So in the late 70's I worked in a terrific 'mom and pop' music store in a little town in East Texas. I've always been a catalog nut, and this place had several file drawers full of everything from Conn horns to Mutron to . . . Alembic.
I would take the few sheets out and just stare at these Series instruments and was just mesmerized. I knew what I was looking at, just how big a jump these were. The new Precisions and Ricks hanging on the walls suddenly seemed so . . . . prehistoric alongside these things.
Fast-forward 15 years. After I'd moved to Nashville, over time I got 'round to all the music stores here. Gruhn's was an eye-opener after having read about them for so long. I walked into one of the 'too-cool-for-school' shop at that time, Rock Block, full of graphics-painted Jacksons, Steinbergers, the then fairly new Taylors, and so on. I look up in the midst of all the axes hanging six-high up the walls, and . . . . there a five-string Alembic, Series-shaped, in see-thru red. The room began to spin . . .
Eerily, this was what I would have custom ordered. At that time, I didn't know enough Alembic-ese to realize it was a Spoiler, all i knew was it didn't have that 'middle pickup' !
I didn't know Spoiler from Spamola. Didn't care. Had to have it. I'd never seen one in the flesh. Bought it. Done. I still have it, and will never be without it. Spooky . . . . .
J o e y