My Exploiter
A Regular Spoiler
This is a 1984 Alembic Exploiter bass guitar. This is the same model as an Alembic Spoiler, except for the body shape. (See the pictures for a comparison). I'm not certain but I think the top is birdseye maple and the core of the body is mahogany. It has an ebony fretboard. The electronics are standard Spoiler electronics.
Update: Here's a really similar one that just sold on eBay for $1,500 plus $60 shipping via Buy It Now: item 220038515430. But the one I'm selling has had over $500 in expert restoration work done, and comes with a fitted leather gig bag that cost over $100.
I've owned this bass since 1997 May, 1996 and played it weekly in front of an audience for over a year at that time. Its warm tone and clear articulate treble response makes it fantastic for classic rock, jam bands, or really any band sound where you have lots of room between the bass and guitar or keys, but you need to play simple bass parts to avoid upstaging the singer. This bass has punch, but what really makes it special is the midrange warmth. Something about the neck-through-body construction, the choice of woods, and the electronics makes this bass have a clear attack and sweet sound without being harsh and clicky.
Update 10/25/2006: Here's an audio sample: Treeline. This was recorded in 1996 via a direct box to ADAT, mixed down to an audiocassette, and ripped to MP3, but it still sounds pretty good to me. :) There's a lot going on in this song but the bass is clearly audible in the mix and the tone comes through loud and clear.
If you were to play this bass through just a 15" speaker with the tone knob turned all the way down, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this bass and any other decent bass. Doing this bass justice requires something like a 2x10" or 4x12" cabinet as a part of your setup. It's also really well suited to Rotosound strings due to their characteristic warm tone, as opposed to say GHS strings which are really really clicky and squeaky and bright when they're new. Rotosounds are what this bass has on it now.
In fact, I hardly ever played this bass with the bridge pickup selected, because it already sounds warm and bright and detailed. I played it almost exclusively with just the neck pickup selected, because the combination of the neck pickup's natural fat and full sound (on any bass) with the natural sound of the instrument sounded ideal to me. On all of my other basses I either select the bridge pickup to get growl and clarity and boost the bass with the active EQ to compensate, or I just stick with the neck pickup and boost the bass, in order to get a very un-Alembic-like, indistinct but super pillowy low end tone.
That brings me to why I'm finally letting this bass go. I'm playing a completely different style of music that calls for lots of low fatness, usually on a 5 string but sometimes on a carbon fiber 4-string (very fat, and not at all a warm tone), and much less clarity and "sparkle" and detail. Sadly, I hardly play this bass anymore. It's a real shame to sideline an axe this sweet, and that outweighs my desire to hang on to this bass as a collector's item, so I'm selling it.
The bass comes with the following accessories, pictured at right:
Let's talk about the look of this bass for a minute. This is not a bass that people are divided over when they look at it, like some people are about the Alembic Series II shape. This bass is universally a "Hey, cool bass, man!" object of lust. I have had many, many musicians and audience members (including members of the fairer sex) compliment me on the looks of this bass.
True story: on one occasion, an attractive woman at a bus stop near the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets struck up a conversation with me, and indirectly asked me out! (Naturally since I'm happily married I turned her down.) I was wearing this bass in the fitted black leather gig bag over my shoulder. I'm convinced it was because of the aesthetic power of this bass, and maybe the rich cultural history of that intersection. She was after me lucky charms! Couldn't have been my ugly mug. :)
On most basses, the upper horn of the body shape means that the strap attaches around the 12th fret. Not on this bass. There's no upper horn. The strap attaches at the 20th fret. The whole instrument is set way over to the left compared to other basses. That makes it a bit headstock-heavy, but your right arm will have no problem keeping it in place. What that means, though, is that getting up to the 24th fret is no problem, mainly because you're not contorting your left wrist around to try and get under the neck. It makes the neck look a lot longer, which in my opinion contributes to an overall badass look when you're playing the thing.
Have a look at how the late great John Entwistle looked playing one of these: Entwistle rocks out on YouTube. I think that's a Series II based Exploiter, with a crazy Dean-style headstock and a few more knobs, but the shape is the same.
A photographer friend of mine bought a fancy new digital camera and was itching to use it, so I have some fairly swanky looking pictures of this bass here:
This photo gallery includes the 8 megapixel (3504x2236) full size images from this photoshoot, just click on the "Full size:" link in the upper right corner of the medium sized image page. There's lots of detail in these images!
When I bought this bass it had a bit of a neck relief problem that couldn't be solved by truss rod adjustment, and I actually put up with this for quite a while, but I finally decided that this instrument deserved the attention of a professional. So, I had it fixed by axe San Francisco guitar repairman Geoff Lutrell of San Francisco Guitarworks. He defretted it, planed the fingerboard to make it perfect again, and put new frets on it. He also did some cosmetic work on the more obvious dings in the finish, and he polished the brass parts really well. I'm really happy with the work he did, and I'm sure you'll be happy with the way this thing plays now.
Upon close inspection in person, you'll be able to see quite a few (at least a dozen, maybe two dozen) dents and chips in the finish. As I said above, this thing was 13 years old when I got it, and though I've taken as good care of it as I could, it hasn't been mounted in a glass case in a museum. This bass has actually been used to make music: played in dive bars, basements, rooftop parties, recording studios, and who knows, maybe used as a weapon.
This picture shows the most visible dent in the finish, which is on the back of the neck near the top. In the same photo you can see some cracking in the lacquer right at the joint of the headstock and the neck. As far as I know, this is just due to the joint being there rather than the headstock being broken off by the previous owner or something like that. To my knowledge, it's just the result of strain, not breakage.
If you're looking for a like-new pristine collector's item, this ain't it. I would't even go so far as to call it excellent; it's in good condition, cosmetically speaking. But as a working instrument, it's very easy to play and sounds fantastic, and as a stage instrument, seen from more than a couple of feet away, people say it looks great.
All right, I've written a freakin' book about this instrument so far, because it deserves it. Please buy this bass and give it a good home - on stage commanding attention of eyes and ears, where it belongs. I'm asking $1750.
SOLDContact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx or jamie@white-mountain.org.SOLD
