| Author | Message | ||
| fc_spoiler
Senior Member Username: fc_spoiler Post Number: 1888 Registered: 5-2006 |
We all (should) know this guy (same guy that's selling/making the Boogieman stuff) but I've seen it in a lot of listings. Maybe I am missing something here, but this looks like a pathetic way to get the Alembic name in the listing. I don't see the Blue silk (not sure if Alembic Strings always have had them) and there's no picture of a new set of strings... (also not mentioned in the description) Kramer with "Alembic strings" | ||
| ed_zeppelin
Advanced Member Username: ed_zeppelin Post Number: 309 Registered: 2-2010 |
The "point" was carved into the body later by somebody (Golly, I wonder who?), and the horns were also modified. That makes it virtually worthless to a collector. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=kramer+aluminum+neck+bass&FORM=HDRSC2 Grateful Dead connection, though if must leave it to others to explain the details: Jerry played a Travis Bean guitar for awhile.  The aluminum necks were either made by Kramer for Bean or the other way around. It's been a long time, so I forget which. | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 6393 Registered: 7-2004 |
Kramer worked for Bean, then left to form his own company. The Bean necks were essentially hollow tubes. When you play one, you're grabbing aluminum. Kramer's design was to build an aluminum "T" shape. The top of the T is the fretboard. The leg if the T is like the middle lam on an Alembic. Kramer then fitted wood inserts on either side of the leg of the T. When you play a Kramer, you're feeling mostly wood. It solved a problem inherent to the Bean guitars - the neck often feels cold. I played in a band with a guy who had a Travis Bean. Not only did it weigh a ton, but his hand froze at outdoor gigs. I can't believe the prices on Travis Beans these days. Totally insane! Kramers are just as nice or better, and are usually very reasonably priced. Bill, tgo | ||
| ed_zeppelin
Advanced Member Username: ed_zeppelin Post Number: 310 Registered: 2-2010 |
I like seeing how instrument makers build on traditions and innovation. I knew nothing about Travis Bean because they went out of business in 1979, and I started working in music stores after that era. I'm guessing that the people who own the 3,000 or so guitars they produced want to hang onto them. I think it's easy to see why:  Even if it's to have in the trunk as an emergency oar, or to dig your car out of snowdrifts. Just kidding! I've been doing a lot of reading and looking at guitar porn, and man, those things were incredibly well-made. Even their cheapest line (the something-1000, I think) was made from koa. And the whole thing, from neck to tailpiece was one unit, milled out of a solid billet of aluminum. I love that he acknowledged (however obliquely) the pioneers who had come up with exactly the same thing in the 1930s, more or less:  1931 Rickenbacker "ELECTRO!"  I honestly don't think Travis Bean copied them. It's simply two approaches to the same thing. Since Rickenbacker's device came by way of Ed Dopera, the man who invented the Dobro, in the midst of a Hawaiian music craze, it was strictly intended to be an "electric table" approach. (It looks like it would be a dandy weapon in a bar fight, as well.) And like Travis Bean later, at some point Rickenbacker said; "hey, what if I add wood wings onto it so you could play it like a guitar? Is that what girls like?" You're right about Kramer, though. I've played a few aluminum-necked Kramers and they were very well made, but still neck-heavy. They didn't stay with aluminum long, anyway. Probably because aluminum necks, Marshall Plexis, those hot lights on MTV's TRL and all that hairspray was just an accident waiting to happen.  I think Kramer drove the aluminum thing into saplings and forced the wood to grow into the grooves? That's what I would have done. | ||
| keith_h
Senior Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 2389 Registered: 2-2005 |
I could be wrong but I think this was a Kramer neck put on onto a new body and after market electronics. I base this on a few things that just don't feel like I remember them. One is every Kramer I ever saw had either DiMarzio in the traditional off white or single coil DiMarzio's in the metal shell with Kramer written across it. In the bridge area I only remember seeing the Fender style as the stock bridge and much like Fender basses the Badass II was added after the fact by the owner. Lastly every bass I recall seeing used body woods of walnut or maple or were painted. While Kramer did offer some exotic woods I don't remember zebrawood being one of them. Keith | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 8826 Registered: 6-2000 |
Alembic strings have always had silk. The CX-3 are turquoise, the older NK-2 was light blue, and the XE-1 were indigo. |
