Series I Guitar in Japanese auction site

[tkotmk42]

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l1035848291

No info about anything (no serial number...)   Looks pretty nice, not a bad price considering today's going rate.

[lbpesq]

This one’s pretty early as it doesn’t have the adjustable nut that Alembic introduced around 1982, nor even a truss rod cover which, I believe, Alembic started using in 1977.

Bill, tgo

[edwardofhuncote]

Also on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alembic-Electric-Guitar-MSB-series-GT1404-/185283875205?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0


I will guess 1976, or very early '77 at the newest. Core wood is something other than mahogany. Koa? Cherry? Wow, what a cool old guitar. What's the top/back? Purpleheart? Vermilion?


I've been reading old threads on the earlier Series guitars with particular interest lately. I'm guessing this one is what was a medium-scale at the time; 24.625" which just seemed like an odd number to me until I read further.

[dela217]

I read in the eBay auction that the guitar has 8 minutes of fret left!

[lbpesq]

Also on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alembic-Electric-Guitar-MSB-series-GT1404-/185283875205?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

I will guess 1976, or very early '77 at the newest. Core wood is something other than mahogany. Koa? Cherry? Wow, what a cool old guitar. What's the top/back? Purpleheart? Vermilion?

My ‘76 MSG has a Koa core and it’s significantly darker that the core wood on this instrument appears to be.    I‘m thinking maybe Birch?


I do find the fact that the pricing is $2600 more in the eBay listing than the Japanese listing a little suspicious.  Perhaps the eBay lister doesn’t own the guitar, but will quickly buy it from the Japanese listing and flip it for a quick $2600 profit?


Bill, tgo

[StephenR]

I do find the fact that the pricing is $2600 more in the eBay listing than the Japanese listing a little suspicious.  Perhaps the eBay lister doesn’t own the guitar, but will quickly buy it from the Japanese listing and flip it for a quick $2600 profit?

Bill, tgo

Price seems to always vary on all the stuff listed in Japan. A while back one of the members here gave a suggestion for a vendor there that was reliable and honest but Alembics always seem to end up listed by various vendors all trying to make a buck. If I was interested in an instrument being sold in Japan I would shop by first finding a reliable vendor and then vet the instrument instead of the other way around.

[gtrguy]

I have bought from TC-gakki and they were great. A lot of people in Japan will list an item that they don't actually own but that they could buy at another dealers place. Then they try to sell it for a profit over the original dealers price.

[YamatoJJ]

Was what I was talking about on the post I made about the S I bass: guys who post the same instrument at an inflated price. Sometimes it causes both parties to lose out; potential buyer doesn’t trust and sends a warning out, which ruins things for the honest seller too. Lousy hustle in my eyes.