Soooo... does it happen again?
I have to admit, it's a little odd to me we don't see Alembics in action more on the Country scene. The first Alembic bass I ever held in my hands was a Distillate 5-string, right down on Music Row, not far from where Larry Cordle claims the murder was committed. (look it up) There's always a couple Alembic basses for sale in that general area. If it's just the stereotyped Nashville guitars = Telecaster, then, just knowing how hard those stereotypes are to break from the music scene I'm in, that's a tough needle to thread.
FWIW- I can get a very convincing Telecaster tone from my Little Darling through either of my Princeton amps, having A/B'd it with a pretty good Fender outfitted withsome decent pickups, and carefully figuring out what to put in or take away. (granted, the Darling is missing that annoying hummmmm...) The trickiest part is switching from neck to bridge on-the-fly with two toggles rather than the 3-position switch of the Fender. You can just slap that thing in a hurry, or a quick tug back for rhythm. It gets a little more complicated with two volumes and filters, but if you can manage the controls of a Les Paul, (which I can't) then you're good. Seriously, a more skilled player would have no trouble at all pulling it off.
I'm very interested to see if the Crest develops an acceptance and following like Balance K and its variants have. And especially interested in how a guitar in that pattern is received.