| Author | Message | ||
| funky4
Junior Username: funky4 Post Number: 11 Registered: 5-2004 |
currently on ebay...."interesting" description of electronics....any help and opinions appreciated. thanks chuckf | ||
| poor_nigel
Intermediate Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 177 Registered: 7-2003 |
I got quite a smile from reading the seller's description when it first came on the block. Wait for the build report and ignore everything seller wrote. The bass looks straight and worth the $2,800, however, the seller is ignorant of Alembics and has no feedback, at all. Should you decide to go for it, I strongly suggest you use Escrow as a payment option. It will cost you extra money, but you will not get ripped for all of your money. http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/payment-escrow.html You send in the transfer of cash. They inform the seller it is there. The seller sends you the bass. You decide if it is worth it. If so, you inform Escrow to release the funds. If it is not up to the bargain, you ship the bass back and inform Escrow of this. Then seller informs them the bass is returned and Escrow gives you back your funds. Guess who pays all the shipping. It can be a big hassle if the seller is not reputable, but it is doubtful that the seller will agree to use Escrow, if they are disreputable or simply a fraud. Culver City, California. You or anyone you know live close to the seller that can go pick the bass up in person? Any member here willing to help out? If you get ripped on eBay, primarily, you are with few options and can kiss the money goodbye. eBay has become a very buyer beware place. I wish you all the best, if you decide to go for it. BTW, when this was first posted, I checked and there were no 81 Alembics listed on the stolen list, so that is a good thing. | ||
| bsee
Advanced Member Username: bsee Post Number: 274 Registered: 3-2004 |
That whole description is pretty bogus. Definitely make contact before bidding and see what you can find out about the seller. A person on the ground who can check the bass out for you would be the best idea. The opening bid is listed at $2600, did he revise it down? If so, you may want to hold off on bidding even if you're interested to see if it drops again. Good luck! -Bob | ||
| poor_nigel
Intermediate Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 178 Registered: 7-2003 |
Opps, that would be my poor eyes, sitting here in the dark. It was at 2,600 all the time, I am sure. Makes it even more attractive! Note that I had to download the picture and blow it up to get a clear shot of the serial number so I could be sure if the last digit was an 8 or a 9. My bad! (I obviously think it is worth $2,800+) | ||
| bigredbass
Advanced Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 288 Registered: 9-2002 |
I see what Susan means about 'any body whoever picked up a piece of sandpaper . . .' So who the hell was this Ron Himself guy? What a strange last name. I wonder if I could get a Brazilian Maple bass, with that Q.Sound Automatic WahWah in a Pointer body? NONE of this is listed in the Quote Builder. All kidding aside, it really sounds to me like the former owner (he's selling his Alembic and keeping OTHER exotic basses?) owed the guy doing the auction! I'd DEFINITELY follow Nigel's escrow advice and be very, very careful. This is the kind of thing that's got 'EBay Horror Story' writ large all over it. Just watch: This same guy will be selling an 'Olympic Exploder' next week. J o e y | ||
| bsee
Advanced Member Username: bsee Post Number: 275 Registered: 3-2004 |
Well, the guy has revised the listing at least twice, changing the starting bid both times, so you could have seen $2800. | ||
| funky4
Junior Username: funky4 Post Number: 12 Registered: 5-2004 |
yea...i noticed the changed starting bid price Bob, and think I'll heed the advise of the others in this post and watch this one for a while....maybe Mica or someone at alembic can chime in with the build details on this bass and it will be of some help as well. I also emailed the seller with specific questions over 1 1/2 days ago with no reply yet???? Thanks to all for the current posts... chuck f | ||
| poor_nigel
Intermediate Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 180 Registered: 7-2003 |
Well, I feel better that I actually had something right in the first place, but I am obviously still going senile. I am not really interested in the bass, so I was not paying much attention. Speaking of seller reputation, there is a Stanley Clarke Deluxe on the block at eBay by the guy I bought a bass from last year. He is a great guy, and totally honest. If anyone is interested in this bass, getting ripped is the last thing one needs to worry about dealing with him. | ||
| bsee
Advanced Member Username: bsee Post Number: 276 Registered: 3-2004 |
The purple one? I don't love the color, but I am very interested in the bass if the price doesn't go far. The pictures make it look like the string spacing is a bit narrow at the nut, exactly what I am looking for if it is true. -Bob | ||
| poor_nigel
Intermediate Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 182 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hey Bob. I e-mailed John asking him if he would like to send me pics to post on here. The ones he has on eBay are pretty lacking. I e-mailed you his e-mail address, so you can work directly with him, if you want. He was very good to me on that bass I bought from him. I know nothing of the bass he is selling now, but I highly recommend him. Nuff said. As far as the color goes, if you were looking to sell it further down the road . . . Maybe it is much prettier in person. | ||
| bsee
Advanced Member Username: bsee Post Number: 277 Registered: 3-2004 |
I am looking for a player that is not necessarily a keeper. If I love it and keep it, that's great. If I don't, it will help determine the specs of a custom to be ordered down the line. I also have an 8 year old Maytag washer/dryer that I was getting ready to upgrade, maybe I can make him a deal? Thanks for the help! | ||
| poor_nigel
Intermediate Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 199 Registered: 7-2003 |
Here are a couple of pictures of this bass: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3749711468&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT  John says the bass really looks like amythist in person and these are too dark.  Looks like flamed maple to me. The next shot was too dark to be of use for anything except to skew the gamma so you can see there is no damage to the back.  That's all folks, unless John sends me more - I hope. It looks like it could be very pretty in person. Make me hungry for a grape Jolly Rancher! | ||
| bsee
Advanced Member Username: bsee Post Number: 284 Registered: 3-2004 |
We're off topic - but it looks like an SJ in the serial number with a few upgrades rather than an SC. Probably saved money doing it that way since the original buyer didn't want the cocobolo. | ||
| skokiaan
New Username: skokiaan Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2002 |
Looks like you're correct about the SJ with the upgrades. I have amended my auction to reflect this info. | ||
| kungfusheriff
Intermediate Member Username: kungfusheriff Post Number: 153 Registered: 8-2003 |
First of all--keep the purple bass away. Somebody else buy it, please! Second: the guy selling the Series is a twit, and I don't care if he's reading this. Whomever they are, they have been trying to offload it in the Recycler and Craigslist for months, starting at $8000(!!!). The eBay price did go down...I was watching with a degree of amusement. | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 1942 Registered: 6-2000 |
Back to that 1808 number, here's what the file has to say: top and back: Vermilion body: Mahogany neck: Maple and Purpleheart 34" long scale fingerboard: Ebony with Mother of Pearl oval inlays electronics: Series I birthday: April 2, 1981 originally sold to: Washington Music one previous registered owner in November 1981 | ||
| bigredbass
Advanced Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 293 Registered: 9-2002 |
I just LOVE the see-thru tints. I always catch it when I say this, but colored Alembics just float my boat, but primarily over the lighter woods. Wouldn't work too well over the dark woods for sure. I love even the idea of a purple ALEMBIC, but I could never bring myself to put the strap button in the heel. I always think the world looks better on Fuji VELVIA, so I guess bright colors must be in my DNA. J o e y | ||
| palembic
Senior Member Username: palembic Post Number: 1612 Registered: 9-2002 |
Brother Joey, than I just discovered something we have in common: our love for the Fuji Velvia (well ...apart from playing bass and Alembic of course) Paul the bad one Oh ...huh ...were you an old Kodakchrome 25 lover too??? | ||
| dnburgess
Advanced Member Username: dnburgess Post Number: 314 Registered: 1-2003 |
Kodachrome 25 - mmmm! | ||
| bigredbass
Advanced Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 294 Registered: 9-2002 |
I ALWAYS loved Kodachrome for the color and their was something so mentally stimulating about dealing with the world at a film speed of 25, the bigger f/stops, the slower speeds . . . but I caved in to easier access of E6 processing and Velvia as more and more K25 processors vanished (as well as the film! It's just not the same at 64.) I've often thought that the Kodak missed the boat in the trend towards more 'saturated' colors that Fuji propelled, since K25 was the original super-color-staurated film. Kodak has steadily moved towards this look. I wonder if in this mad dash to digital photography, we film (especially transparency) guys will become the photo equivalent of tube-amp guys . . . and really good scans of first rate negs or slides blow the doors off purely digital images. Plus I can't accidentally erase negatives when my hard drive goes south! J o e y | ||
| bob
Advanced Member Username: bob Post Number: 324 Registered: 11-2002 |
Okay, as long as we're straying... the 25 was great. I still own three tripods, each successively heavier, as I worked toward slower shutter speeds (and mirror lock up for long lenses, etc.). Velvia relaxed those concerns by a stop or two, it was easier to push, and E6 was cheaper, faster, and way less harsh on the environment. Velvia (to this day, I keep thinking 'Velveeta', much as I hate the stuff) had better blacks, and like other E6's (e.g. Ektachromes) was great in the blue-green range - but I still think Kodachromes, maybe even the 64, retained a slight edge in the red-orange area (think "Autumn Leaves", to maintain the musical context...). I was pretty serious for about ten years, but stopped about five ago, because I just wasn't ready to cross the 'digitial divide'. I'm getting close, the Nikon D70 is somewhat tempting... I have about half a dozen very nice lenses that are looking for a new mount. Regarding your last comment, Joey, I stumbled onto a site a bit over a year ago that was quite intriguing. It was by some professional landscape photographer, who happened to be trying out Canon stuff, and he appeared to have done an extremely rigorous comparison of scanned slides vs. digital images, analyzing both level of detail and color accuracy. The results were quite surprising to me, and to him as well (don't know the guy, but it didn't sound like he was getting paid to lie), and it was the first time I started thinking maybe it was time to get back into photography. If you're really interested, send me an email and I'll see if I can find the site again. Times change, if you're patient enough :-) -Bob | ||
| palembic
Senior Member Username: palembic Post Number: 1617 Registered: 9-2002 |
Rats ...and talking about being "off-topic". Well ...since I started it. I REALLY liked K25 a LOT. In fact all low ASA films (there has been a 50 Agfa once - the one in the silver pack with big blue dot ...but that could be something entirely EU) I liked but ...the K25 WAS special. I did some work too with the K64. I made a nice slideshow for a school with it (photographed and programmed myself) and the texture and colour of the slides were amazing. Brother Bob, here in EU too was a very extensive test in comparison between (top level) Digital and Traditional (do they use the world "Analog" here????) pictures. It was a landscape with a village. Pictures taken on tripod with about the same lens and both were magnified the same grade and details were compared. Conclusion was that the D were overall better pictures, although not on all points. Bob ...I think we're talking about the same test here. I appeared in a photo-magazine here. Paul the bad one | ||
| adriaan
Advanced Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 327 Registered: 6-2002 |
I don't know technically what you're all talking about, and I only ever see what comes out of consumer-level cameras and photo prints. However, I know my father used to have a relatively simple Kodak camera (1960-ish, not even a reflex) which somehow had a very nice lense that was very good on colour, brightness and depth of focus. He used to let a professional photolab do the prints, and it was always a pleasure to look at the holiday snaps. Unfortunately the camera started to fail mechanically in the mid 1980s, and the lense was integral, so he bought a decent Japanese camera with nice lenses. The prints were still good, but not quite as vibrant as before. These days all consumer photo labs, and apparently a lot of professional labs too, will only do digital prints, regardless if you bring in a film or digital files. It's probably nicer on the environment, but I do miss the colours and especially the 'softer' contrasts that the old-style prints had and that digital prints just cannot reproduce. By the way, I love the picture quality on the BunnyBass site: they really make the instruments shine and stand out. And then I must say that a lot of the pictures on the Alembic site are a bit fuzzy in comparison, which seems a bit of a shame. Adriaan the ignorant one | ||
| dnburgess
Advanced Member Username: dnburgess Post Number: 318 Registered: 1-2003 |
Joey: I thought the 4" x 5" photographers were already the tube guys. I think 35mm photographers will be the Motorola power transistor guys vs the switch mode amplifiers. Bob: I also associate K25 with Autumn. I'm looking at getting a small studio light rig to photograph instruments for the Green Square web site - which set me to thinking about getting one of those cheap(ish) new Canon D-SLRs - would be great to get instant feedback. OTOH if I'm going to spend a lot of time setting up a still life, it would be nice to record it photochemically. Maybe I could use the D-SLR for previews and then a large format camera for the final shot. Hmmm - oh yeah, forgot I already have two jobs and a family.... | ||
| funky4
Junior Username: funky4 Post Number: 13 Registered: 5-2004 |
Hmmmmmm...... And to think, all i wanted was the build, and any other, information on the Series 1 posted on ebay with the serial # 81 1808....???? Mica or Val....can you help me out here? chuckf | ||
| poor_nigel
Advanced Member Username: poor_nigel Post Number: 212 Registered: 7-2003 |
Mica posted it above. Here it is again: "Back to that 1808 number, here's what the file has to say: top and back: Vermilion body: Mahogany neck: Maple and Purpleheart 34" long scale fingerboard: Ebony with Mother of Pearl oval inlays electronics: Series I birthday: April 2, 1981 originally sold to: Washington Music one previous registered owner in November 1981" | ||
| 811952
Advanced Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 256 Registered: 10-2003 |
My vote is for Kodachrome 64. For video, it was the Ikegami 79 3-tuber for the longest time, but now the Sony 3-chip cams have caught up with tubes saturation-wise. My wife recently demoed one (Sony beta sx) with a 23-gigabyte optical drive in lieu of tape. Sweet. As for how all this relates to Alembic serial number 1808 (and what a glimpse into the future it was), do recall that film and tubes made all the pictures back then. Prints were done with enlargers and smelly chemicals, and most U.S. TV stations were only beginning to migrate away from shooting news on 16mm film. And that bass has *been there* yet will never become obsolete!!! John | ||
| funky4
Junior Username: funky4 Post Number: 14 Registered: 5-2004 |
thanks Nigel.....i missed Mica's post among all the other post on other basses, etc..... good playin out there chuck f | ||
| bob
Advanced Member Username: bob Post Number: 327 Registered: 11-2002 |
Okay, now that funky is happy :-) Is Kodachrome 25 still available? Took a look last night, and noticed that I have about ten rolls in my freezer... | ||
| bigredbass
Advanced Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 298 Registered: 9-2002 |
I worked as a one-hour lab guy for several years, and believe me, I don't miss THAT with digital! C41 is a cruel mistress, believe me. I believe color print's doom was foreshadowed by the developing/printing process being so demanding. Bob, I know you're right and the technology is erasing the gap, virtually ALL pro photography is digital. But I still love the magic of opening that little box and louping my slides. But I do feel like a steam train guy watching the diesels go by. dnb, view camera guys are the best! I wish I was a view camera guy. I saw some 8x10 Velvia transparencies from a Zone 6 guy once, and thought I'd drop dead on the spot ! F4, we can ramble from time to time. Good Luck on that bass ! ! ! J o e y | ||
| palembic
Senior Member Username: palembic Post Number: 1622 Registered: 9-2002 |
Yeah about that bass? Joey ...don't tell me you are in to F4's too?????? Brother Bob "BOB", of what I heard you don't need to store the K25 into the freezer or fridge. IFF I am well informed, to keep a filmroll cool is only needed when the color particles are already on the film before actually using it (like Ektachrome, Fujichrome, Agfachrome ...in their different types). A Kodakchrome 25 had NO color particles on the film, it was a BLACK and WHITE film where the color was chemically added to in treatment when you send it to the lab (it was a procedure based on grey-scales recognition). In EU the last lab that did it was in Switzerland. So ironically: the famous rich and deep K25 colors were artificial in both senses of that word. I remember a picture I took from a girl friend in University when we were walkin the woods (true ...honest ...just a walk). She wore a bright red sjawl over her head and I took a close-up of hear head for an old beautiful tree. Afterwards the shopowner who I gave my film and I judged the slides and this one really amazed me: the red sjawl really "jumped off" the screen, like I could come forward and hold it in my hand. My friend told me that THIS was the K25 effect. He said that -those days it is 30 years ago- it woudl be never copyable with an Ekta or Fuji or Agfa whatever. Yes I know ...I talk too much and this ought to go about this gorgeous bass that BELIEVE ME ...I absolutely like. I takes somne courage to paint that wood but teh effect is amazing. Like when you take a picture ... STOP Paul the bad one | ||
| dnburgess
Advanced Member Username: dnburgess Post Number: 321 Registered: 1-2003 |
FYI, there are 15 rolls of K25 for sale on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=74919&item=3841031092&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW | ||
| palembic
Senior Member Username: palembic Post Number: 1624 Registered: 9-2002 |
Hehehehehe ...this IS a WEIRD club. Thanks David! How's down under hanging?? Oooops ...that sound weird too! Paul the bad one |
