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NDB: Alembic Stanley Clark

moon-bass

moon-bass

They call me El Jefe .. El Jefe del groove
Supporting Member
May 10, 2004
5,695
10,517
USA, New Orleans
#1
Picked this up in a trade - gorgeous, quilted maple Alembic Stanley Clark Signature. This is the second Alembic that I have ever owned - I had an Essence 20-ish years ago (completely different beast, er, bass), and wanted to try one of these.

The build quality is beyond top notch. This is an excellent looking and playing bass and damn! Those electronics! Now I see what all of the buzz is about!

I'm still not sold on the short scale - it plays and sounds great, but it's pretty different than my Jazz basses :)

Obligatory pics of course!
 

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#4
That is super cool, the sort of bass I dreamed about in my late teens when I was scouring the web for everything I could find with Stanley Clark playing on it. The top is gorgeous, I really like the Stanley basses with tops other than the basic walnut (not saying that looks bad, of course).

I'm not a fan of short scales in general as I often find their tone is the compromise made to afford a short speaking length of string. However, the Alembic SC basses always had a great, distinctive sound and since they're usually EADG, you don;'rt have to worry about a flaccid B string.
 
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#10
moon-bass said:
Picked this up in a trade - gorgeous, quilted maple Alembic Stanley Clark Signature. This is the second Alembic that I have ever owned - I had an Essence 20-ish years ago (completely different beast, er, bass), and wanted to try one of these.

The build quality is beyond top notch. This is an excellent looking and playing bass and damn! Those electronics! Now I see what all of the buzz is about!

I'm still not sold on the short scale - it plays and sounds great, but it's pretty different than my Jazz basses :)

Obligatory pics of course!
Click to expand...
The Alembic SSB isn't a bass to be underestimated. I attended a celebration for one of the most famous heavy rock bassists who later died. Many famous bassists with different basses performed in his honor. One of the featured players stepped onto the stage with an Alembic SSB?!! He hands-down had the best sound of any of the bassists there; really surprised me. The Alembic platform works just as well on their short or long scale models. Keep that bass.
 
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#14
moon-bass said:
Picked this up in a trade - gorgeous, quilted maple Alembic Stanley Clark Signature. This is the second Alembic that I have ever owned - I had an Essence 20-ish years ago (completely different beast, er, bass), and wanted to try one of these.

The build quality is beyond top notch. This is an excellent looking and playing bass and damn! Those electronics! Now I see what all of the buzz is about!

I'm still not sold on the short scale - it plays and sounds great, but it's pretty different than my Jazz basses :)

Obligatory pics of course!
Click to expand...

Congrats! One heck of an instrument, and I hate to think what you gave up to get it... Enjoy!!
 
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#17
moon-bass said:
Picked this up in a trade - gorgeous, quilted maple Alembic Stanley Clark Signature. This is the second Alembic that I have ever owned - I had an Essence 20-ish years ago (completely different beast, er, bass), and wanted to try one of these.

The build quality is beyond top notch. This is an excellent looking and playing bass and damn! Those electronics! Now I see what all of the buzz is about!

I'm still not sold on the short scale - it plays and sounds great, but it's pretty different than my Jazz basses :)

Obligatory pics of course!
Click to expand...

Beautiful bass, but that long reach to the lowest frets, even on a shorter scale, would make my shoulder sore! Is that 30 or 32"?
 
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