[SOLD] Alembic Dragon Wing Deluxe • Quilted Maple

[edwardofhuncote]

I'll stick my head in the lion's mouth here. I kinda' don't care for people using the Club for flipping gear, but the older I get, the less I care what other people do. I've bought stuff here, and sold stuff too. We don't know the terms of the deal, but this thing was posted for sale openly with the price in bold font. Any of could've negotiated with Paul and bought it same as Jon did. And he's selling it for more, because that's what he does. You don't have to sell to him or buy from him. Right this minute he's selling a guitar I used to own, for less than I sold it for a few years ago. What comes around goes around. I sold it back to the Club Member I bought it from for a zero-gain... a gentleman's agreement, kept. I didn't have to do that. But that's what this Club means to me.


So I wish him well. I'm not going to do any business with him, because I can sell things just fine myself. I can see keeping him from selling here because this isn't a commercial site, but if you need to sell something pretty quick, he's good for it. You just have to understand it isn't yours after that. You only have whatever money you got and a few memories.

[BeenDown139]

ehh...upon further consideration, never mind!

[gearhed289]

That guy's IP address should be blocked from this site.

. He uses many names but the Evergreen, CO is the “tell.”

Yup!

[hammer]

When people from the club put their gear up for sale they are giving up control over what is done with it. If they need the money, they sometimes list premium prices and hope someone will bite. If they don't, they ask for close to what they paid for their gear (or somewhere in between). I've purchased a number of basses through the club and always felt I got a fair deal. I've also sold a Europa 6-string to a good person in the club several years ago for exactly the price I paid for it. He used it for several years, took care of it, and recently sold it for what he paid me. That works out fine for those of us who are not in need of cash and are really looking to keep the good name of Alembic in the vocabulary of bassists. However, that is not always the case and as Greg suggests, none of us really need to respond to the inflated prices that this or any other flipper lists. I cant see the ethics in telling club members, "don't sell to XXX because he's a flipper."


This situation also brings up the question of who or what organizations are "commercial" and which are not. We have a long time club member who I think now lives in OR who has a shop that exclusively sells Alembic gear. He's fantastic to work with and an encyclopedia of Alembic knowledge but in keeping with the ethos of this site, he doesn't list his basses here. I'd be a little perturbed if the moderators allowed The Evergreen Flipper to list his wares within he context of the club, but I'd be the last to tell members selling basses, "don't sell to him." It's their bass. When they list list it, I certainly hope they are willing to sell it to whomever meets their price.

[gearhed289]

The problem I have is that this is a community. I just feel like offers made here are for the community. Assuming Paul got what he wanted for it (Jon likes to lowball like crazy), then all is good in theory. It just feels like someone slithering in to snatch up deals that were offered to the community. For a split second, I thought about buying Dan's 6 string Europa for the purpose of a future flip, but that didn't feel right at all. To each his own I guess!

[honkylips]

I agree with a couple of the other comments.  The Colorado flipper has a right to do what he is doing.  I’d feel differently if he were trying to flip on this forum, but if they want to try their luck on reverb with all the fees, the 1099 fun, shipping hassles, etc., to try to net a few grand, then I say more power to them.  I will say that knowing the flipper is out there, is aggressive, and seems to have money ready at all times has motivated me to not snooze on my last two Alembic purchases.  Ironically, the most recent Alembic I purchased was a Cocobolo Dragon Wing (the one that kept coming and going on reverb a couple months ago, for those who watch closely), and I paid less than half of the current asking price of the Quilt Dragon.  So in my opinion, the flipper might be sitting on that for a while at 19k, but who knows…

[hammer]

The thing about this community is that it’s an open one. Anyone can walk through the door. Most persons who do have a great appreciation for Alembic instruments. One of the things that has always struck me about the club is that, on a frequent basis, members who are selling instruments indicate in their listing that they would like their instrument to go to a player as opposed to a collector and for club members to have first dibs. I that that’s great and given that all but two of the Alembics I’ve purchased have been used, Ive always felt that I’ve received a fair deal in my purchases. Not necessarily the best deal but a fair one in which I could trust the seller. However, people join the club for variety of reasons. Some, just to sell an instrument possession of which has fallen into their hands

When someone puts an instrument up for sale through the club, it sometimes doesn’t sell because no club member is interested (okay, there’s ALWAYS a club member interested, they may just not have the cash on hand). What’s a person to do if cash is needed and there isn’t a buyer. They could always go outside of the club and sell elsewhere, but that complicates things. Making the club a closed group at least as far as selling instruments in order to screen out flippers is an option, but this is likely to make it more difficult for club members to sell their gear.

I doubt our “friend” in Evergreen CO cares about where the basses he sells go as long as he gets his asking price. Flippers will always be there and stopping them from purchasing here would likely unintentionally negatively impact club members who need to sell. I honestly don’t know if Mr. Evergreen is going to be able to flip that bass for quick $5,000 profit. He may need to hang onto it for years before he finds someone who absolutely must have it in their possession. As others have suggested, however, no one needs to buy from him. We are free to use the other options we have available to purchase an Alembic that we desire and there are enough of them out there from which to choose. I’d never purchase something from the flipper. His prices are typically outrageous and his feedback not the best. But then again, someone else has the right to overpay for an instrument if that’s what they want to do.

[jon_jackson]

-Moderators, if you believe this post is inappropriate, please delete it. I struggled with whether to post it or not. And it's long.-

Prairie Village Jon here (not Evergreen Jon). I hesitated to bring this up when this DW was being first offered to the club, since by all rights, it was like new condition. However, there is a backstory to the bass and the reason I believe it doesn’t have a year in the serial number. I also think it deserves to be shared given the current asking price of the bass.

09DW14032 was a custom Dragon Wing I ordered through Will Gunn in 2008. Susan helped me with the wood blank selections and the logo inlay materials. The neck profile was built to the dimensions of my Höfner 500/1 V.63. The build occurred from March to August, 2009 and I received it in early September. There is a Factory to Customer Thread about it: https://club.alembicguitars.com/index.php?topic=7446.0

It was the first Alembic I had ever seen in person or touched.

I was tremendously excited to get it out of the case; it was 100% better than my greatest expectations. After a couple of hours of playing it, I felt (I couldn’t see it) a tiny roughness on the neck right below the 11th fret which turned out to be two tiny, tiny cracks in the maple. After a conversation with Will, I called Mica, who immediately said I should send it right back to be fixed because it should have been perfect when it left the shop.

I sent it back via XXX at the end of October, cased, padded, and boxed. Mica called me a week later and gave me the heartbreaking news that it had arrived with the peghead broken off the neck, and I think I remember her saying the box had a tire track across it (not swearing to this part; I was in complete shock and driving to our vacation spot during the conversation).

She said they would deal with XXX about it and said in these cases, there were usually three options: patching the break (would be solid but noticeable), completely rebuild the peghead (much more expensive but would be like new and not noticeable), or build me a completely new bass. She said she was going to push for the last option since it was a brand new bass. She was, of course, successful and I received my new (2nd) Dragon Wing mid-2011 with some slight differences from the original design package since I’d learned some things by then.

I got to see 09DW14032 at the shop during a visit in Fall, 2011. It was in a rack with some other orphan basses and guitars which were to be rebuilt / repurposed as needed.

When I first saw the For Sale thread for this bass, I thought I recognized the quilting, fretboard inlays, and grain pattern of the back, which I confirmed after checking against my original photos.

My assumption is 09DW14032 was eventually rebuilt sometime before 2016 with a new peghead (since it isn’t the same one as originally) using the 2nd, like new, method and new LEDs when the tiny neck imperfection was fixed. I also assume the serial number doesn’t now have a year since it started life in 2009 and was reborn in 2016.

Anyway, that is the backstory behind DW14032, at least as far as I know. It was and is a beautiful bass which played like a dream, and I am extremely happy to find out it is again out in the world making music as it was built to do.

[garyhead]

That is a very cool story. I wish all the stories were complete for Goliath. Lost to time I suppose. The Reverb buyer 6 years ago never received the power supply, cable, photos / notes / paperwork from the seller.  ( search Reverb for Goliath and see the trove of photos…including with Entwistle )There was also a custom Dragon strap at one time but is now lost. It would be neat, like the movie The Yellow Rolls Royce.  It chronicled the cars owners / stories over its lifespan.  I have the names of at least 4 owners.  It languished in a music store in CT for years.  I think it spent 20 years in Germany.  And most recently, six years in a closet in LA.  It was briefly stolen (about 20 minutes) from a car in a Manhattan parking garage. Neat stories.  Leviathan lived for 30 years (1980-2010) under a bed.  The Orphan (1996 6-string Classico) was spotted in 1998 in the shipping department of the Mothership (Mary’s domain) by me on my first shop tour.  It was dusty, gutted of electronics and propped against the wall.  I was going to place an order for a Classico at the end of the tour……and there it was!  I bought it immediately from Susan via the Seattle authorized dealer at the time.  I came back the next day and it was all cleaned up and complete!  I didn’t know at the time that there are a few “night owls” at the Mothership!  It is on a stand in my living room now for the last 28 years.  I enjoy it everyday.  Had sturdy custom stands made for Leviathan & Goliath and they keep The Orphan company. I don’t have children or pets so nothing to tip them over…….except maybe an earthquake ……. And the stands have retaining straps on the necks so it’s really got to be a rattler to knock them down.