Hi,
I've asked for help a couple of times, and had some really useful responses.
So, I thought I really should have said hello and introduced myself.
I'm a first time Alembic owner, and I'm in the process of fixing up my '81 Distillate.
My previous basses have been a black '84 Westone Thunder 1A, a bubinga '86 Warwick Thumb Bass, a black '90s Wilkes Percussive bass (lined fretless), a green-blue '90s Kubicki Ex-Factor and a yew 5-string Status KingBass Artist.
I still have the Wilkes and Status, but I really wish I'd kept them all.
When I was a teenager I hung around the Bass Centre in London (Wapping) a lot.
I tried just about everything they had, which meant Wals, Statuses, Steinbergers, all kinds of things.
It was great because whatever new came out, you could try it at the Bass Centre.
Around that time (1985-87) a Wal was about £750, a Thumb Bass about £900, and a Status series 2000 was about £1100. It's amazing how the prices of equivalent basses have changed since then.
My memory may not be right on the location, but I think it was there that I first saw an Alembic Series 1, but unlike most of the other basses it wasn't available for customers to just pick up and play. I think that was just because it was on private sale for a customer. Anyway, I did manage to play it in the end, not plugged in, and I really, really liked the feel of it. It was, by far, the most memorable bass I came across, but the price put it even more out of reach than any of the other good basses.
Being a kid, I really wanted something flashy, and a red status 2000 really caught my eye.
But when I played it it had an odd feel. The neck was super-rigid and the the fretboard was very flat, but it felt kind of dead. When you did a slap or pop none of the vibration went through the neck into your hands. Part of me loved the strange solidity of it when you played slap, but part of me found it weird. Not a problem because I couldn't afford it anyway. Years later I got a Status, but by then the necks had a more conventional feel.
Anyway, during the COVID crisis I have been very busy, and my wife works in healthcare which has been very stressful.
It really focussed our minds on how things can change and how uncertain life can be.
So, I started thinking about basses I wished I'd had and the Alembic was always the one that stuck out in my memory.
The plan was to get one, give it a try and then think about next steps, but there wasn't much available (given lockdown and difficulty buying anything).
In the end I found this Distillate, which I really like.
In fact, despite the few issues it has that I am fixing, I like it the best of all the basses I've had, and I plan to get a series instrument next.
Not for a while, but probably within a year.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
