The Alembic was the first powered bass I ever played. I couldn't get it to sound like a bass for the life of me! It always sounded like too much high end. It had different types of controls than anything I had ever used before. I didn't really like the sound of it, plus it was too heavy because of the wood and all the electronics. My Alembic was a stock model for that time. One of my favorite bass players, Jimmy Johnson (who played with Allan Holdsworth) uses an Alembic, and he gets a great tone out of it. He actually helped Alembic create the first five string bass back in 1976! I kept it and ended up putting it in my basement for about 20 years. Later I gave it to our guitar roadie, Mark Brown.

These photos were taken by Jan Van Der Gaag in the Netherlands at the SummerConcert on July 18th, 1974. After tracking him down and a few email correspondences he so kindly sent along photos and some stories about that time:

“The Doobie Brothers were already pretty famous in The Netherlands. Their very first concerts here were on the 18 and 19th January 1974 with one concert in Amsterdam and one (night concert) in Rotterdam. I didn't visit these concerts and saw the Doobies for the first time during The Summerconcert Festival in July 1974. I certainly have several stories about the festival which took place more than 50 years ago in the city of Hilversum, which is not far from Amsterdam. I know that the Allman Brothers and Doobie Brothers shared the same hotel in Amsterdam. One of the special moments, at least for me, was the surprise appearance of the Amsterdam Hells Angels at the beginning of the Doobie Brothers show. At that time, I was a student at the School of Photography in the Netherlands and photographed everything. I was dedicated to becoming a professional pop photographer and photographed many concerts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. e.g., Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart & The Faces, Santana, Lou Reed, and Hawkwind (UK). The Doobie Brothers blew me away. I really liked their music and stayed a fan over the years, even till this day.” - Jan Van Der Gaag, photographer, Rotterdam