Hey folks,
 
Am considering ordering a custom Rogue and have a few questions for existing owners.
 
1. Has anyone seen/ordered a Rogue with black transparent tint? Was thinking Zebrawood with black over might look cool.
 
2. Are people generally happy with the pickup placement and balance on their Rogues? I prefer more bridge balance, so considering an AXY neck pup with offset coil, etc.
 
3. Are they nice and light and well balanced?  
 
Cheers,
 
EG

Hey EG,
    I bought my Rogue 5 new in 2003 and it was the best bass purchase I've made since I bought my Epic 4 new in the early 90's.Beautiful balance as in ZERO neck dive but it is a little weighty.I guess a flame purpleheart top,purpleheart neck lams and brass control plates contribute to it's weight but I don't mind.It just depends on the wood selection I suppose.I can stand a little back pain for the unbelievable tone and playability it has to offer.So far the best bass I've owned yet and I've had a few over the years.I really dig the pup placement as well.
 http://club.alembicguitars.net/Images/411/5756.html?1093180700
A link to my sweet for you to see.If you do order a custom,get it in before the price increase.
Take care.

Check out the Black Rogue (AKA the Nightbass).

Alembic made a number of transparent black basses fot this guy. Hopefully someone has a picture that shows the transparency better.

Another take on black - shifts from black to blue to bronze.

More colourshifting blackness - the photos don't capture the effect very well.
 

In order for transparent black to look nice, it needs to be barely transparent, we call it almost black. On Jason's basses, they looked black fromt eh audience, but up close, under some light, you could see the Flame Maple.  
 
Problem with sheer black (or any sheer color) is that it first has to overcome the color of the wood. Since usually we paint colors over Maple, you first have to overcome the yellow cast of the Maple. Hardest of all is the black. Sometimes it looks a little on the green side (when the color is thinner) others, a touch more on the purple (with a thicker amount of black tinted paint). In order to get it so it appears more black - well, it needs more black paint, and that obscures the grain of the wood.
 
Using a black stain first would probably increase the blackness, but we so dislike doing anything to the wood that is not able to be reversed. We have little experience in staining.  
 
We did a repair of an old Zebrawood Series I that had been painted with a transparent purple paint by another shop later that looked pretty cool. I think with black, again you'll have to combat the overall yellow color of the Zebrawood, just like with the Maples.  
 
Black-ish woods are available like Macassar Ebony and Ziricote.
 
The illusive Stormburst finish is referred to on this post, but there is no photo. Maybe the owner can be coaxed into contributing one!

Do enough didgging, and you find things! Here's a picture of a Stormburst Excel from 2002:
 

Great info, guys, thanks! I might have to rethink the black tint, I was hoping you could just have a small bit of it to darken the top colour, don't want to cover it too much. Plain Zebrawood might be ok, will chase up a few more pics.
 
Being a Sydney lad myself, I'm going to drop in and see the Black Rogue in person, get an idea of what's possible! WOO!
 
EG

Seems like you have lots of great input on color. Regarding pickup placement, I also favor the bridge, and have an offset AXY coil at the neck - which I really like.
 
If I had it to do all over again, I would seriously consider using a regular AXY positioned halfway between the standard neck and bridge positions (with a FatBoy at the bridge). But I'm really pretty happy with what I have :-)
 
We may favor the bridge for different reasons, so it's hard to know what to say here. Regardless, I suggest you put a FatBoy there. If you want to talk more about the neck, and possibly placement, let me know, either here or via email.
-Bob

How different is the FatBoy sound to normal? Maybe Alembic does MusicMan?  
 
Soundwise, I mainly play prog-rock, funk, jazz styles, so I'm after something that can cut through a loud mix when I want but also sound nice and sweet when I just want to groove. Still haven't heard a stock Rogue, so not sure whether to mess with it or not.
 
Cheers,
 
EG

The fatboy to my knowledge is wound around the Series pickup magnet giving it a more substantial amount of oomph compared to an AXY/MXY (which are basically the same with different casings).  
 
I have found that the AXY bridge pickup in my bass has plenty of oomph for gritty angry solo work -- the Fatboy is more powerful because of the magnet.
 
Honestly when I ordered my bass I never actually played an Alembic before except for a fretless Epic about 10 years ago and was unimpressed because I was a 16 year old kid who knew everything and actually knew nothing.  I guarantee the stock MXY pickups in the Rogue combined with the Europa/Rogue circuitry will do the business for you.  That filter knob with the Q switch is an amazing thing.

Hey, how do people find the Rogue necks? Nice and thin and fast? My current bass is a Tobias Killer B-5 with asymmetrical neck, I find it pretty easy to play and low fatigue for long gigs, etc. Wouldn't be too crucial except I have mild RSI from I.T work, so really find thicker necks a bit of a problem these days.
 
EG

What do you mean by asymmetrical?

Custom fingerboard width is no extra charge - so if you have an instrument you really like, we can match that.