The bass that ran a close second was the Stanley Clark Signature bass and it only ran about 3,000 dollars. Instead of going straight to Alembic I chose to go with Musician's Friend. I ordered my last Alembic with them and got a great price. The catalog price was about 2,300 dollars for a standard and around 3,000 for the deluxe. I chose to go with the standard because the only difference was the choice of woods. I like mahogany and the quilted maple top looks great. The bass is only 30 3/4" scale so my little hands can maneuver the bass without any problems at all. Tapping has become a breeze with the bass having no upper horn and slapping is ok. There is not a whole lot of space between the neck and the neck pickup. It was an adjustment but it was not a big deal. The electronics take some practice and time to get used to. The Q switches are interesting. The sound is great and I can get a variety of tones just by playing with the Q switches

I was impressed with Alembic and the quality that goes into each bass. All the basses and guitars are hand made in the USA. I loved my six string and now I have a great four string. I give Alembic a five star rating due to their pursuit of excellence and quality.

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