Johnny Lee Long Refurbished Alembic Series I

[jazzyvee]

Any thoughts?

[BeenDown139]

pure alembic sound imho.  aewsome!

[edwardofhuncote]

I love watching Johnny Lee's videos... he's a great player, and so entertaining, but that bass is about the saddest story I've heard in a while.

[jazzyvee]

He is indeed I saw his review of other alembics including a vintage large body series I long scale bass. He does love them.

[rv_bass]

He said it is a 73 bass, but I’m not sure about that. The logo looks cast not hand cut, the pickup shape and routing are the wrong period and the body shape looks more recent (i.e., horns spread a little more.

The preamp sounds similar to the Bartolini configuration I have in my David King bass, just a guess here, not sure why he won’t say what it is.

Looks like he did a nice job in general restoring a bass that was under water.  Would be a nice Series I restoration project for someone, or nice bass for someone in general.

[fivestringdan]

"Cause the wood is old"..lol

[edwardofhuncote]

Yeah, he's off on the vintage... it's later than that. A '73 wouldn't have had the hum-canceller between the pickups. It also wouldn't have a square battery box in the back, for the same reason. The round battery cover plates came along sometime later in '78 I think, and this one still has the older square one, though that doesn't mean much. It's still a cool old bass, lucky to be alive if it was submerged for long.

[flavofive]

The preamp sounds similar to the Bartolini configuration I have in my David King bass, just a guess here, not sure why he won’t say what it is.

Way toward the end of the video, he actually does reveal what preamp it is - it's a Tone Monster (I think one of these:  https://www.ebay.com/str/guitarfuelperformanceproducts).  I think he said he was waiting until later in the video to say the name because it's an inexpensive preamp, and he wanted viewers to judge the sound objectively.

Glad to hear others noticed the error about the vintage - it was driving me a bit crazy.    For the small body shape, it seems to be in late 1977 that they changed the shape from the older "brown bass" style to the current one that has been the "standard" ever since - i.e. with the larger/wider horns.  Johnny's is this newer style, so it's almost certainly 1977 or later.
I almost wonder if the stamped serial number actually starts with "78", but maybe the water damage made it look more like a "73"??   

[rv_bass]

The preamp sounds similar to the Bartolini configuration I have in my David King bass, just a guess here, not sure why he won’t say what it is.

Way toward the end of the video, he actually does reveal what preamp it is - it's a Tone Monster (I think one of these:  https://www.ebay.com/str/guitarfuelperformanceproducts).  I think he said he was waiting until later in the video to say the name because it's an inexpensive preamp, and he wanted viewers to judge the sound objectively.

Glad to hear others noticed the error about the vintage - it was driving me a bit crazy.    For the small body shape, it seems to be in late 1977 that they changed the shape from the older "brown bass" style to the current one that has been the "standard" ever since - i.e. with the larger/wider horns.  Johnny's is this newer style, so it's almost certainly 1977 or later.
I almost wonder if the stamped serial number actually starts with "78", but maybe the water damage made it look more like a "73"??   

👍

[dela217]

He called me a few months back about this bass as he was trying to determine the year.    He said he could see the serial number, it was something like 106X or so.   I don't remember what the number was, but I told him it was a 1978.   I guess he forgot.

[dela217]

By the way, he sent me some of the "before" pictures.   Yikes!!!

[dela217]

Kudos to him for bringing it back to life.    But I wish he would not have tinted it.   The bass is maple top and back, had that lovely Polane finish from 1978.    Here is a pic of the headstock/neck area before the repair.    I think this give a good idea of how bad the bass was.   

[lbpesq]

Ouch!  That's not just a break, it's a freakin' compound fracture!

Bill, tgo

[flavofive]

Holy cow.  Hurts just to look at it!   

[goran]

After seeing this pic, have to say he did a great job... man, my eyes and heart hurts now.