Alembics in Tokyo

[hieronymous]

I was fortunate to visit Japan for a couple of weeks - I have lived there on and off throughout my life (for a total of about 10 years) but haven't been back in 12 years! Visiting guitar stores - and very often, BASS stores - is one of my favorite things to do in life! Used to go to Shibuya many weekends in the '80s when I was in high school. But Ochanomizu is the place to go if you want a bunch of music stores in a concentrated area.

Of course, I kept an eye out for Alembics, and found a few! Check out this wall of basses:



Jimmy Johnson Signature:



Single-pickup Distillate:



Also some kind of custom with a pistol-grip (this was at the Ikebe bass specialty shop):



Also some familiar looking sandos:

[StephenR]

Hey Harry...

Great photos, thanks for sharing! The five-string in the fourth photo caught my eye so I looked on the Ikebe bass site and found the listing. Can't read the text but it is a beautiful and interesting Cocobolo MK bass with what looks like a unique electronics configuration.
https://www.ikebe-gakki.com/Form/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?shop=0&pid=799097&bid=ec&swrd=Alembic

Did you get to play it? Really curious about the electronics in particular. Are they described in the text?

[hieronymous]

Hey Harry...

Great photos, thanks for sharing! The five-string in the fourth photo caught my eye so I looked on the Ikebe bass site and found the listing. Can't read the text but it is a beautiful and interesting Cocobolo MK bass with what looks like a unique electronics configuration.
https://www.ikebe-gakki.com/Form/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?shop=0&pid=799097&bid=ec&swrd=Alembic

Did you get to play it? Really curious about the electronics in particular. Are they described in the text?

Unfortunately I didn't get to play it. The text says it's "custom electronics with treble and bass tone controls added to the signature circuit." About the pickups it says "The pickups are the same size as the SC-1, but are Fat Boy pickups with a stacked coil structure that can cancel hum even without a phantom coil, and are installed in a custom position. They achieve a high S/N ratio and fat high output without losing the heavy, crystal clear beautiful tone and resolution due to the high rigidity of the body and neck and the weight of the instrument" and finally that "The front pickup was originally equipped with an AXY pickup, but it has been replaced with the same Fat Boy as the rear pickup by the official importer Sleek Elite. The original pickup is also included." (Google translate actually works really well now!)