Happy to share that I have taken possession of 75-183 as the new proud owner. I’ve been oiling and polishing and she’s cleaned up nicely, so I have taken some new pics.
A few thoughts and issues.
Differences from my 76 series basses include single screw dog-eared pickups,
a somewhat different brass bridge/block configuration, omega cutout and arched rosewood fingerboard.
The rosewood is beautiful. The zebrawood top and back appear to be from "The Log" or "The Zebrawood"
that is famous from some of these 70s basses, like another of mine, 76-270.
75-183 is medium 32" scale, which is new to me, but I like it. (My other basses are long scale 34")
The abalone fretboard inlays are mostly in pretty bad condition with some totally rubbed off. Would love to see them restored, but not dying to part with the bass to send it in yet. I wonder if replacing them could be possible locally. Meanwhile, the frets are fine.
Another interesting thing is the sound of the bridge pickup is fatter and louder (even adjusted from back cavity plate) than either of my 76 basses. But unfortunately there is a pretty loud high end buzz from the otherwise better sounding 75-183 bridge pickup. The buzz can be filtered to be much quieter, but would love if it could be resolved. This buzz does not seem to be effected at all by the direction I’m facing, it is the same volume any direction I turn. Hmmm. Despite no upgrades that I know of, neither of my 76 series basses have any buzzing or noise. But the general character of both those 76 bridge pickups is thinner and imo not as nice sounding as the 75-183 bridge pickup that buzzes. Go figure. In brighter light the pickups look like army green, am I imagining it?
I’ve been through the old threads on this bass and have the specs, only I know it was back at Alembic at some point and I haven’t found info on what newer work was actually done. If anyone knows…
Enjoy the new pics!
