Hey, Alembiphiles!
I've been a pro bassist and repairman since the early 70s. In the early 90's, I was working as a repairman for the world's largest (at the time) purveyor of used musical instruments.
One day, while dropping off some repairs at one of our stores, I saw an Alembic bass pulsating on the wall, surrounded by a blue-green aura which seemed to be quietly chanting my name... suddenly it floated across the room to me (or vice-versa, I'm not sure which) into my naked, steaming hands and looked up at me and said; Papa!
The geek behind the counter said; I think it's called an 'Olympic...' and I plucked my credit card out of my wallet and slapped it on the counter. RING IT UP! I screamed.
Then he fetched the custom Anvil flight case... Listen, I'd tell you the mere pittance I forked over, but I don't want to make people smack their monitors with their foreheads.
Later, when I got the pedigree from Alembic I found out that it is a '75 custom Series II, with top and back made of zebrawood on a koa core, and maple/walnut neck.
I rewired the quarter-inch plug to mono, and built a splitter/power supply in an ancient Star Trek metal lunch box. I've played thousands of gigs with it since, running the neck pickup through an 18 cab with a 600-watt amp, and a 4x10 w/piezo tweeter cab with a 500 watt amp for the bridge pickup. (I send the mono line to a direct box into the main mixing board and for the monitors). I also use an upright bass most of the time, with its own setup.
Here's a pic. Sorry about the quality, but I had to kinda stand it up in my gear closet, squeezed in next to my upright.
