1985 Alembic Distillate

10 lbs. 5 oz. (good weight for one of these)

One owner instrument has been retired from playing for 30 years.

These don't come on the market very often.

Overall VG condition, just some wear on the gold plated areas and a refret.

Some scratching on back plate (pictured)

Perfect playing condition, all electronics work. Sounds amazing as you would expect!

With OHSC.

85D8535

Below is a note from VintageGuitar.com on the design and history of this instrument:

The Distillate was the first standard Alembic bass offered in mono only. Early examples, made for the Japanese market, were single-pickup models with top-mounted control plates made of brass. The two-pickup version, designated for the United States, came along in ’82.

Standard features on the Distillate included a five-ply laminated maple-and-purpleheart neck-through design, and a Honduras mahogany body topped by a choice of Maple (options included plain, flamed, quilted, burled, and birdseye), Walnut (plain, burled, and figured), Bubinga, Bocate, Coco Bola, Pinstripe Zebrawood, Erratic Zebrawood, Flame Koa, Tulipwood, Lacewood, Rosewood, Maccassar Ebony, or Vemillion.

The Distillate’s electronics included two hum-canceling active pickups controlled by a rotary switch as well as master Volume and master Tone knobs. On early examples, the rotary switch was on the treble cutaway, while on later versions, pickup switches were placed in front of three mini-toggles that controlled bass boost/cut, treble boost/cut, and a “Q” switch that converted the Tone control to an onboard wah.

The active electronics are turned on when a cord is plugged into the jack, and the LED near the jack illuminates red to indicate the battery is on. This LED wasn’t on later Distillates.

Alembic did, of course, offer special-order options on the Distillate. This one has a custom neck width, pickup location, and a deeper treble cutaway. Other options included various scale length, side-position LED markers, fingerboard LED markers, laser LED fret markers, and custom fingerboard inlay.