September 1999

Electric Alchemy

Now this is a happy man. Henri is holding his freshly made custom ordered Series II bass in gorgeous burl walnut with a silver Alembic Alchemy Inlay. Henri fell in love with the Series II bass on our website, and wanted to get something close to it but with his own style too.
Since the last pieces of burl rosewood are reserved for the final Sterling Anniversary basses, Henri wanted to get a wood that was as close as possible to it. We selected a sweet piece of walnut burl for the top and back. This particular piece is quite dark, with areas or greenish and reddish mineral deposits. Stunning. 		Henri and Bass
omega detail In this shot of the omega detail at the bottom of the bass, you can see the maple core Henri chose. There is quite a hippie sandwich here! Start with a burl walnut top, a small veneer of maple, then a nice thick layer of purpleheart. Next, the maple core with a purpleheart veneer running through the center. Finish the backside with the same purpleheart, maple and burl walnut sequence as the top and you've got yourself a tasty treat.
The warm rich look of the burl walnut is perfectly complemented by 24 karat goldplated hardware. We don't mess around when we do plating, it is gorgeous, expensive and functional. When you order goldplated hardware, or any other hardware finish, we set the bass up completely, then send the individual brass parts to the plating shop. Even the slots where the strings rest in the string nut and the bridge saddles are completely plated. Most of the time when you see goldplating, the setup is done after the plating, so the slot is exposed brass and just waiting to tarnish or peel from the stress of playing. bridge
Some closeups of the fine inlays on Henri's bass:
gold yellow wax
one pound silver bismuth
antimony mercury purify
Another picture of Henri and his bass, along with Jon Day, the inlay artist. Mica designed this inlay from ancient alchemical symbols, and then refined these to a more font-like look (nice serifs). Jon has done a great many of the fancy inlays here at Alembic, and he's currently working on an Alembic Tree of Life (do look for this in a later Featured Custom). player and artist
front

SPECIFICATIONS

  • 5-string Custom Series II Bass
  • Burl Walnut top and back
  • Accent laminates: Maple and Purpleheart
  • Maple core
  • Ebony fingerboard with silver Alembic Alchemy inlay
  • Standard Omega body
  • 24k Gold Plated Hardware
  • Red side LEDs
  • High Gloss Polyester Finish

Price available on request

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