I can't believe it took me so long to find the Club!
After dreaming of Alembics from the first time I saw a picture of Jack Casady playing the first all-Alembic bass (in a '72 or '73 Crawdaddy magazine) I had wanted one, and in May 1999 finally bought my first (and sadly, still only) Alembic - a new Stanley Sig Standard - on sale at a local Guitar Center.
I only played it sporadically for quite a while because it was so incredibly sensitive that my Fender Jazz based technique was too sloppy. Word to anyone interested in the Greatest Basses In the World - if your technique isn't up to snuff, an Alembic will tell you in a BIG hurry. After a while I figured out that you simply don't have to fret an Alembic as hard as other basses. They respond far better to a soft touch than to manhandling. Lotsa practice went into being a good enough player for my bass.
Amplifier is a 1970 Hiwatt Custom 100 DR103 (Alembics LOVE high quality tube amps!) with a couple sturdy homebrew cabinets with top o'the line E-V 15s. Not quite enough top end extension to get the most out of an Alembic, but excellent low end pop and extension. Well, if my latest project gets going it will be time to upgrade speaker cabs and start saving for the custom of my dreams.
Seven years of ownership have given me a different perspective about what makes Alembics so special. It's not merely that they are beautiful objects. I'd want to own one for the aesthetic pleasure it brings me in looking at it. They are also supreme tools for musical expression. One does not so much own an Alembic as act as a temporary custodian and guardian. An Alembic bass is a marvelous fusion of the thoroughly practical and the artistically magnificent, rather like a Faberge egg that can be put to a useful purpose. Mainly, one learns to appreciate the love and care that goes in to each Alembic. Susan, Mica and the gang are entrusting us with something very special, and it takes a while to learn to feel it.
Anyway it's always great to find an enclave of like-minded fanatics!
Cheers
Paul
