Hi Mica and Alembic Club-
Thanks for having me, and Mica, I am hoping you can help me solve an Alembic mystery. Back in 1986, I was a 14 year old teenage bass player, and my Mom made a deal with me. If I could save enough from my minimum wage after school job, she would go in halfsies with me on an Alembic Persuader. I don't think she expected me to do it, but sure enough, 6 months later, I was taking home (with Mom's help) a new Persuader that I worked for and paid for half of. I loved that bass, and rocked through my teenage years with a cooler bass than anyone I knew. Everything was fine, until 6 years later.
I was going to college in San Francisco in the early 90's, and I came home to LA for the summer of '92, so I gave up my apartment and put my stuff in storage, including my Alembic and a late 80's ESP jazz bass, too. You can probably imagine the rest. My storage locker was broken into, and I never saw those basses again. Heartbroken didn't begin to describe how I felt. I have never bought another Alembic since.
My Persuader had a maple top, kind of like this one:
https://reverb.com/item/64743551-alembic-persuader-1985-naturalActually, I really think this might be my old bass. It is a spitting image of mine, and it is located in Petaluma, so close to SF. The seller told me he bought it a few years ago from a local guy who had it in a studio for 20 years, so it is conceivable that this could be the one. Of course, I have no idea what the serial number was on my stolen bass, but I was wondering if, using the serial number (85P3786, I think, the last digit is partially hidden by the A string) and some dumb luck and good record keeping by Alembic, one could find out what retailer originally sold this Persuader. This bass so closely resembles my old bass that I can't help but look at it on Reverb, and wonder. LA is a big city, but I can't imagine too many maple topped Alembic were sold here in 1986. Do you know how many of these were made, specifically maple topped?
Maybe I am just looking for a reason to indulge myself and buy it anyways, but knowing that I was buying my old Alembic back would make it mean a whole lot more. Is there any way to learn more about an Alembic's history from the serial?
Thanks for reading, and I hope to learn more soon.
-Joel
