Anyway, with my frustration at an all time high, I posted a WANT AD over at the Alembic forum and asked if the fellow who won this bass last year would be interested in selling it. My sniper misfired and he beat me out by a few bucks!
To my surprise, the owner contacted me (even though someone else tried to snake it out of my hands again behind my back) and agreed after about two weeks to sell it to me. He felt I've been after it for so long, I would appreciate it more than he.
The bass is setup with Alembic pickups and Alembic active electronics.
I missed getting this bass TWICE in the past 3 years, so I consider myself VERY lucky to have her. I will get it back to "stock" looking with some time. It sounds amazingly RIC like, but with an Alembic edge. I'm even going to install the bridge pickup cover, I want it to LOOK as much as original as possible. Here is a blurb from the original auction....
"REFRET JOB WITH LOW GLOSS FINISH ON ROSEWOOD BOARD, ALL ALEMBIC ELECTRONICS – 2 PICKUPS; MASTER VOLUME; PICKUP BLEND AND INDIVIDUAL LO-PASS FILTER SWEEPS FOR EACH PICKUP, CUSTOM PICKGUARD, ALEMBIC KNOBS, INSET INTO THE BODY ARE BRASS FERRULES FOR EACH OF THE PICKGUARD SCREWS. THIS LAST TOUCH HAS BEEN AN ALEMBIC TRADEMARK FOR YEARS(IT PREVENTS DAMAGE TO THE WOOD) AND IS THE MOST TELLING FEATURE THAT THIS WAS MORE THAN A SIMPLE PICKUP SWAP."
The refret was a butcher job but I will have it addressed in time as well as that pickguard. The battery installs under that horrible pickguard so thankfully, no holes were cut into the bass.
When I told Janey about it, it was on my birthday on 9/10. I thought she was going to kill me! She just looked at me and said, "Happy Birthday, get the bass".
It was shipped on 9/11 (the same day as Janey's car accident) so my joy was really cut short. BUT, hopefully, I will have plenty of time to enjoy it!
She sports a nice thin neck, right in between my CS & V63 and it ROCKS. I can't wait to get it looking as close to LOOKING as stock as possible!
I know a lot of you folks hate active pickups, but this solves a problem that I've had with noise for YEARS! To me, it is the best of both worlds!
