Buy this... look, sound, play EXACTLY like J. Garcia

[bobzilla]

Ebay Item Number #220298516839

cheap!

[ChuckE99]

I like it, but I'll take a 2622AV, Brownburst Scruggs, Brownburst Weir and a couple other guitars I want instead.

[bobzilla]

I wouldn't mind having it but....
$10k?

Still, Alembic is a big name.
I admire Alembic tremendously.
I lean towards thinking they make the best bass guitars around.

So, if it's Alembic, this is a nice axe.
But... still... $10k?
I dunno 'bout that.
I think it's the J.G. name attachment that they figure allows them to tack on a few more zeroes than necessary on the price of this axe.

Plus, they had the sense not to "relic" it, give them credit there.

[sunil]

I'm keeping my eye out for an Alembic Skylark.

Besides many more Ibanez oldies, I still have to get a PRS 513 and a PRS Santana (original).

[guitarwhisperer]

I used to own an Alembic Further model. Nice guitar, WAAAY overpriced. The electronics on the guitars are QUITE STERILE, and crunchy sounding, and are not easily replaced. I recently saw a Grateful Dead tribute band, where the lead guitarist was playing one of these guitars. If you REALLY want to NAIL Jerry's tone, this is the one. But why would you want to nail THAT tone? I love the Grateful Dead by the way. Jerry's tone is definitely unique, and not the easiest to play with, and doesn't really sound good for anything but Dead tunes. However, Dead tunes don't sound good with anything BUT Jerry's tone, either! Let the battle BEGIN!!!

[sunil]

The Further guitars looked pretty wild as far as controls in my mind. 

But, I'm really not going for Dead tones in any of my playing. 

[BCy2k]

I was is a rock trio with a bassist who played a really nice high end Alembic. I don't remember the model. We did lots of Rush and Zepplin covers and a bunch of other stuff. Between his Alembic and my 2670 - we were quite a sight, not to mention legends in our own minds

[Roland_G303]

I've been listening to a lot of the Dead lately...I just listened to the Cow Palace New Years Eve show from '76 and Germany '72.  I've also got Trucking Up to Buffalo 7/4/89 and have to say that, although each album is different, you can hear Jerry's tone regardless of what he is playing.  I think it's more in his hands and mind than anything else.  Just my opinion though. 

I have to admit I like the '72 album best and I think Jerry is playing the Gator Strat and Weir is on the 335.  The sounds on that recording are amazing.  There is some serious improv going on on that particular recording.  Pick 'em up if you haven't already.  Great albums that have some killer playing.

Patrick

[guitarwhisperer]

I never used the effects loop. The wierdest thing about the controls was the the fact that every time you added a pickup, the volume GOT LOUDER, because the signal was summed or something. Most switches run all the pickups in parallel, and the volume stays consistent. THeir electronics package is more like a mixing board. You got the full signal from each pickup, and the volume knob was more like a master fader on a mixing board, and the pickups were full on the whole time. You didn't lose any signal when you turned down the volume, like on a passive guitar due to the cable capacitance, because the active electronics decouples the signal from the capacitance of the cable. But it was really annoying turning pickups off and on because you had to flip the switch, then adjust the volume. Also, the tone knobs had to be kept about half way down the whole time to put the frequency response in the range of a normal guitar. Overall, a wierd sounding guitar. I figured out how to get some decent sounds out of it, but BOY was it tough!

Jerry's strats were Alembic's first experiments in guitar electronics, from what I can tell. My favorite Dead period is the late 80's early 90's. Phil Lesh's bass tone was finally perfect, and I liked the upbeat feel they had around then. I like the late 70's sound also, but around '89 they had something cool going on, and I LOVED the way Brent played the keys with them.