Author Topic: Comments anyone (eBay fodder): (Read 179 times)

paul_boulet · « **on:** July 21, 2003, 08:34:03 AM »

1978 Modulus Alembic Moonstone BasSstar Bass
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2546700387&category=4713

I've seen these before -anyone have the story on them?

RARE 1970 ALEMBIC (1 OF 30) GUITAR VGC GARCIA
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2546584855&category=2384

-Looking forward to anyone's take on this one as well!

TIA -Paul (Leo)

dela217 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 21, 2003, 05:21:23 PM »

Paul - I saw those auctions too. Both really cool instruments.

I like the bass, and if I were a Fender player, I would be interested. It is the type of bass that you just don't see too many of. I just have trouble with playing that body style with a strap. To me they just don't feel right on me. I am sooooo used to the Alembic small standard body. I just can't play a bass like this. It has everything to do with where the strap button is for me.

That guitar is just gorgeous. It is hard to tell, but I think I see a 5-pin jack mounted on the side of the instrument. I wonder what is going on in that control cavity. A couple of my favorite P5-1 preamps and twin dummy coils perhaps?

billy_v · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2003, 05:18:13 AM »

Original case? Looks to me like it's built to fit a Turner Model One....!

smichaels · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2003, 07:27:46 AM »

I received an email from someone who had talked with Rick Turner about this guitar. Apparently Rick says that he is 100% sure that this was an employee project guitar. He couldn't remember who actually built it but said it could have been Doug Irwin or Bruce BecVar. He stressed that this guitar is NOT an Alembic.

dela217 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2003, 08:43:20 AM »

Hey Sean! That could be correct. When I first saw the guitar, it reminded me of another company. Now I know what it looks like. It looks like an Oasis instrument. I think that it is very similar in construction. Even the rear of the instrument where the neck joins the body looks like Oasis. I think the person responsible for this creation could have been Gary Cooper, not Doug Irwin or Bruce BecVar. Just a guess though. If you want, go to LOWDBASS.COM. He has a couple of Oasis basses in stock. Check out the pics. Look familiar?

hifibassman · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2003, 08:57:59 AM »

On the LOWDBASS.COM website- can anyone tell me what a toucan bass is? That thing looks and is constructed so much like an Alembic it's not funny. There are houses out there that can duplicate Alembics pound for pound without getting into legal trouble? I know fernandes tried but was threatened with a lawsuit. How did Jay Dee basses get away with making those alembic-like bass bodies? I know their basses can't come close to the alembic sound, but they are selling as a high end bass like alembic is.

For that matter, what's to stop anyone from buying alembic electronics and having a bass custom built with the same type of woods, hardware, physical specs and come out very cheap in the process? Suppose someone that knows how to build alembic type filters put together an instrument custom built like a series bass- would that guy be wrong for doing that for just himself and saved like $10k in the process? Not trying to start a war here, just wandering.

(Message edited by hifibassman on July 24, 2003)

(Message edited by hifibassman on July 24, 2003)

dfung60 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2003, 11:20:56 AM »

Interesting puzzle about the history of that guitar. I would have guessed BecVar just because his instruments had more of this kind of knobby look. The Oasis connection looks possible from the back though.

I don't know if any of you guys are old enough to remember this, but there used to be a distribution/sales rep company called Rothschild in the 70's. They distributed Alembic for a while and Oasis as well. I remember seeing them in the same catalog back around 1980 at Leo's Music in Oakland. At that time, a Series Alembic must have been around $2800 list (I think the Distillate had only been out for a short while so not everything was a Series!). Oasis was quite a bit less exotic and expensive (but still exotic and expensive) at around $1600. I can't remember if they came from Sacramento, CA or somewhere in Washington.

Geoff Gould (Modulus founder) has often mentioned that he remembers the first NAMM show where Alembic had their own booth. They had already been producing instruments and had very visible clientele, but when the first showed a product line, it blew away the show. Everything about the bass was totally different - laminates construction, exotic woods, active electronics, all that brass. This was dropped into a world of bolt-on Fenders and Gibson EB-3s. It sounds like it was a mob scene with people coming by just to see what could make an electric bass be worth $1700 and shaking their heads in amazement as they walked away. Every detail was photographed, and copied by the next NAMM show. The only other time he remembers quite such a stir was when the Steinberger bass first took off.

Hey Mica, go make your mom and dad write about that first Alembic booth. Your dad is too modest to talk about blowing people's heads off but that doesn't mean we don't want to hear about it!

There have certainly been a lot of knock-offs, including slavish copies (the Fernandes - I think Leo's had one which they referred to as the Olympic), and inspired-by instruments like Jaydee and Ibanez. I think the problem with swatting down all these cloners is that Alembic was not a gigantic company, so the legal pursuit of these guys probably wasn't possible or practical.