1976 Alembic Series I Vintage Electric Bass Restored
Item History & Price
when I purchased this bass it was white, see pic of original listing. I sent it in for refinishing to the awesome Pat Wilkins. He discovered that one of the wings had been repaired. I have addition pics of this. The model number is a mystery that is still unsolved. Pat had the truss rod repaired. I also sent it to an Alembic Guru who went through the electronics. Frets have been crowned. It’s good to go an beautiful. I’m sorry that I... ran out of pictures. I can send more. The case is pretty haggard with one latch needing replacement. The original homemade power box and cord are there. I am also including a new Boogie Man power box and brand new chord. Is it perfect, no. But it’s a very nice Alembic at an affordable price for a Series I with working original electronics. Below are email from the restoration journey. There are more pictures on Reverb.Alembic Series I 1976
Original ad:
Beautiful Vintage 1976 ALEMBIC Series I Bass Guitar !!!!Serial#: 76-502The Original Alembic Series 1 bass with original case, power supply and tags. There are one a few marks and small ding on the body, a couple small dings on the headstock and a little light scratching, but other than that, this bad boy is CLEAN! Please see all photos for actual details. Plays great and sounds even better. This is the bass that put Alembic on the map in the 70s. 5 piece neck with 34" scale . The original finish wood was a Rosewood fingerboard and gorgeous Abalone oval inlays. The pearl finish was created as a replica of the jazz great Stanley Clark’s Alembic Series I Bass Guitar.Note: !!!! This Bass Guitar will come with certification of it's basic functionality from a certified Music Retailer in Michigan. The musician that played this bass guitar played bass guitar with the R&B Motown group, the TEMPTATIONS. · Weighs in at 10 lbs 8 ozs. · The special cable and power unit is also included. · Neck is straight as an arrow and it plays with ease. · 34" scale neck. Ebony fretboard.
Pat Wilkins
Hi Steven Here's a pic of your bass body without the finish. As you can see, for some reason there are 2 completely different pieces of wood on either side of the neck. It actually looks worse in person. I don't recommend doing a natural finish on this but, this is your bass and I always want to do what the customer want. Please think about this and let me know your thoughts. I'll talk to you later.
Hi Steven It's definitely not a maple guitar as you can tell. What I did see that I hadn't noticed earlier is that the wing that has the exotic wood on it actually is a sandwiched wing. The top is zebra wood, not cocobolo, the core is alder and the back is koa. The wing on the other side is all alder. I got the pic of the dark color sample that you suggested and I think that is a good alternative for this bass. Since the wood is sandwiched on the one side I'll be able to tape that off and duplicate it on the other side. It's going to be tricky since there's no line to follow on the treble side but we'll manage. We're going finish stripping the rest of the bass today. Talk to you soon.
Mica:
Hi Steve,
So your bass has undergone some changes since we built it. Here's what the record indicates:
top: Zebrawoodbody: Birchback: Koaneck: Maple and Purpleheartfingerboard: Vermilionpeghead venees: Walnut
The bass was obviously modified at some point. I had conjectered that iswas a kludge of random parts that left here without proper verification, but with the correct serial number, I can say that sometime betweenSeptember 24, 1976 and now something major happened to the bass and theycovered it up with white paint.
Trevor Lindsey:
Here is the run down:1. I tested it with an Alembic power supply and cable and it works perfectly. That box you sent it with has nothing to do with an Alembic and is totally wrong. 2. Bridge is on backwards, and has a shim under the tone block that should not be there.3. Pickups are installed wrong with foam and the bolts in backwards.4. Hum canceller pickup is loose and installed wrong.5. The 1/4” output is working correctly as it is wired stereo like it should be from the factory. That means you only get the neck pickup with 1/4”. 6. Your 5 pin cable works just fine.7. Looks like the bass may have had the upper bout replaced and the paint job by Pat Wilkins was designed to hide the fact that the upper bout is not topped and backed with zebrawood like the lower original bout is. He painted it to look like purple heart wood on both halves. Fingerboard is original. Frets are in need of a mill and crown, and the bass needs some setup and adjustment to the truss rods.
So, the long and short of it is you need an Alembic power supply to use the bass in mono or stereo with the 5 pin cable. I can sell you one at just above cost if you want. Somewhere around $400.00. Or, you can look online for used one. I am going to put the pickups in correctly and orient the bridge correctly. I can’t stand the mess. LOL. Let me know if you want me to set it up and do the fret crowning. That cost is $60.00. Other than that, I think you dodged a major bullet here since the electronics would cost over $1500.00 to fix with Alembic, and you would still need a power supply.
Original ad:
Beautiful Vintage 1976 ALEMBIC Series I Bass Guitar !!!!Serial#: 76-502The Original Alembic Series 1 bass with original case, power supply and tags. There are one a few marks and small ding on the body, a couple small dings on the headstock and a little light scratching, but other than that, this bad boy is CLEAN! Please see all photos for actual details. Plays great and sounds even better. This is the bass that put Alembic on the map in the 70s. 5 piece neck with 34" scale . The original finish wood was a Rosewood fingerboard and gorgeous Abalone oval inlays. The pearl finish was created as a replica of the jazz great Stanley Clark’s Alembic Series I Bass Guitar.Note: !!!! This Bass Guitar will come with certification of it's basic functionality from a certified Music Retailer in Michigan. The musician that played this bass guitar played bass guitar with the R&B Motown group, the TEMPTATIONS. · Weighs in at 10 lbs 8 ozs. · The special cable and power unit is also included. · Neck is straight as an arrow and it plays with ease. · 34" scale neck. Ebony fretboard.
Pat Wilkins
Hi Steven Here's a pic of your bass body without the finish. As you can see, for some reason there are 2 completely different pieces of wood on either side of the neck. It actually looks worse in person. I don't recommend doing a natural finish on this but, this is your bass and I always want to do what the customer want. Please think about this and let me know your thoughts. I'll talk to you later.
Hi Steven It's definitely not a maple guitar as you can tell. What I did see that I hadn't noticed earlier is that the wing that has the exotic wood on it actually is a sandwiched wing. The top is zebra wood, not cocobolo, the core is alder and the back is koa. The wing on the other side is all alder. I got the pic of the dark color sample that you suggested and I think that is a good alternative for this bass. Since the wood is sandwiched on the one side I'll be able to tape that off and duplicate it on the other side. It's going to be tricky since there's no line to follow on the treble side but we'll manage. We're going finish stripping the rest of the bass today. Talk to you soon.
Mica:
Hi Steve,
So your bass has undergone some changes since we built it. Here's what the record indicates:
top: Zebrawoodbody: Birchback: Koaneck: Maple and Purpleheartfingerboard: Vermilionpeghead venees: Walnut
The bass was obviously modified at some point. I had conjectered that iswas a kludge of random parts that left here without proper verification, but with the correct serial number, I can say that sometime betweenSeptember 24, 1976 and now something major happened to the bass and theycovered it up with white paint.
Trevor Lindsey:
Here is the run down:1. I tested it with an Alembic power supply and cable and it works perfectly. That box you sent it with has nothing to do with an Alembic and is totally wrong. 2. Bridge is on backwards, and has a shim under the tone block that should not be there.3. Pickups are installed wrong with foam and the bolts in backwards.4. Hum canceller pickup is loose and installed wrong.5. The 1/4” output is working correctly as it is wired stereo like it should be from the factory. That means you only get the neck pickup with 1/4”. 6. Your 5 pin cable works just fine.7. Looks like the bass may have had the upper bout replaced and the paint job by Pat Wilkins was designed to hide the fact that the upper bout is not topped and backed with zebrawood like the lower original bout is. He painted it to look like purple heart wood on both halves. Fingerboard is original. Frets are in need of a mill and crown, and the bass needs some setup and adjustment to the truss rods.
So, the long and short of it is you need an Alembic power supply to use the bass in mono or stereo with the 5 pin cable. I can sell you one at just above cost if you want. Somewhere around $400.00. Or, you can look online for used one. I am going to put the pickups in correctly and orient the bridge correctly. I can’t stand the mess. LOL. Let me know if you want me to set it up and do the fret crowning. That cost is $60.00. Other than that, I think you dodged a major bullet here since the electronics would cost over $1500.00 to fix with Alembic, and you would still need a power supply.
