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Alembic Club » Swap Shop and Wish Lists » Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere » Archive through December 11, 2007 » Three from the LowEnd « Previous Next »

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artswork99
Intermediate Member
Username: artswork99

Post Number: 189
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 - 3:53 pm:   Edit Post

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-Series-II-Custom-Body-Style_W0QQitemZ250181304903QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-Distilate-4-String-Bass_W0QQitemZ250181303051QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alembic-Exploiter-Ultra-Rare_W0QQitemZ250181302095QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
bigredbass
Senior Member
Username: bigredbass

Post Number: 1231
Registered: 9-2002
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 3:27 am:   Edit Post

Murfreesboro (and The Low End) is next door to Nashville, so I went down there yesterday to eyeball these axes.

Wierd and wonderful to see this many Alembics in one place! Some of these (as above) are on EBay, a couple not yet.

Brian runs a good store, and stocks only 'boutique' basses, save for the occasional trade-in of the off-the-rack bass, and he is a Lakland dealer. Good guy, and trustworthy in my experience.

The 'GB' S2 is in nice shape. A bit of wear-thru on the satin finish in back, a few dings in the rim, overall good shape. Gold plated parts.

The Distallate is typical of its Spoiler-ish DNA, medium scale. OK, has the circuit with the tone preset switches. Overall good shape, typical 'Brown Bass' kind of vibe. Different with the squarish lower horn.

The Exploiter is striking in person, the Zebra wood top looking very Spalted Maple-ish. Small cone peghead. John Entwistle must have had handwriting like a doctor, I guess he signed the black contol plate. Pretty clean.

Other pieces NOT on EBay:

He's listing a Stanley with Series One electronics. I'm guessing it's cocobolo front and back. It's beautiful and virtually mint. I'm utterly confused as it's vol/vol/tone/tone/selector and three switches, plus a guitar (stereo?) jack and the multi-pin Series connector: No hum canceller, one electronics pocket. I don't know if this is one of those Series basses that could be sent back later to complete the Series package, I don't know if it's Anniversary electronics, and I could only get one pickup to work with a mono guitar cord. But it's drop-dead gorgeous and I could have figured it out with more coffee . . . .

The five-string Epic is long scale and nice. It's '30 of 40', some Special Ed for someone (Guitar Center? MARS?). Nice, but they always have that big volute under the nut. Really nice.

The baritone guitar is drop dead mint. I don't play guitar, but this one is just as it left James' bench.

He also had a Clarke Spellbinder. Funny little bass, molded as one piece, very thin depth. Small neck, very Ric-ish. Striking in black and chrome. Q-switch. Maybe a must-have for a Clarke-o-phile, but it just reminded me of all the seemingly experimental, 80's graphite basses, though with a BIG pedigree, obviously.

J o e y
keith_h
Senior Member
Username: keith_h

Post Number: 888
Registered: 2-2005
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 4:46 am:   Edit Post

I am probably wrong but it looks like Anniversary electronics to me. If it had Series electronics I would expect to see the holes for the hum canceling trim pots with a hidden hum canceler pickup. I suspect the switch below the 1/4" is for selecting stereo or mono output. I know there have been a couple (or few) non-series basses made with the 5 pin XLR so this might be one of them.

Keith
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 5619
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Friday, November 02, 2007 - 6:15 pm:   Edit Post

I think Mica mentioned once that there have been a few Series basses that were ordered with AXY pickups. This is a bass in need of a serial number request. Beautiful bass.
artswork99
Advanced Member
Username: artswork99

Post Number: 219
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 10:05 am:   Edit Post

Brian supplied me the serial number today on that SC listed with Series electronics.
It does not seem to coincide with 1989 serial numbers though... I was given 89SC4563.
4563 is showing up as a Persuader 87P4563 in thread http://alembic.com/club/messages/393/6514.html.
Other 1987 serial numbers fall in the 4500 range. 1989 serial numbers seem to fall into 5400-5500 ranges.

BTW, the nicely cleaned up Series II with the headstock binding is back on eBay at $1000 less on the opening bid than the last time... http://cgi.ebay.com/Custom-Alembic-Series-II-4-String-Bass_W0QQitemZ250185967023QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
kungfusheriff
Senior Member
Username: kungfusheriff

Post Number: 639
Registered: 8-2003
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 10:46 am:   Edit Post

Brian just put up what appears to be a '90s Rogue, with flame koa top, tagged at $2099. It's pretty.
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 5680
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 11:24 am:   Edit Post

The Rogue looks very nice for the price.
adriaan
Senior Member
Username: adriaan

Post Number: 1684
Registered: 6-2002
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 1:44 am:   Edit Post

The wood on that Rogue would be a very pale koa - the colour is more like myrtle. The close-ups do look an awful lot like koa, with all the little brown pecks.

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