Bolt on Neck

[Mlazarus]

Does Alembic have individual bolt on necks preferably ebony fret board? That way i can connect it to a pbass style body.

[edwardofhuncote]

Search for threads about "Modulus Alembic Bassstar". Closest thing there is, to my knowledge. Might be the only thing.

[lbpesq]

I am fairly certain that Alembic has never made bolt-on necks.   Even when they made graphite neck instruments, Modulus supplied neck-thru necks.   While Modulus did make bolt-on necks (I have an old Modulus Blackknife neck, along with Alembic PUs and electronics, on my #1 player),  I have never seen an Alembic employing one.  If you want to build a Fender-type bass with a graphite neck, you may be limited to searching out an old Modulus neck.   Another company named Moses also used to manufacture bolt-on graphite necks.   They were a different design.  While the Modulus necks were hollow, the Moses necks were solid.  I have both.  I prefer the Modulus, but the Moses necks are nice necks, too.  I’m not aware of anyone currently manufacturing bolt-on graphite necks.  Let us know if you find anyone currently doing so.

Bill, tgo

[Mlazarus]

If Alembic decides to make the Alembic spec ebony bolt Ons, I think it would sell. Only problem I see, it would be deceiving to have an Alembic neck (With the logo) on a different bass body. Not a true Alembic bass. So, I would think Alembic would make a bolt on with it stamped "Licensed by Alembic" But no logo. Fender does it.

[lbpesq]

If Alembic built electric cars, they would probably sell, too.   But, like bolt-on instruments, that’s not what Alembic does.

Fender doesn’t manufacture “licensed by Fender” necks.   They make agreements with other manufacturers for the other manufacturer to mark their necks “licensed by Fender”.  The other manufacturer pays Fender for the right to do this and agrees to specific guidelines to insure the quality of the neck.  In its history, Alembic has only a few times licensed another manufacturer to put “Alembic” on their instruments.  The Modulus instruments were one example.  Another were the Japanese violin-looking “Alembic” basses, like this one:

Bill, tgo

[Mlazarus]

It's just a nice thought for the sake of music enthusiasm.

[Mlazarus]

There i have it. The Modulus Alembic Basstar. I just saw it on Reverb.  I wonder how much the neck itself goes for. Maybe I'll put it on my P bass body with Bartolini pickups. Nice neck.

[lbpesq]

The Modulus Alembic instruments were strictly made by Geoff Gould at Modulus and, IIRC, used Bartolini PUs.  They licensed the use of the Alembic name as the two companies were very close.

Bill, tgo

[Mlazarus]

interesting.

[gtrguy]

I had the guitar version of the Modulus and really liked it. Was it a Blackstar? I sold it to someone on here I think some time ago.

[gtrguy]

Oh yeah, here is my post about my old Blackstar. Only reason I sold it is the whammy bar stuck up too much for my taste.


https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=17445.msg176075#msg176075

[StephenR]

The Modulus Alembic instruments were strictly made by Geoff Gould at Modulus and, IIRC, used Bartolini PUs.  They licensed the use of the Alembic name as the two companies were very close.
Bill, tgo

There were also a few Alembic basses made with set-neck graphite necks that at the time were supplied by Geoff/Modulus Graphite. The mid-80s catalog I have features a number of pictures of a short scale graphite-neck Series I with a Koa top. There is a page long description about the graphite necks where they refer to the Alembic Series "G" bass. I don't think many were ever made. The 1981 price list shows graphite necks as an option for Series I and II instruments. As far as I know the Modulus Alembic Basstar stuff post-dates the Series "G" basses but I am not entirely sure.

[dannobasso]

Moses no longer makes necks. Status of England are not taking any new orders but may have some bolt on necks left. They were more known for their MM style graphite replacement necks. I have 2 of their Mark King Black Beauty models, a 5 and 6. Great basses. But alas now you can't get one made.

[mica]

We didn't really have anything to do with the bolt on necks that Modulus made.

Our graphite neck basses (probably around 50 or so were made) weren't exactly set neck, kinda hybrid - most went about halfway in the body or sightly more, where most set neck guitars might make it to the neck pickup. We covered of the graphite with an inset of wood on many of them, though there are some examples where you can see how far in the body the neck goes on the back. The main reason is that it needed to stay clear of the terminal omega or point, which wasn't going to be something nice to do in graphite at all. Carving graphite seems like a very bad idea!

[pauldo]

Thanks for sharing that cool Fun Fact.