Nice score, and congratulations, young sir!  Like many of the other posters said, I too was merely drooling and dreaming about Alembics at your age.
 
Congratulations again on a fabulous Essence.  With the Europa controls, that bass can't be touched by anything -other than another Alembic.
 
Respect and appreciate it, never take it for granted.  It'll never let you down.  (But always keep a spare 9 volt in the case.)

I also congratulate you on your Essence- mine is the best bass I have ever played. When I was 15 I bought a brand new short scale Gibson Kalamazoo bass- baby blue color. Played the heck out of it for 5 years and in 1971 at age 20 I fell in love with my first Rickenbacker 4001. Played it a the local music store and bought it, $500 with case. Great times- Michael

At age 15 I was playing guitar, a cheap Les Paul copy made by Aspen. It sucked. The strings were so high that I couldn't play past the 7th fret. I later switched to bass. If you are really 15 and own an Alembic hold on to it no matter what. After 30 years of playing, I bought my first Alembic last year and I cannot think of playing anything else. Welcome to the club!