer. Need to have a think now and decide whether to pounce on it, or keep searching for an Essence   soundwice, would they differ a lot?

Cheers

[jazzyvee]

It's a hard choice Kumimajava because in my experience all alembics I have bought sound great so I am confident that whichever you choose to buy so long as it has the original electronics in and been treated well, will sound great.
In the end it may boil down to which one you prefer the aesthetics of but you could always sell the warwick and buy both :-)

[mica]

Provided that the Essence was an all Maple version, then this bass should have a similar sound. This bass will be noisier at lower volume levels because the filter volume isn't proportional to the overall volume like in the pan setups. You can change out the 2-volume harness in this bass for a pan and 1-volume harness and then you would have Essence electronics and the lower noise at low volumes.

[jazzyvee]

Here is a maple essence ive just seen on reverb.
https://reverb.com/item/2476174-alembic-essence-1991-maple

[kumimajava]

Thanks for the heads up. Looks great, but sadly the seller only posts within the US.

Will have a think and perhaps keep looking, and eventually join the Alembic family.

[Shoji Nagao]

My bass picup is reversed way to angle.

[mario_farufyno]

Cool, Shoji!

[jazzyvee]

Hold on Shoji, there are a couple of interesting looking series basses in that photo, any chance of seeing them fully? :-)

[edwardofhuncote]

Quite an interesting bass in the subject - a reversed P/J Persuader(?) with a Q-switch, and continuous wood truss rod cover too... very, very classy.