Restored 1976 Alembic Series I with colorful history

[tomhug]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163808705914


Don’t know a thing about this, but it must have had a colorful history.


Kudos to the seller for including so much good information from reputable experts in the listing.


Kudos to Alembic for building instruments so well they can be restored to this level.

[David Houck]

Interesting documentation.

[Mark 63]

Maybe Turbo Tom got his mitts on this one.

[gtrguy]

-Neat bass. The battery cover looks like a homebrew too. So is the bass refinished over now? Looks like it was carefully done.
Totally agree about how nice the seller was to include all that interesting info.

[jwright9]

There is another thread about this bass on here somewhere. I'll let Gregory locate it. 

[edwardofhuncote]

I think this is the same bass... if so, here is a thread by the luthier who repaired her truss rod.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/replacing-the-truss-rod-in-an-early-alembic.1347719/

If not, it's a remarkable coincidence. (which happens a lot here) 

*and yes, there's a thread here too, it'll just take me longer to find. I happened to be subscribed to the repair thread on TalkBass.

[edwardofhuncote]

Found it. Yep, #76-490, same bass. I'm not 100% certain that it's the same one in the TalkBass thread, but I'd take a cheap bet.


http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=23429.15

[jwright9]

Found it. Yep, #76-490, same bass. I'm not 100% certain that it's the same one in the TalkBass thread, but I'd take a cheap bet.


http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=23429.15

Yes, it is the same one. I remember inquiring about her on tb and reverb last year when it was for sale.

[gtrguy]

More pics of here on this CL ad:

https://palmsprings.craigslist.org/msg/d/yucca-valley-1976-alembic-series-bass/6952116959.html

[David Houck]

So it picked up a logo somewhere along the way.  Not sure what that thing with the two wall-warts is.

You can really see the difference in the two core halves from the top-down views.  Kinda looks interesting; a chocolate and vanilla effect.

[edwardofhuncote]

I'm particularly amused by how much information is available on this bass, when so so often on more -shall we say- pristine examples [used my G. Gruhn voice... ] there's little or nothing to go on.

Yep, newer logo than the '76 issue. Maybe it came offa' a Fernandes - there's some justice imagined. 

I do wish someone would scrub that black paint off the tailpiece.

[jwright9]

Original listing from Reverb last year.

https://reverb.com/item/9982722-alembic-series-i-1976-nice-bass-guitar-second-price-update



Too bad the current owner didn't know about all the issues that were covered up with the white paint. Must have been frustrating to go to restore it and find out the hard way all the issues.
Nice that it has been restored to this point though.

[edwardofhuncote]

A bid at $3750. Somebody will get a nice one. Dragons grow replacement wings... who knew?!

[jwright9]

A bid at $3750. Somebody will get a nice one. Dragons grow replacement wings... who knew?!

Indeed, hopefully that bidder follows through and pays. I can see that they retracted their bid once already.

[mica]

Was there a photo of the electronics cavity of this bass somewhere? The craigslist ad is deleted now, but I thought I saw a very shiny interior of the electronics cavity without shielding. But then again, my memory isn't quite what it used to be.