| Author | Message | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 12 Registered: 12-2004 |
i only own 2 alembics (sold my 3rd 3 weeks ago), so i'm far from an expert. could the other members of the club take a look at this new ebay listing and tell me why the 24th fret would be gouged like this? i mean, a reason other than the bass being stolen. i've looked at the stolen alembic registry and can't match this particular bass to a listed stolen alembic. is this a distillate? seems fishy to me. | ||
| keith_h
Intermediate Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 140 Registered: 2-2005 |
Do you have a link? I searched the US ebay and did not see any Distillate listed. Keith | ||
| lowlife
Intermediate Member Username: lowlife Post Number: 174 Registered: 12-2003 |
Here's the link, I think. http://cgi.ebay.com/ALEMBIC-BASS-GUITAR-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ7340379687QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Ellery (Lowlife) | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 13 Registered: 12-2004 |
that's the bass i'm talking about. i don't know how to get the link on this page. sorry. am i the only one who can see that the entire 24th fret, including the serial number, has been gouged out of the fretboard? ideas, anyone? | ||
| lowlife
Intermediate Member Username: lowlife Post Number: 175 Registered: 12-2003 |
I agree. Looks like it's been gouged-out to me also. Have you emailed the seller for details? Ellery (Lowlife) | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 14 Registered: 12-2004 |
i messaged him on the ebay internal messenger at about 5pm CDT and have not received a response. as his ad claims, i'm sure he's going to say he doesn't know anything about the bass. i found that curious to be in the ad in the first place, so i began looking closely at the pics. i was truly astounded to find the 24th fret virtually gone. as i mentioned in my initial post, i went thru the stolen alembics list and can't seem to match what i see in the pics to any of the basses listed. the bass looks like a distillate and i can't match this bass to any of the basses listed on the stolen list because so many of the basses listed on the stolen list provide very little identifying info save for model and serial number. no serial number on this one, and the seller hasn't responded to my direct inquiry asking why the fret is gone and if he can provide a serial number. i'm sure the seller really knows why the fret is gone and that's why he preemptively mentions he knows nothing about the bass and provides no info in order to "prove" his claim. interesting how people are now bidding on a possibly stolen bass w/a neck cracked all to hell at the worst possible place! | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 15 Registered: 12-2004 |
strangely enough, after posting that last message here about attempting to contact the seller, i'm now being flooded w/fake ebay messages telling me my account will be deleted if i don't update my info by clicking on a link, as if i'm stupid enough to fall for the "fake update link" trick! these messages are all infected w/a virus attached to an attachment called "eagle." my anti-virus caught all the infection attempts. something strange is going on here. | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 16 Registered: 12-2004 |
strangely, as of 9:15pm CDT, july 31, this bizarre saga has come to an end. the seller has w/drawn the item from sale due to an error in the listing. very curious, if you ask me. this entire situation has all the markings of a "stolen bass for sale on ebay." | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2119 Registered: 5-2002 |
Wow! Glad your computer is ok. The pictures are gone too. | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 17 Registered: 12-2004 |
hi, dave. i know the pics are gone, which is also a first for a w/drawn ad in my experience. i wish to heck that i had downloaded the pics so everyone could take a look. obviously, the seller has now done everything he could to hide the trail so no one could identify the bass. i'm absolutely certain he was accessing this page and reading my posts. each time i posted a message about this bass, something would happen, whether it was my account being inundated w/fake "update or be deleted" messages or the offer being w/drawn or the pics being deleted. i would go back and forth between this page and the ad, and i noticed a direct correlation between posts here and something happening w/ebay. so, in my humble opinion, and i was an assistant criminal district attorney here in san antonio for 5 years, we have a bass thief trying to sell a stolen bass. i'm pretty sure it was a distillate. maple top. purpleheart laminate neck. plate under the 24th fret had almost all of the finish scraped off and there were gouge marks on what finish remained. virtually the entire 24th fret was gone. it didn't look clean enough to have been gouged w/a router; more looked like someone had taken a rat-tail file and just filed it off, leaving concentric gouges in the fretboard. as i recall, it had a crown peghead. maybe LOWLIFE can provide more details. | ||
| lowlife
Intermediate Member Username: lowlife Post Number: 176 Registered: 12-2003 |
I wish that I could. I only remember the bass because I hadn't seen too many older Alembics with just one pickup (it did have one pickup, right?) I didn't email the seller, but I did notice that after each of the 3 times that I went directly to the eBay add, I also got the fake "update/or be deleted" message. Ellery (Lowlife) | ||
| jagerphan84
Advanced Member Username: jagerphan84 Post Number: 208 Registered: 10-2003 |
<nothing to see here, sorry> (Message edited by jagerphan84 on August 02, 2005) | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 18 Registered: 12-2004 |
LOWLIFE is correct that it had a single soapbar pickup, and i think it only had 2 controls like a volume and pan, maybe. i'm pretty sure it was a distillate. i've got a spoiler and it was similar to a spoiler, so that's what makes me think it was a distillate. it did not have all of the spoiler electronics, that's for sure. weird that LOWLIFE had the same fake "update or be deleted" messages each time he visited ebay that i also got. also, when i speak of the 24th fret, i do mean the fingerboard below the 24th fret; i.e., the piece of wood we all know as the usual place to find an alembic serial number on so many different alembic models. the actual fret itself was still there, but all of the wood was absolutely gouged out; again, as if it had been done w/a rat-tail file! | ||
| dela217
Senior Member Username: dela217 Post Number: 531 Registered: 6-2002 |
You guys mean this one? It looks like a spoiler to me.  | ||
| dela217
Senior Member Username: dela217 Post Number: 532 Registered: 6-2002 |
I found this in my cache. If you visited the auction, you can find this pic on your computer in the temporary internet files folder. All of his pictures started with GTR. So, you can do a search for GTR*.* and you will see them.  | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2128 Registered: 5-2002 |
Michael; was that picture in your cache? Do you have others from the listing? Edit: hey, you read my mind! And yes, it appears to be a Spoiler body, Maple on Mahogany, with a volume and filter but no Q switch. (Message edited by davehouck on August 02, 2005) | ||
| dela217
Senior Member Username: dela217 Post Number: 533 Registered: 6-2002 |
Yes. I have the other photos as well. I have the ones where he shows the fractures and the dings. I just figured these are the ones folks wanted to see. | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 19 Registered: 12-2004 |
that is absolutely the bass. the one pic dela217 came up with is not the closeup which showed how badly the serial number had been obliterated. but that is absolutely the bass i've been talking about. dave, is there any chance you can match this bass up to any spoilers listed on the stolen page? that was why i started this thread. someone clearly went to great, and sadly destructive efforts to eradicate the serial number from this bass. to me, that indicates it's stolen. i'm not saying stolen by this seller but by someone, and when the seller's main point in the ad copy is disclaim virtually any knowledge of the bass, there's something wrong with the entire situation. couple that with the rapid w/drawel of the ad when i asked the seller if it was stolen, and i think it's clear that this bass has a questionable history. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2131 Registered: 5-2002 |
Patrick; as I live clear across the country from Santa Rosa, the answer from a practical standpoint is no, I can't. (Message edited by davehouck on August 02, 2005) | ||
| adriaan
Senior Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 589 Registered: 6-2002 |
To put too fine a point upon it, the rounded trussrod cover suggests it's a Persuader, and it has to be vol+tone controls only. | ||
| 57basstra
Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 60 Registered: 4-2005 |
So what is this bass? Distilate, Spoiler, Persuader , Japanese export or something else? I'm trying to gain a working knowledge of the Alembic models and I've not seen one, in my brief history of looking, that seems to be as unclear as this one. | ||
| adriaan
Senior Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 591 Registered: 6-2002 |
IIRC, regular Persuaders have the Spoiler body shape, but different pick-ups (mostly PJ config, I think). The clearest identifying mark is the rounded trussrod plate - but as usual with Alembic, features will have been mixed-up on customer request. Not many Alembics have just a single pick-up, except for a series of Distillates made for the Japanese market, which you can also recognize by the brass control plate. | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 20 Registered: 12-2004 |
i've got a persuader, but it's the vector body, so this looks nothing like my persuader. isn't a distillate still considered to be, basically, a spoiler w/different electronics. it looks very similar to my spoiler, but w/o the spoiler electronics package. i think it's a distillate, and i think it was stolen somewhere down the line and that's why the serial number has been obliterated which makes it impossible to get parts, service or repairs from alembic. | ||
| adriaan
Senior Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 592 Registered: 6-2002 |
Distillates have a different body shape, especially the lower horn is much shorter. They had the purpleheart neck laminates, and also what is now known as Europa electronics. So this is a Persuader ... | ||
| pmoran
Junior Username: pmoran Post Number: 21 Registered: 12-2004 |
thanks for the info, adriaan. i didn't know that about the horns and purpleheart laminates. have you gone on ebay and checked out item #7339519680? it's an orion and seller says it has purpleheart laminates, but i can't see any purpleheart in this bass. can you? i found this same bass in a 2003 listing when the buyer,who purchased it new from an alembic dealer, posted the same pics that are on the ebay ad here on the forum in 2003, so if ebay seller is the same as that original buyer, he didn't keep it very long. the pics are the same, though. also, in your opinion, which is superior in a general sense and not really concentrating on sound, but more from a materials/quality of construction/details perspective------an orion or a rogue? i'd love to know your opinion since you clearly know more about alembics than i do and i'm always wanting to know more. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 2138 Registered: 5-2002 |
The Purpleheart accent laminate on the Orion in the Ebay listing is between the Maple top and the Mahogany body. The Europa electronics make this a very nice Orion. I believe it is accurate to say that all Alembics are made to the same high standards of craftsmanship. So, there would be no difference in "quality of construction". | ||
| jazzyvee
Advanced Member Username: jazzyvee Post Number: 212 Registered: 6-2002 |
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7342009539&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:UK:1 This is not an alembic bass but the alembic style is a bit obvious.. hmm bolt on neck... ha ha ha |
