My bass youth
I was something of a bass maniac at a very young age. I started playing on a Univox (Mosrite copy) bass and matching amp in 5th grade. Then I graduated to an Ibanez Rickenbacker copy. I learned to play by ear playing along with almost exclusively Yes records. Then I learned some Stanley Clarke songs like Lopsy Lu and School Daze. I was intrigued by his Alembic bass, which I’d seen in pictures
and read about in magazines. You know, there was no internet then, so I only knew so much.
I grew up in Nebraska, far from either coast, but when I was 12 years old, in the summer of 1976, my family made a trip to California for a short vacation. After visiting Disneyland (I LOVED it!), we drove up to San Francisco. I wanted to try to look at Alembic basses and although there was no way I could afford one I begged my dad to take me to a store that somehow I’d located called Stars Guitars. I know now that Stars Guitars bought out the contents of the original Alembic music store in 1974.
I can’t honestly remember if they had *actual* Alembics there but I think maybe they did. Then a salesperson showed us a less expensive bass that looked an awful lot like the real thing. It was implied that somehow the bass may have started at Alembic, but he was only telling us on the down low. I later begged my dad to help me buy the bass I’d seen, but he refused and I was not surprised.
I didn’t want to leave San Francisco I wanted it so bad, but no amount of whining made any difference.
Fast forward six months to Christmas, still 1976. Much to my complete surprise and delight, my dad gave me the bass for Christmas. I played it constantly for the next few years, and it was awesome.
I knew it was close to, possibly related to Alembic, but I had nothing to compare it to. Little did I know just how Alembical it was!
The sadder end to the story is that one day the bass was knocked off of it’s stand and the headstock snapped off. I don’t remember hating anyone’s guts for it, so I can only think it was my fault. I got it repaired by a local luthier who worked on classical instruments, but the repair wasn’t great and the bass was never the same. Years later I sold it. Of course, I wish I had it now.
I told an abbreviated version (I hope) of this story to Mica, and she said if I had any photos of it to send them to her to check out. I spent a day looking through old family photos last week, and just before giving up found a couple of photos of my little friends and I doing an early 1977 gig at the local Children’s Zoo.
So take a look at my onetime treasure in action here:
