Nothing sounds like an Alembic Series I Guitar...pure bliss :)
Agreed. Just frustrated by not having any outlets to play it live.😎🤔
😊
Do you notice any differences in them, like there often is between different basses?
I'll have to agree, when I had that one on the left there for a season, plugging it into a pair of Fender tube amps cranked up was truly something special. At the same time, it was quite satisfying to just use the 1/4" plug and play through my junky little practice amp at work. (which happened a lot on rare days I knew I would be at my desk...) There really isn't much to compare them to.
Nice one, Jazzyvee :) For me it's the same as my Alembic basses, these are the instruments that I play, so I play them in every situation and that works well for me.
Greg, the standard point might be slightly warmer sounding, not sure if that is due to woods, scale length, or a combination of things. Regardless they both sound great :)
Yep, Series 1 guitars are the bee's knees for sure!
Bill, tgo
Two classics, Bill! The 12 string is magnificent, is that Peruvian walnut? If so, it's the 12 string sibling of my 6 string. And what year is your small body guitar? Very nice :)
That Peruvian walnut is really interesting stuff. I've never seen much of it that had an eye-catching figure, but in the right light it has such a warm glow to it. Several I've seen also had long 'weathering' splits in them too, so I wonder if the stuff wasn't quite seasoned out yet when the wood was sourced, or if it's just a characteristic of a tropical wood that ends up in a different zone?
Refer back to the Showcase Thread for 78-1116, and look... that's some beautiful stuff there.
https://club.alembicguitars.com/index.php?topic=22856.0 (https://club.alembicguitars.com/index.php?topic=22856.0)
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I agree, Peruvian walnut is a beautiful wood :)
Quote from: rv_bass on March 21, 2026, 11:38:38 AM
Two classics, Bill! The 12 string is magnificent, is that Peruvian walnut? If so, it's the 12 string sibling of my 6 string. And what year is your small body guitar? Very nice :)
The 12 string is a '77 in Peruvian Walnut. Since that pic about 20 years ago, the top developed a crack (probably helped along by storage in a small room that got quite humid due to a burst pipe). I'll probably seek some repair advice later in the year when I have the time.
The MSG is a '76.
Bill, tgo
Quote from: lbpesq on March 21, 2026, 05:52:06 PM
I'll probably seek some repair advice later in the year when I have the time.
Bill, tgo
Here ya go!
Peter
A work of art :)
I was hoping some more geetar players would drop in on this thread. Here's an oldie. This guitar was on eBay... golly, I reckon close to 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure it was listed as #73-45. It may be 46... the number was very hard to read. What's significant is, it isn't the missing #44. I always liked the ebony pickguard. Wonder where it is now?
Which sparks a question in my mind: Was 025 (AKA Wolf) made in '72 or '73?
Peter
Are there any known pictures of #025 before it was modified?
(I've read the threads... somewhat familiar with the stories...)
*FWIW, the 025 itself is interesting. Even if the guitar was 25th in sequence, it breaks with a pattern that had been established well before of dropping the 0's preceding sequence numbers. Unless you're dealing with the enigmatic alphabet characters that used O before numbers later on. Maybe that's the clue. 72-17 has no 0 or O. 73-27 or 73-28 have no 0 or O. Why would 25 have one? Is it O25? Or was the whole thing an older project that was scrapped and reworked? We'll probably never know. I would like to see what it started out as though.
You know, I think I may have typed that wrong; Jack's was 72-01, not 001, right? I think I subconsciously added the 0 based on the one in the single-digit s/ns, so I guess I was asking about 25, not 025......
Besides the many pics with Doug's later logo at the top of the headstock, and the fair number with his first logo there and the Alembic logo down by the nut, I once saw one with just the Alembic logo; alas, I did not book mark it, and have never come across it again, and IIRC Jer's arm was blocking a clear view of the p-ups.
That's the best I can do there, I fear.
Peter (who apologizes for any confusion)
You haven't posted anything that wasn't posted before, Coz. I have seen both ways online, both here and elsewhere; 72-01, and 72-001. FWIW, Rick Turner referred to it with the 001. He added in the same discussion that it was conceived and mostly constructed at the 360 Judah St. location in '71, and finally completed at the Cotati Chicken Ranch shop. I've never seen the end of the headstock pictured, so I don't know. It was the first one, so technically no serializing pattern was established yet. In interviews Jack said it took about a year and a half to finish, and that it was meant to be an experimental platform.
So no help. I was just throwing that out there for discussion. Hey, there's four 0's in front of #8... 🤣
I think we have more fascination with these things than the folks at Alembic themselves do. I've been trying to track down some of our own early numbers for Dad. He can't remember who got what, and I didn't often know who we were working for... I just did what he needed. Basically everything before our 8th banjo is a mystery. The first two are nearly identical, and he knows the two people who got them, but he can't remember who got which one... and it's been 43 years.
I remember walking into the 360 Judah St. location back in the day. I showed up at the 6O Brady St. location on, later with my Guild Starfire Bass, for the bridge with brass block and tailpiece modification.
Any more six-string (or twelve) Series guitar players watching? We kinda' sidetracked Rob on this one.
A bit late to the party - here's # 80-1532!
(https://i.imgur.com/orzsO3A.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ybKcjbV.jpeg)
I can't see those two pics. they show as purple blocks with 'Content not viewable in your region'.
Quote from: jazzyvee on April 17, 2026, 03:59:31 PMI can't see those two pics. they show as purple blocks with 'Content not viewable in your region'.
pics show up for me.
Midwest USA
iPad with Safari browser.
Quote from: jazzyvee on April 17, 2026, 03:59:31 PMI can't see those two pics. they show as purple blocks with 'Content not viewable in your region'.
These pictures were not uploaded to our server, but are on the Imgur site. That you can't see them may have something to do with Imgur and your ISP; I don't think it has anything to do with us.
Flavofive, great looking guitar, what are the woods? Your photos show how big those guitars really are . Very nice :)
Bummer, sorry jazzyvee. If anyone knows if there is a way to post photos "directly" to the forum here rather than linking to externally-hosted photos (or if there's a post with instructions somewhere), I'd love to know! It would save extra steps too.
Quote from: rv_bass on April 18, 2026, 04:39:24 AMFlavofive, great looking guitar, what are the woods? Your photos show how big those guitars really are . Very nice :)
Anyway:
Many thanks Rob!
Here is the build data:
- Top: Walnut- Back: Walnut- Core: Mahogany- Neck: Maple and Purpleheart- Fingerboard: Ebony- Veneers: Walnut- Tuners: Schaller- Inlays: Mother of Pearl- Scale Length: 25-1/2".- Alembic Electronics: PF-6- Completion Date: 2/14/80 (V-Day (https://club.alembicguitars.com/Smileys/default/smiley.gif) ) Nice to see your guitar and the 12-string guitar here! All look terrific. So all 3 of our large-body guitars have walnut top woods; interesting. Guess that a popular combination back then!
You're absolutely right, it's not a small guitar! I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Alembic guitars with typical "Series" body shapes (omega, point, small standard) have the exact same body size/dimensions as the basses, and the difference is all in the neck. So while the long-scale "omega" and "point" shapes already make for fairly large bass bodies, they feel even bigger on a guitar.
One nice thing about these long-scale body shapes - the "extra" body space beyond the bridge means that the entire string length is shifted farther toward my left. So the entire neck is very easy to access at all times, even the upper-most frets. Gotta reach a bit farther for the lowest frets, but not a problem if you're used to a bass.
I get the impression that the larger body bass size is similar to a the size of Starfire bass.