Now that I finally have Alembic Series I 74-124 in my hands, and have been able to go through it, I am more than pleased with what I am discovering. This bass is so iconic due to the unique brass work and I am finding many custom touches that make this instrument one of a kind. There have been multiple threads about this bass on the forum over the past couple of decades, and it seems the bass has had at least four owners since new, but previous photos were poor, and general information speculative to say the least. This thread is designed to clear up a few things, provide more detail, and possibly add to the mystery of this very special bass.
The overall condition of the bass is excellent. The circuit is completely unmolested, and it even has the original battery clips. The pickups are well balanced with each other, and there is virtually no RF noise. Mica and I discussed it, and while Ron likes to get the old basses back to upgrade the circuits, in this case since the bass seems to have left the factory with such an ideal sounding electronics suite, it is best to leave well enough alone. I also prefer to maintain the originality of the electronics just on principal.
The personal notations in the electronics cavity are also a wonderful part of this bass. It is like finding a cave painting from people of a long lost culture. From this we learn that Herbert Clarke Bell took ownership of this bass in October of 1974. There is some record of this bass and its wood recipe in the Alembic archives, and a note that it came back for a warranty repair at some point, but they are cryptic. In looking over the bass thoroughly, I am not seeing any repair to the neck or body, so I am of the opinion that the repair was associated with the electronics.
Now to the details of all the unusual features on this bass. The bass is a long scale fretless, and it retains the original ebony fingerboard, which due to the consistent use of flatwound strings and minimal use is in excellent condition. The unusual scalloped bone nut also appears original. It is adorned with two brass inlays, and with age has become almost fossilized in appearance. There is a maple sacrificial laminate under the fingerboard. Single truss rod with brass nut with virtually no tension on it. That is a true testament to how stable and true the neck has remained over the last half century. The bass came with 45-100 D'Addario Chrome strings on it, but I have since replaced them with a set of 45-105 Rotosound 77 flats which was an appropriate string for the time of manufacture. The neck is happier with those strings on it, and it is quite apparent that the fingerboard was plained for that gauge of string originally.
So what about those unusual knobs on the controls? Well, at first you would think they were replacements, but upon close inspection you see that they are the original witch hat and pointer knobs. Someone likely at Alembic gave the bass a custom touch by grinding off the lower bevel of the witch hat knobs, and added a brass dot to the top. They also softened or rounded and polished the top edges of all the knobs to give them a more organic look and feel.
Moving now to the bridge, this design is the same we see in John McVie's iconic fretless Alembic that just sold at auction for $100K. Mica has mentioned that she feels that much of the brass work done on 74-124 was commissioned after the fact by the owner, but in looking at the basic bridge construction and workmanship, I have to wonder if Alembic was commissioning hardware from this jeweler, or if Rick Turner was tapping into a fellow metalworker's skills to adorn this bass as well as create hardware for McVie's bass. Rick was a jeweler/metal worker prior to his employment with Alembic, and as he is quoted as saying the brass on 74-124 was created by a fellow named "Jack The Jeweler". One can help but speculate that Jack may have been Rick's mentor or colleague from his previous career. What I can say is that many of the design elements of the brass on 74-124 are similar to metalwork I have seen created by Rick's hand. This is all speculation, and with Rick having recently passed, we will likely never know.
As to the brass elements on 74-124, there seems to be a theme of moon craters and the cosmos. The raptors incorporated into the back electronics cavity plate are what I lovingly refer to as "Space Chickens", have a ruby mounted in the eye of one of the birds. The detail work of the back plate is astounding, and I believe it to be a casting made from a block carving, but I am no expert. There is a good amount of relief in the surface of the plate, so it was a fairly substantial amount of brass involved in the casting. The battery cover plate also appears cast. It is very detailed and incorporates a 1901 coin in the structure. The negative spaces are backed by a black piece of thin material, possibly a woven paper or cloth, which if removed would allow you to see into the battery compartment. The strap buttons are the original Stars Guitars mushroom type, and they have an added formed plate of brass with the crater design on the two mounted on either side of the point of the body. The addition of a brass plate and hand cast strap button on the back of the bass is somewhat of a mystery. It appears to be contemporary with the other brass elements, and may have been an additional support point associated with a belt strap, or support stand. Once again just speculation, but the placement as well as the need for a support plate lead me to suspect it was not just as simple as the owner wanted to make the bass have the traditional short scale Alembic strap button position.
One the front of the bass, the crater design continues in the switchplate, sustain block, and tailpiece. The tailpiece is unusual in that the brass plate is beautifully scalloped and stippled. It is also unusual in that the wood block under the brass plate is a multi laminate block consisting of what looks like walnut and maple. The lower front section of the brass "bar" type bridge is fully scalloped and relieved. The adjuster knobs are meticulously hand sawn and adjustability of this bridge is effortless and smooth. There is a perfectly placed sand cast thumb rest which consists of a main piece with a small spacer plate underneath to allow for clearance of the pickup edge. It feels great and is in the exact place I like to put my thumb. The headstock logo is the period hand cut silver logo, but it also incorporates a brass center piece which was clearly original to it. You can see the hand work around the embellishment in the silver logo which was done at the time of application.
The woods of this bass are noted in the original Alembic records. The top is a well figured piece of book matched koa. The core is birch. The back is walnut. The neck is quarter sawn tiger maple, and the stringers are walnut. The headstock face is cocobolo. The back of the headstock is walnut. The headstock laminates are maple and walnut. The body shape is a transitional one. It retains the blunt point of earlier basses, as well as the soft upper horn seen in basses from '73 and earlier, but it incorporates the new pointed lower horn which has remained unchanged to this day. The volute on the neck/headstock transition is minimal, but not unheard of. There is no sign of repair or damage there, so it is the result of leaving the area slightly thicker than some other volutes which draw the laminates farther back into the neck.
The fingerboard dimensions are the typical 1.75" nut and 2.25" at the body. The neck carve is a standard D with a very comfortable profile. Not chunky in any way, and with an excellent taper to the body. The bass is reasonably light in weight at 9 pounds, 14 ounces. It balances fairly well.
The original Schaeller tuners in gold are intact and working well.
The finish is original and free of any checking or major damage. I did find a couple of superficial scratches, and I did some minor touch up, level, and polishing to those to make them less noticeable. I also show in the attached video, the shrinkage of the headstock/neck transition laminates, and to avoid any chance of future delamination, I added, leveled, and polished a small amount of cyano glue to the area.
The case is a modern Alembic case the previous owner added.
Among the most controversial things was the power supply. There was speculation that it could be original, but after opening it up and looking at the craftsmanship, it is certainly not the work of Ron Wickersham. Was it crafted by another employee at Alembic? Who knows? The unit allows for power to the bass as well as high and low impedance stereo outputs, but it does not allow for mono operation with the 5 pin plug. It has an on/off switch on the back, and a jewel indicator light on the front. I am still unclear as to how the two switches affect the output, but it has something to do with low and high impedance operation. Mica is going to show Ron the photos of the guts, to see if any of it rings a bell with him, but she and I both agree that Ron would not produce anything of this caliber. My plan at this point is to source a vintage Alembic power supply. I tested the bass with a modern power supply, and it worked perfectly.
The bass plays and feels great. It records quite well, and is quiet and free of scratchy pots or issues. Attached is a video montage of quality photos as well as an initial recording of the bass on the neck pickup only through an old Audiobox interface into Garage Band.
(edited to add spaces between paragraphs for ease of reading)
