OK, check out this photo (attached) I found on the web.  
 
 
 
 
Beautiful hunk of Alembic zebrawood!  
 
But look....it sure looks like a Series 1 from the controls. Spoiler body, pickup selector switch down by the controls as opposed to the horn, OK... Five pin jack and 1/4 jack...OK...  
 
But wait!  
 
The 1/4 jack is on the wrong side of the 5 pin.  
 
And what took me a long time to notice....THERE IS NO DUMMY HUMCANCELLING PICKUP!  
 
What the heck?  
 
If I were a betting man I'd say this started life as a Spoiler, and someone perhaps added Signature electronics to it, and a 5 pin jack to run power in and stereo (?) out from the pickups...? Or worse, under the cover plate is some sort of Poly-Paks (oops I'm showing my age) collection of op-amps and mylar capacitors making something which only loosely resembles an Alembic inside...!  
 
Very odd!  
 
EffClef
 
(Message edited by effclef on February 06, 2004)

That would look real nice next to my Epic.
Of course with all that Zebrawood I'd have to keep the window open.

My guess.  I think the electronics are probably genuine Alembic; I think this is a custom order bass.  I'm guessing the electronics are 20th Anniversary and I'm guessing the 5-pin is purely for the stereo out, not power in.  Nice looking bass; purpleheart neck laminates, nice zebrawood.  The bridge looks like it has a little age on it.  Spoiler with 20th Anniv. controls; maybe it was built in 1989.  I suppose another alternative is that the electonics are Series I and the humcancelling pickup is hidden in the body.

I was talking to the Guitar Broker hisself before the bass sold...he believed they were Series electronics until I informed him the bass had Anniversary electronics, which are a step down from the top-of-the-line Series package.

Just curious; what was the selling price?

Actually, I checked the file for this bass for a customer today. It's totally custom. The 5-pin is original, but it's got 2 sets of AE-1 Activators with a pickup sel switch (not noted if 3 or 4 position). That is similar to Anniversary, but we didn't start making the Anniversary model until later, and it doesn't have a 5-pin out.  
 
The serial number for this bass is 86S3993 and the S designates it as a Spoiler, it's just a very custom one.  
 
In general, Series I and II instruments won't have a letter in the serial number. If they do, it may be an A, AC, AE or C.  
 
I think the gentleman I spoke with earlier already purchased this bass.

The price dropped from $2250 to $1995 over a series of months.

I thought I was the first one to order the option of a 5-pin with non series electronics.  I guess Alembic has done it all.

I noticed Greg Lake's pirate-themed 8-string doesn't have a visible hum-canceller either.  Just curious what electronics inhabit that bass?  That would have been a mid '70s instrument if memory serves ('76 or '77).  The bass I'm referencing is one which Entwistle had, which I think Oliver had posted a couple of months back..
John

John,
you mean the pirate bass right?
Here?s again the pic.
The bass has/had s/no. (if correct) 8 79 1300.
 
Oliver (Spyderman)

Back then some of the series basses had the hum caceller mounted inside the body.  Just like the famed doubleneck of John Judge.  Not that I know who he is, I just remember the ads.

FYI it was not me who bought it! :-)
 
Interesing Pirate 8 string. No strap buttons? Greg played it sitting down?
 
As for the hidden humcanceller on a real Series bass - where is it? Still between the pickups? I would wonder about neck strength if it is somehow routed in from the back. But I suppose you could put the canceller anywhere as long as it was angled in the same plane as the pickups, to receive the same hum field so to speak.
 
I wondered if the control layout was too neatly done to have been a cellar hack job. ;-)
 
Nice to know it really is pedigreed.
 
EffClef
 
PS what's this rumor about scratch-n-sniff zebrawood pictures in the next Alembic catalog?

EffClef, The hum cancellers were sometimes placed inside the control cavity, but mostly in a routed out hole under the tailpiece.

That's a beautiful instrument (so, of course, is the lovely spoiler which begat this thread).  Fanfare for the Common Man has to have the definitive 8-string bass sound IMHO...
Thanks for the info, guys...
John

Speaking of holes under the tailpiece, what IS that plate for in the Series basses? I can't think of why it's there unless it's going to a ground stud on the taipliece, underneath.  
 
I mean the little round one on the back of the neck, under basically the tailpiece area.
 
EffClef