I'll try to make this short. In 1994 went to a music store in Winston-Salem, N.C.. New Alembics had just come in. An Essence caught my I and an employee let me go for a test drive. About 30 seconds into it the phone rang then the employee rushed over, took the bass out of my hands and said it has just been sold. Fast foward to the summer of 2004. While again cruising in W.S. I stopped in a pawn shop to see a beautiful but unpolished flamed koa top Alembic Essence hanging at the back of the store. Didn't have the cash $999.00 at that time. Came back a month later and it was still there but on layaway. I told the sales lady that the person would never pick up the bass. She looked at me like I was a fool!! She ask me how I knew. I asked her to tell me the last day before the bass would go back on the floor. She said on a Friday. I told her I would be back Saturday afternoon to pick up my bass. I went out and bought new Alembic strings. Came back that Saturday eve. and the sales lady said the guy never came back. It's yours!! Called Alembic to run the numbers, it was never registered or claimed stolen and was sent to a music store in W.S. in 1994. That is when I realized it was the same bass that was snatched out of my hands ten years earlier. I polished it up and what you see on Sennys' post is the result. Cost then... 2100.00 Cost to be made now... over 3300.00. By the way that music store went out of business a few years later. Yes Dave that is a flamed koa top! Serial# 94K8332
