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.