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Played an Alembic tonight!

#21
Wicasta said:
I had a friend who was a sales manager at a music store in Gaffney, South Carolina. He once encountered a young man who brought in an Alembic Series II that belonged to his late father and wanted to sell it. The kid asked what this sales manager would give him for it, and he joked "I'll give you $500 cash right now". The kid took the $500.

I told my friend he was going to burn in Hell for that one.
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Hames?
 
#23
I played an Epic at GC a couple years ago. Really nice bass. Heavy. Great sound. Definitely has the "piano" thing down. I' dbe very tempted if I ever found a 5 string in the $1,500 - $1,750 range.
 
#24
Wicasta said:
I had a friend who was a sales manager at a music store in Gaffney, South Carolina. He once encountered a young man who brought in an Alembic Series II that belonged to his late father and wanted to sell it. The kid asked what this sales manager would give him for it, and he joked "I'll give you $500 cash right now". The kid took the $500.

I told my friend he was going to burn in Hell for that one.
Click to expand...
Dude... the kid's dead dad's bass? That's horrible...
 
#25
I've owned several of these over the years. Back in the 80's and early 90's, you could regularly snag them for $800 used. The scale is 32" and I recall little if any issue with neck dive. One of my favorite features is the adjustable brass nut; so cool! These babies are loaded with "real" Alembic vibe, and are (or were) about the cheapest ticket there.

/rick
 
#27
I know one Universal truth... an Alembic is an Alembic.
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And that's a fact Jack. There's nothing like them and I love 'em. I have 3, including this '84 Distillate (32" scale) with Spoiler electronics. There's nothing "basic" about even their "low end" models. Their inherent playability and tone is killer. The Distillate suffers from neck dive (with the shorter upper bout) but there's no problem with me keeping it stabilized with a good strap.

Though it's a remarkable device I'm not big on using the Q filters. The Alembic tone in itself is so wonderful I prefer not to EQ it very much at all. It sounds great right out of the gate, and mating it with an Alembic F-1X pre is an amazing thing indeed.
 
#29
Talking about gigging with an Alembic:
I gig my Alembic all the time.

Pics in this post.

And without fail, every gig, somebody comes up to compliment my playing, my tone, and the bad-assed-ness of the bass with the lights.

They all seem to be bass players. They all ask what kind of bass I'm playing.

Alembic.

What?

Alembic.

Olympic?

No, Alembic.

Who makes that? Fender?

Um, no.
-------------------

One time I got:

Dude! How'd you get your bass to light up like that?

Magic.

Really?

No. You got me. It's batteries.

Oh. That's cool. Is that an Ibanez? I know it's gota be an Ibanez 'cause only Ibanez uses wood like that.


I mean, what the ...:rollno: ?
 
#34
Rowka said:
Is that an Ibanez? I know it's gota be an Ibanez 'cause only Ibanez uses wood like that.
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Slightly OT, but that reminds me of the guy who came into the Pro Audio retail shop where I worked in the mid-80s: He walks around the showroom checking out speakers, power amps, signal processor, mixing consoles...finally stops in front of a Yamaha 32-channel mixing console, admires it lovingly, twirls a few of the knobs, pushes some faders, looks around back of the doghouse to see the i/o, then, pointing to this console, he turns to me and asks

"Is that a saxophone?"
 
#35
Hoover said:
Slightly OT, but that reminds me of the guy who came into the Pro Audio retail shop where I worked in the mid-80s: He walks around the showroom checking out speakers, power amps, signal processor, mixing consoles...finally stops in front of a Yamaha 32-channel mixing console, admires it lovingly, twirls a few of the knobs, pushes some faders, looks around back of the doghouse to see the i/o, then, pointing to this console, he turns to me and asks

"Is that a saxophone?"
Click to expand...

Oh man, LOL. I would have pissed myself laughing.
 
#36
Back in the late eighties early nineties, a local music store used to carry about 6 -10 Alembics in stock. They sat, price wise, about $2500 and up. And they were right there for the grope. I always said I'd get one when I had a real job. Well I have the job, fat lot of good that does me now.

Shoulda sold the guitar players kids when I had the chance
 
#38
Well my basses get rotated but I do take the Alembic out for gigs depending on my mood, and I gig virtually 90% with a F-1X in a rack. Have had the "Olympic" thing happen though, years ago in NZ when I lived there for while.

him:What's that bass?
me: ALEMBIC....

him: OLYMPIC? ... when you get the money try a Fender......


Ask at the Alembic club and you'll find the Olympic thing a recurring phenomenon.
 
#40
'86 Spoiler and '82 Exploiter

Back in the late '80's I took BOTH to gigs. Only problem I ever had was knocking down a cymbal on a boom-stand when I turned around with the 8-string during a jam-night audition on a small stage. No harm done, but rather embarrassing! We got the gig...and the 8-string stayed home!

X8
 

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