Hey man, the trick to those large companies is finding that one guy who has a clue about what they are talking about when it comes to bass stuff. There's always one and you need to find him but if you're a boutique customer what the hell are you doing in a Sam Ash or Guitar Center? They don't have what you need anyway. And you can't talk to most of those people about really nice stuff anyway so why bother...
The reason those places don't have expensive bass stuff is simply because bass guitar sales is less than 1/5 of annual guitar sales so those companies are going to stock what they can sell quickly. I know this because I work for one of those big companies, at least for another 11 days. I'm bailing out of that burning airplane before my parachute goes up in flames...
Guitar Center used to sell Alembics and Tobias and other expensive brands but the company decided to go public and do two things that would make shareholders happy: expand exponentially (which will be their undoing) and therefore sell what would move quickly. Let's not forget that a GC employee a long time ago in a land far far away was involved with the development of the Spoiler bass.
Let's also not forget that because bass sales are less than 1/5 of all annual guitar sales that ignorance about bass gear runs rampant because there are 8 million guitar players to every bass player. If guitar players and singers only knew that bass players and drummers spend their lives making them look really good (or really bad), they might be more humble about things.
Most humans on this planet are ignorant to Alembic's existent because 1) most people are not inclined to spend the kind of money on something like that 2) they are not students of bass guitar. They do not have a concept of the history of the bass guitar and take it for granted because this type of behavior is warranted in a society which does not value history. Anyone considering a boutique instrument should look at Alembic first. That would be the logical, educated move. A third reason for this ignorance is because most Americans do not have that great of an imagination. They are perfectly content with something if their peers are content with it.
I had a customer at work tell me his 500 Watt Eden was what he thought was top of the line. Hello, have you heard of Accugroove? Or Aguilar? No of course not, and that's because you haven't the imagination to know what's really out there. I really hate when people think their stuff is top of the line and then you say yeah, you could pay $15K for a bass and $10K for a bass amp setup in a heartbeat. People often need to be put into perspective, only as a salesperson I can't always be so blunt.
Back to my point about being a student of the bass. My 1966 Precision and 1974 Precision are never going to leave my posession under any circumstances because they are after all, examples of the Industry Standard and they have their own vibe about them. I know where they came from. Same with my Japanese '75 reissue Jazz Bass that is my prize souvenir from Tokyo, Japan because you can't get them in the USA new anymore. It's got the perfect Jazz sound. I chose the Alembic as my 10th anniversary of playing gift to myself because I wanted something that was like me: totally unique. I also wanted the genuine article in a boutique instrument. Alembic invented the boutique bass guitar and established its market, just as Clarence Leo Fender invented the bass guitar itself and established the bass guitar market. The choice was obvious.
