- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,967
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
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Favorite unique body shapes?
- Thread starter alta77
- Start date
Agreed. Different enough but not crazy shape that would fit into a lot of genre's aesthetics.
I think my GT5 looks great, is very comfy, but sounds a bit meh. Still deciding if it's on the block to be chopped (trying to get the herd down to a couple) - the design, construction and materials are first rate, especially for what I paid for it years back. If I keep it I have some PUs and one of my pres to put in it.
The US made ones are usually a bit ornate for my tastes, but I'd love to try one.
Man, that modded scroll just makes my heartbeat speed up… just an incredibly cool bass !
Of course you have a bunch of basses that are truly awesome…
I had a GT4 for a while, loved the stiff wenge/purple heart lam'd neck, the light weight and easy playability. But like you, I thought it sounded weak sauce. I contacted Bill Conklin about the pickups, he said they were Mighty Mites, which explained the poor (IMO) sound. Thought about upgrading the elecs but that would have cost as much as I paid for the bass, so I just flipped it.
They pop up for sale every now and then, and the prices were not even that insane the last time I checked. The pickups for X, B and SB series were custom wound by Di Marzio AFAIK. And yes, as quirky as X70* basses are they balance well, unlike their B30* cousins.
For some reason that I can't explain, I always thought this was a killer design.
Would love a short scale version, preferably in white.
Would love a short scale version, preferably in white.
Some great looking shapes in this thread. Kinda intrigued by this one.
The original Artist bass in its original form, their first of their own design:
Early production (as if Alembic ever was a production line operation . . . . ) 1975 Series One 4-string.
THIS 'Point' shape as they call it was a vision implanted in my mind like the people in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS kept seeing that mountain. In a little music store in East Texas in the late 70's, I was going through a file cabinet full of all kinds of brochures for just about everything musical, and in the 'A' folder I ran across a catalog from this little hippie company in NorCal, and a picture of this axe stuck in my mind as if by hypnotic suggestion.
Reading through the features and the specs, I realized this was something engineered WAY past the Gibsons and Fenders and Rics hanging in that store.
The genesis of it all. The first company to really make one-off, artist/heirloom quality electric basses. The Series electronics with the dummy + single coil system with the hum trimmers for each string. The brass hardware. Filters. Phantom power. The woods, and the look of it. This was simply something of another order of magnitude. I NEVER forgot that image.
Alembic did a lot of repair work in the beginning, and this shape came about because guys would not use stands, lean them up against the amp, and they'd fall over. With that point, no dice, GOT to use a stand.
I eventually owned two Alembics. Never got to own a Series, but it was close enough for me. And you know what? I was right. These are simply unlike anything else. They're not for everyone, but I'll never own anything else that's in the same ballpark.
Early production (as if Alembic ever was a production line operation . . . . ) 1975 Series One 4-string.
THIS 'Point' shape as they call it was a vision implanted in my mind like the people in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS kept seeing that mountain. In a little music store in East Texas in the late 70's, I was going through a file cabinet full of all kinds of brochures for just about everything musical, and in the 'A' folder I ran across a catalog from this little hippie company in NorCal, and a picture of this axe stuck in my mind as if by hypnotic suggestion.
Reading through the features and the specs, I realized this was something engineered WAY past the Gibsons and Fenders and Rics hanging in that store.
The genesis of it all. The first company to really make one-off, artist/heirloom quality electric basses. The Series electronics with the dummy + single coil system with the hum trimmers for each string. The brass hardware. Filters. Phantom power. The woods, and the look of it. This was simply something of another order of magnitude. I NEVER forgot that image.
Alembic did a lot of repair work in the beginning, and this shape came about because guys would not use stands, lean them up against the amp, and they'd fall over. With that point, no dice, GOT to use a stand.
I eventually owned two Alembics. Never got to own a Series, but it was close enough for me. And you know what? I was right. These are simply unlike anything else. They're not for everyone, but I'll never own anything else that's in the same ballpark.
That original Alembic Seies One body shape still strikes me today the same way it struck me back then. An excercise in "style over function". Notwitstanding its unique, forward-thinking elecs and careful attention to build quality, Alembic's choice for that body shape was as impractical as it was exotic. (Is that the original rear strap pin location?) Top strap pin looks like it's near the 19th fret which makes it an outlier in the ergos dept, by default. Fine for the very few, not so much for anyone else. Niche.
Fortunately for the rest of us, some subsequent Alembic models came with sensible, ergo-friendly body shapes. If I'm ever in position to justify owning an Alembic, it'll surely be one of those later models, and of course with the full compliment of Alemcic electronics.
But def not this.....
The short horn bodies are largely short scale, 30.75". If you go to Alembic's site you'll see that they promote the short-horn body designs as primarily being for short scale, and recommend one of their long-horn designs for 34". If some people request it for their full-scale basses, I'm sure the good people at Alembic will say that at least they had been warned.
iirc Series I and Series II refer to the electronics, not the body design.
