ALEMBIC BASS GUITAR, 1975,SERIES ONE MODEL, LONG SCALE

[sonicus]

Nice Bass.

[guitarplayer99]

After posting earlier today I remembered a few more interesting things about the bass. This is the story I was told by Vic Zinn in '76: it was originally owned by Gregg Philbin of REO Speedwagon and used on the You Get What you Play For album. Gregg had intermittent electronic issues that the dealer (Vic Zinn) couldn't duplicate so he exchanged it for another he had in stock. It was then purchased by Mark Cawley of the Faith Band in Indianapolis - which is the first time I saw an Alembic and fell in love. Mark began having the same intermittent electronics issues and also struggled with the sheer size of the beast (Mark stands all of about 5' 6 and has small hands) and traded it for a short scale series 1. It was then sent back to Alembic to repair the problem (a bad mini switch if I remember correctly). It was returned to Vic and that's when I purchased it.  
 
If you look at the bridge carefully you'll notice that the bridge feet are not stock. There was a luthier in Indy at the time named Wayne Kamp who I took the bass to because I was having problems with string breakage. He claimed the culprit was a poorly designed bridge mounting system. His solution: drill out the brass sustain block and enlarge the bridge to accept Ibanez bridge feet from a tune-o-matic type bridge so the bridge wouldn't wobble (according to Wayne).  What I didn't realize at the time was that he missed the center of the hole when drilling the bridge so the bridge sat more forward on the bass. Look at the saddles: you have to have the low E set almost as far to the rear as it can go for the intonation to be correct. Come to think of it, this might explain the 34.5 inch measurement when checking the scale. The bass WAS a 35 scale, but after Wayne was finished...
 
Oh well, at least I learned my lesson about letting someone I didn't really know work on my guitars...

[David Houck]

Hi Bob, welcome to the board!

[guitarplayer99]

Thanks for the welcome, Dave!
 
Peter, if you're still on the forum; if you ever decide to sell this bass I would definitely be interested in buying it back - even thogh I'm now a guitarist who hasn't picked up a bass in years!  
 
You just never forget your first love. ;-)

[klinkepeter]

Hi Robert,  
Greetings from Germany too, that is really surprising to me to hear from a former owner of my bass. I tried already to send you an e-mail but it comes always back as mail delivery failed I don?t know why, this happened to me also while mailing to other friends of mine in the US. Maybe you can send me another mailadress or your telephonnumber, I would give you a call.
Also if you want we can skype and then you can see and eventually hear your old baby.  I?m very curious about the history of the bass. Maybe bad for you but I?m not thinking about selling it because I?m very happy with everything. You have to know, I was born in the former eastern part of germany and at the age of 16 I got a record from Stanley  Clarke (I wanna play for you), this was so inspiring until now ( I?m 46) so I was always dreaming about having a bass like this. In the GDR it was almost impossible to get one because they are so expensive.  
By the way I bought the bass at e-bay in New Jersey from a dealer who sells basically vintage
instruments, he was very serious and I have same friends there wich were so nice to pick up the instrument.
Anyway, I already made some nice recordings with it ( I?m a professionel musician),
if you are interested I can send you one or the other file.
Thank you again for contacting me,
have a nice day.
 
Peter Inagawa
 
PS: Are you one of those countrymusicians on a photo the dealer was giving me too as a
picture of a former owner?