Pull up a chair.
I owned two Alembic five-strings, a rare, red-tinted Series shape Spoiler, and a custom green tint Elan Five I had built for myself. Boutique with a Capital B.
They're everything you think they would be. Wood rarely seen anywhere else, and the woodworking and quality are in a class by themselves. They make their own hardware (even their own truss rods) and of course, mil-spec bespoke electronics and pickups. Who else specs stainless steel pickup screws so as not to disturb the magnetics in the pickups? And on and on. Nobody goes to the lengths they go to as far as building a lifetime instrument.
Some years ago, my wife's back problems backed us in the corner of requiring surgery. And as often happens, back surgery doesn't always go as hoped. She couldn't work any more, filed for partial disability, and we lost her income. And as anyone who's been there knows, Uncle Sam takes your money every week or quarter relentlessly, but file for disability and you're just gonna wait.
We were scrambling for money, and it became obvious that selling the two of them would pay our bills for several months (seven, as it turned out), so that was that and off they went. I'd bought them smart, made money on one and broke even on the other, so I'd owned two Alembics for free, couldn't complain about that ! There's no bass that's worth getting behind on bills or short-changing her, and thank goodness I could play those two cards. She comes first, and I'm glad I could do it.
But . . . . now I didn't have a bass in the house. And the play money budget was much tighter.
So I bought (the first 4 string I'd owned in 30-odd years) a Squier James Johnston Jazz Bass, as I was a sucker for that matching head Lake Placid Blue look. Then later I bought the Squier Active Contemporary Jazz 5 and the Squier P5. Amazing axes for the price, I'm in all three for a little over a grand. Wow.
So what did I find out?
While I sounded like a better Me on the Alembics, I still sound like Me on the Squiers. They're solid, stay in tune, they're quiet, and they feel right. And I enjoy playing them possible a little more as I don't have to worry about a little mark or bumping into something with an axe as grand as the Alembics. I've been around long enough to do my own setups and know what it takes to make a good bass solid, so they're fine. And the idea that I would derail our finances or put my wife out for a couple of basses was a non-starter.
It's the enjoyment, the buzz of doin' it that's simply not price dependent. It's just not. I have a ball with them and that's all that really matters to me, and were I still playing out, I would not hesitate to gig with them.
We buy instruments for hundreds of reasons, and a lot of guys ego would probably not allow them to go to Squiers after Alembics. I could, and I'm glad I did.
This is a great post, JW. You have your priorities straight, and not to sound cliche, but yeah, family first. I recently bought a 40th anniversary Squier Jazz, had it properly set up by my tech guy, and it's such a fun, solid bass to play. You have my respect, man.
