Alembicized Beatle Bass???

[hieronymous]

Just saw this on Reverb:


https://reverb.com/item/10318742-hofner-500-1-bass-1960s-modded


The listing says "Alembic style appointments" so no guarantee that it's real Alembic guts, but it might be worth checking out for someone local.

[adriaan]

Hm, the old style bridge doesn't seem far off, and the tan pickups do look awfully familiar. There might be a humcanceller (or two) inside the body, and there might be trimpots behind the control plate. We need an expert opinion here!

[jwright9]

It's cool. I made an offer. We'll see.

[hieronymous]

It's cool. I made an offer. We'll see.

If those are Alembic electronics in there then you will have a VERY cool bass! Hope you get it, or at least get to take a look at it.

[garth4664]

So cool, what a beastie. The 3 way switch is not a usual Alembic appointment, would be interesting to see inside.

[hieronymous]

So cool, what a beastie. The 3 way switch is not a usual Alembic appointment, would be interesting to see inside.

yeah, normally the 3-position switch would throw me off, but they wired up my Guild with the original 3-way switch so it doesn't strike me as a red flag. But again, we don't know that the pickups are Alembic and we don't know what the electronics are. It does look like a beast, huh? I kind of like the pickup rings.

[jwright9]

If I am able to buy it, I will certainly take it apart and upload photos.
I am very intrigued.

[lbpesq]

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say those aren't Alembic PUs.  These appear to mount with one centered hole on either end, whereas Alembic PUs usually mount with four holes, one at each corner.  If these are Alembic, they've been modified to fit the PU ring mounts.

Bill, tgo

[adriaan]

The earliest Alembic bass pickups had just the one hole centered. It may well be a Stars Guitars modification, or so I've heard.

[adriaan]

From the Reverb listing:

[jon_jackson]

I have a couple of Hofners and have off-and-on considered asking Mica if they would convert it to a Hofnerlemic. This one, however, just makes me shudder.

[room037]

Wow !
Very interesting !

The PUs and Bridge are 73' to 75' style, and 3 position SW is OK that Harry's mentioned it.
Hofner bass has enough space to set circuit (PF-5 or 6 ?) and Humcancelling PU.
If it was modified by mid 70's Alembic, It needs 5 pin cable, so the output jack is very informative.
I want to see the photo of output.

Eiji

[room037]

Quick report !

I ask the seller about output.
The bass has 1/4 stereo jack for out put.
He show me the back of PU and there is labeled "Hi-Z" on the tape.
We know the PU for series circuit is "Lo-Z", so the PU made for it's own passive circuit ?
I also ask about the circuit, active or not.

Eiji

[packy]

Hello all! I am the current owner of this Hofner. I just got messaged by Eiji and looked up this thread.

I created an account here a couple months ago to ask some questions about it, but never got around to it. I’m honored this made it to the boards all on its own

When I got the bass it was wired in stereo with a 1/4” output. No active electronics. The pickups are labeled “hi-z” on a piece of tape on the back, which implies to me that they came from somewhere that made lo-z ones as well?

I believe the pickups are single coil, and not RWRP as they don’t hum-cancel. There’s no dummy coil to be found. The electronics in the cavity do not look like a very high quality job (I’m away from it now so can’t post a pic)

It’s a really odd piece, which I bought impulsively on reverb based on the look and story (old Alembic looking bass bought at San Fran police auction in 1980, how could I resist?). But I already have a violin bass that is apparently unbeatable at the Beatle thing, and a Starfire that covers all the active ground I need, so cool as this is its kinda redundant for me.

I’m at a gig right now but would love to chat more about this later. Thanks y’all!

[room037]

Hi Packy,
Welcome to the board !