All the years I've been a fan of the Doobie Brothers, i hadn't realised Tiran had used an Alembic till today. A quick troll through the internet turned up this pic of a very nice series bass.

 
graeme

Cool!  Were you able to determine when the picture was taken?

According to Doobfan - http://doobfan.com/photos/tempe/
 
it was Tempe, Arizona, 1974.
 
I spent most of the morning hunting for pictures but only came up with this page.
 
graeme

This one looks like an Alembic, except a few of the features don't look right.

Could've replaced the bridge for some reason, maybe a tremeloe (with the arm removed). looks like it might be a fan headstock. If it's not Alembic it's a pretty good triple 'O' copy.  
 
Graeme

The headstock makes me think it might be a Kenneth Lawrence bass...

a few of Kenneth Lawrence's first basses looked very very much like Alembics in body shape so i'm sure that's what it is.

Thanks!

Bec-Var strikes again?

After reading the Lawrence section in American Basses:  KL really admired ALEMBICs and the work of Harry Fleishmann, learned a lot of his craft working for Steve at MOONSTONE.  He built several early in his career that were along the lines of the bass Tiran is playing in the picture, obviously ALEMBIC-inspired.  In fact a picture of one of his basses in that book looks a lot like the bass with Tiran. He's of course gone on to find his own style and is building terrific instruments and doing wonderful inlay work, one axe at a time by himself.
 
J o e y