Well, I picked up an Excel 5 on Wednesday at the not-so-local Guitar Center for a real nice price. Wow, the poor baby was abused. I just spent about three hours pulling the strings, polishing brass, and clearing an incredible amount of gunk from the fretboard. When I picked the thing up, you couldn't tell that it had side dots. A bunch of cleaning, a little wax and some oil plus a new set of strings (and battery) and the thing is presentable. At this point, it's just missing three screws from the back plate to be good to go. There are little nicks here and there and one large gouge on the top just above the neck joint.
 
Why do people do that to guitars? I'm told the prior owner traded it against a vintage Kramer.
 
The thing plays great, but I'm not sure I love the tone for what I do. We'll see when I get it into the band context on Monday.
 
-bob

I love the Excel.  Any chance of your posting a picture?

Whether it works for what you're doing, thank you for rescuing it and cleaning it up.

Person who did that to an Alembic should be hung, drawn & quartered LOL

Assuming it wasn't deliberately abused, it just shows that someone had made good use of it for it's intended purpuse. At tool for making a lot of music. Maybe those of us with ultra pristine instruments, me included in that, are not getting the most of ours. I certainly wouldn't want to abuse my instruments but if they got some mojo from playing, that's not a bad thing is it? Nowadays people pay a fortune for so called road worn instruments that may look worse than the description by Bob but still sound good.
 
Personally I'd love to get the amount of gigs you'd need to get that kind of wear. But I'd still take care of my alembics so that it didn't get into bad shape. I like the pristine look so I'd take a leaf out of JJ's book and get the bass refinished when it gets tired looking.
 
It will be interesting to hear how you get on with the bass regardless of it's condition and I guess if it's not your cup of tea then at least you have it in a better condition and should get your money back if you decide to sell it on.
 
Jazzyvee
 
(Message edited by jazzyvee on January 13, 2014)

Those are 2-56 screws you're missing. If there's a hardware supplier that caters to machine shops in your area they might have them.

Besides its looks, I totally fell in love with its tone: big, powerful and brutal.  It's everything I dream for a Bass to sound like. I love the simple electronics: Bass, Treble and Volume.  Simple, no fancy inlays, no flash, just one serious heavyweight KO of a tone.  You play an Excel and you say, This is a Bass.  Of all my Basses (including my other Alembics), nothing moves me like the Excel.  I never tried an Excel that I didn't end up taking home with me.

Jazzy, there's a difference between roadworn and covered in gunk. I agree that it probably got that way by being regularly and aggressively played over a long time but without ever a wipe down. The strings on it appeared to be XLs that sounded deader than any flats I have ever tried. They had probably been on there for years and that may be the last time the bass got a wipe down.
 
Played it tonight at a rehearsal and it got positive tonal reviews. It was a little slower-playing than my Zon Sonus, and the small and dimmed position dots made it a bit of a mental challenge since we play in a mostly darkened room.
 
I took a couple body pics and will post one shortly.

Kent, thanks for the tip on the screws. I'll see if I can find them locally. If not, I can probably send Mica a few bucks for postage and she'd send me some.

NICE PIC!!! Congratulations and I wish you many years of enjoyment.  It's worth hanging on to considering how rare they are and what a new one costs. And of course IT IS the greatest Bass in the World.
 
Best regards,
 
Rami

Looks like it was well worth the effort to clean it up. So you got positive tonal reviews I guess from the band, but what is your view on it's tone?
 
Jazzyvee

Is it really possible that an Excel 5 has a starting price of $7200.00? I wonder if the dealers would sell it at that price or if it's simply an MSRP. Like I said, you should probably hang on to yours, because replacing it won't be cheap!

That looks nice! I thought about buying it myself and now I wish I had.
 
Dave

Love that top.
 
If you email me your address Bob I can send you 3 cover screws.  I have some extra from Alembic.
 
T