Short answer = yes.
Long answer (because I am my father’s son and he was a rather “wordy” individual)
I walked into Ralph Hanzel’s and there was a Distillate hanging on the wall on the second floor...
Stan was (is) The Man for me and seeing the Distillate, which if you squint and tilt your head, it kinda sorta resembles The Brown Bass and it had me infatuated.
I bought that Distillate. It did not capture all of the tones that I heard from Stan. It certainly did NOT make me play like Stan.
But this bass, my bass, was crafted by Craftspeople with a focused attention to detail and circuitry developed by a Wizard. Dream bass? There is a strong argument for saying yes. 35 years of ownership brings a depth to any relationship.
Case in point; we purchased a broken down, neglected farm property in Northern Wisconsin six years ago. (Long story shortened slightly). I literally didn’t touch my Distillate for the majority of that time period. My focus pulled to things that “needed” to get done. Recently an old band mate decided he wanted to re-record some of our songs from some 40 years ago from when we were playing in the guitarists parents basement.
Some of the songs were pre-Alembic and some are more recent. With COVID we are doing everything remotely. I was very tentative approaching this project as my chops were nothing more than a fuzzy memory. Enter the Distillate... she felt like home. No lie my fingers did NOT toy with the notes up and down the neck. The bumbled and stumble, and hurt and blistered (even a blood blister!). I sit in the basement with a DI, a Zoom H4N and my Distillate. Hunched over rediscovering that which once was...
Today, my callouses are somewhat redeveloped, my fingers are reacting to the patterns in my head and succinctly executing said patterns, and that sweet tone. The tone of an Alembic Distillate that not only augments my parts but actually inspires my playing. I find myself going into ‘unchartered waters’ with passages that actually make me giggle! Being able to “perform” music again, to tap into the creative part of my brain while using the Distillate as a paint brush is the definition of Joy for me.
If I had never set my bass down for that brief hiatus would I be as over the moon as I am right now? I’m leaning towards a No on that. But here I am, very happy with my first Alembic. More than happy - grateful and not in need of anything more. I have played an SC at the Chicago Gathering (when’s part II?), I played #12 there also and easily a half dozen other Alembics. I got to ‘try to play’ Edwin’s Series bass (don’t recall if it was a I or II) the sensitivity of the tonal palette controls was overwhelming and intimidating. All great instruments and all ‘better’ than a Distillate.
When I win the lotto the stable WILL grow.
Right now?
I’m good.
Paul (who somewhere has a picture from Chicago with John playing ‘slide bass’ with a Bass bottle on my Distillate
)
