| Author | Message | ||
| mele_aloha
Junior Username: mele_aloha Post Number: 31 Registered: 1-2007 |
Howdy fella-o Alembiconians WAAAZZZZZZUUUUPPPPPP?!?!?! It's about time that I finally show you my final answer that I have submitted to Mica. It has been an amazing experience to get to this point. I am referring to this order of course. The experience that Susan and Mica have dealing with people in this business has been perfectly exercised to my full advantage. They really have been able to read my dispositions even though I was basically developing my order through Valentino. I have changed and altered my order based on my tastes, feelings, reading your opinions, my mothers health, my cats, my wife, my little boy, my Carvin, my Excel, and the results of a trial. What I am about to show you is what I finally submitted to Mica and is what I have truly wanted all along but was able to reveal the truth because all of the above was altering and fluctuating the truth in my mind. Some of it physiologically,some psycologically, some Metaphysically, some subliminally, some psycosomatically,some paraphrasastochromatically, some chromesomalogically, and some a buginmyasshollyocrity! To put it honestly, through years of experience, Susan and Mica were able to watch and evaluate my indecisiveness until the point which I finally was able to express my true dream on paper. Through this process I was racing to get changes in place because of things that I kept reading and observing from your posts in this forum. I kept gaining knowledge from you guys and at the same time I was sending my 50% downpayment and then adding a couple of other payments and changing my mind all the while that I hoped that Valentino would and then again wouldn't send me the final order contract. My real indesiciveness was from the following; I was really determined to have Koa on the front as a sort of theme since I was here in Hawaii. But yet I was really turned off by the Koa that was on all of the Alembic forum pictures that I could find as well as the poor display of Koa in the Wood display thread. I had never seen a good piece of Koa on an Alembic. I didn't want a poor piece of Koa after going this far on a bass, the dream of my lifetime. So I finally changed my order to Maple on the front as the Signature Standard 5 bass in the Alembic Store just made me druel. I pasted that bass on two of my desktop computers and just use to go to sleep in front of it. Then I found a bass for sale recently in ebay that this guy was selling from the Kona side of this island. I went to take a look at it and it was the best Koa that I had ever seen on an Alembic, period. So I finally changed back to Koa on the top and Maple on the back and Valentino quit this week so I didn't feel guilty switching my order again. Susan made me feel very comfortable and said that this was the reason that she hadn't put my order through yet as she knows what we all go through. So here we go. This is the final answer and I am ready to get this bass manufactured. I am going to try and see if I can get these pictures on this post so be patient with me, OK?  Custom Series II order: Paul’s Series II ALEMBIC “MELE ALOHA” Series II custom 5 String Left Handed 34” Long scale Balance K body shape with Heart Omega Body Shape and features similar to: “Raging Bass” September 2006. Comfort fingerboard taper (wide bridge) Neck and neck wood similar to: Neck design as per drawing faxed to Mica. Crown peghead with 3&2. Beveled front and back of peghead Matching koa on peghead,front and back. Abalone Oval Inlays Fretted Ebony fingerboard Custom Palm Trees on 5th fret instead of initials, initials on 12th if possible. Initials PM Top Wood: Best selection of Koa not to plain, lot’s of action, and hopefully color variations. Note pictures attached. Special Accent Laminates. ¼” layer under top Koa piece of Maple, then thin laminate or pinstripe of darker walnut followed by vermillion body Top does not have to be book matched if you have something else that will work. But book matched will be fine. And I don’t want top to center. Neck showing all the way through please. Body wood: Vermillion Back Wood: 5A quilted Maple, bubble style similar to Signature 5 on website, note attachment. ¼” laminate of Purpleheart. Pinstripe of dark walnut Tummy and elbow contours. Continuous wood back plates. Gold plated truss rod cover 24k gold plated hardware Same knobs as raging bass. Gold Alembic scrolling on pickups Recessed silver logo w/shell, would sunrays be an extra? Please add if possible and bill me. Front laser LED’s (blue) w/dimmer switch Side LED’s (blue) w/dimmer switch Polyester clear gloss with Satin Neck Feel Comfort fingerboard taper (wide bridge) as per Serial #98X11923 Bridge block Bird tailpiece Back and front peg taper Gold Alembic Gotoh machine heads Gold Alembic strap locks Stereo/mono switch for ¼” jack So here you are. I hope you all can picture my dream and I know that the Alembic family can transpire it. I'll be looking forward to your comments. Aloha, Paul | ||
| 57basstra
Senior Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 527 Registered: 4-2005 |
Very, very cool, thanks for sharing! David | ||
| tbrannon
Advanced Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 304 Registered: 11-2004 |
You certainly won't be disappointed. Looking forward to this one..... Toby (Message edited by tbrannon on January 30, 2007) | ||
| the_8_string_king
Advanced Member Username: the_8_string_king Post Number: 380 Registered: 9-2005 |
Wow, you're not foolin' around, are you? You obviously have a really clear idea of what you want. There are only 3 things I can think of that you might consider: (1) If you have the moolah to get this bass, you might consider adding bass and treble controls; you could add the knobs, or just the toggles; you could add individual controls, or just a master set. If I could afford what you've spec'ed, I know I'd get at least a master set of toggles. They wouldn't add much space... but they'd add a lot of additional flexibility. Worth considering. (2) You also might consider a continuous woodplate for the truss rod cover -and possibly continuous wood pickups. Have you seen "Bird of Prey" and "Lion's Roar"? Of course, if you're NOT BTCering, it's probably less significant. Just a thought. (3) Finally, since you're going nuts with the LEDs, and you're getting a cool custom inlay, you might consider coordinating the two, and having some kind of cool LED feature that works with/accentuates the inlay in some way. That's all I've got. Probably nothing there, but'cha never know. I'll look forward to seeing it. It will be quite an impressive beast! Actually, there is one more thought: it's regarding your neck. And it's just something for you to consider, no disrespect intended for/towards your design/concept -which would be awesome. Ebony is very expensive, and very heavy. My understanding -check with Mica and Susan, of course- is that 3 Ebony neck laminates will not have much more of an effect on sound than just 2 would... but it would add about a pound of weight, and about $675 retail to the cost. An alternative you might consider would be to have the inner 5 laminates be Purp/Eb/Verm/Eb/Purp. (Or just switch the center Ebony laminate for Vermillion). Having a center laminate of Vermillion -instead of Ebony- would cost less, would weigh less, and would really spice up the color. Of course, one final variation on this idea would be to keep your neck specs, but have the center Ebony laminate divided in two with a thin laminate of Vermillion in the middle -in other words, substitute the one center Ebony laminate for 3 thinner laminates, with a Vermillion one in the center. This might balance out the concept you have with the outer Flame Maple laminates being divided by a thin Walnut laminate, and would look really cool -especially since you don't intend to BTC. You can see "Raging Bass" looks really awesome with the thinner neck laminates. Okay, that's all! Hope these ideas are helpful, even if you end up rejecting them all. Bassed wishes, Alembic-brother! | ||
| the_8_string_king
Advanced Member Username: the_8_string_king Post Number: 381 Registered: 9-2005 |
P.S. I think the retail is $400 extra for 1 set of "quick-change" switches... if you substituted the inner laminate of Ebony for Vermillion (at which point you'd have to decide whether you'd want to swap the locations of the 2 Purpleheart and 2 Ebony laminates or not -depending on which color combo you'd most prefer) the money you'd save on passing on the 3rd Ebony laminate would pay for the "quick change" switches, leave a little change in your pocket, and look extra-cool! (IMO... but, of course, your opinion is the ONLY one that matters with respects to YOUR dream bass!) Obviously, the option of upgrading the center Ebony laminate to 2 thinner laminates with a Vermillion laminate in the middle would be MORE expensive. Blah, blah, blah, hope this helps, bye! | ||
| the_8_string_king
Advanced Member Username: the_8_string_king Post Number: 391 Registered: 9-2005 |
Hey Paul, just in case you missed the related threads, it appears that I'm wrong about the weight of the Ebony lams. I made the claim that they weighed a pound each... but I was basing this on something someone else said. That's a mistake I don't make often, as I don't know it to be true. So I apologize for this error. And keep on top of this -to the extent you're curious- on the other thread. I'm really interested in know exactly home much Ebony lams weigh -and specifically compared to the other neck lams. Happy trails, look forward to seeing what you decide! |
