Here's a picture of The Ox from 1978, taken from The Kids Are Alright. Incidentally, this was the last time that The Who played with Keith Moon.
 

here are some photos from the sosby's auction-check it out-in addition to these alembics John had some sweet axes!
 
(Message edited by goooge on April 23, 2003)

an alembic V

dig the bigsby!

scorpion

and another

this looks to be the one slugbass posted up top

an eight

and a five

The Spoiler Exploiter that Entwistle played was the reason that I wanted to get an Alembic in the first place. I finally had a chance to put the bass through its paces the other day with a band rehearsal, as opposed to just playing at home at low volume, or through headphones. To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. First of all, my drummer and guitarist were just BLOWN AWAY be the sheer physical beauty of the instrument. And then I plugged it in. We couldn't get over the beautiful, beatiful tone. It's everything. It's punchy, rumbly, bassy, has a crisp, clean high end that doesn't saw your head off. Wonderful sustain and attack. Just an awesome instrument. I usually record our rehearsals on a digital 16-track I have, so I'm able to isolate the instruments in mixing a little better. In listening to our rehearsal in the subsequent days, I'm still blown away. I find myself going Is this actually my tone? This is the sound I've been searching for for years! My bandmates have the same reaction. I really can't imagine buying anything BUT Alembics in the future...they're ADDICTIVE!

Yeah! That's the exact reaction I had when I got my Alembic. It still makes me smile every time I go to plug it in. . .

I smile just looking at it. I've been smiling A LOT the past month or so...

So, I'm assuming the 8-string above is the one he bought from Greg Lake?  Also, if I'm not mistaken (I probably am), the zebrawood 4-string was JE's first Alembic.  I also recall seeing a picture of him playing it onstage, probably in a thread here somewhere..
John

John,
yes the 8string is the one he had purchased from Greg Lake and was the particular one with the pirate motif inlays. This particular one was auctioned at Sotheby?s in the JE auction last year for GBP 10800. Yes, the Zebrawood was his first and then main stage bass and was also sold last year for GBP 13200. John also had another Series I bass with a bird?s eye maple top which was auctioned at Sotheby?s on April 7th 1988.
It is a little strange as it had a Kahler tremolo bass bridge installed. To my knowledge is this particular bass now located at the Rock?n Roll Hall of Fame.
 
Many greetins
Oliver (Spyderman)

By the way,
in a previous post in this thread someone wrote that the Spyder with the pointed peghead pictured on top (the KAO excerpt)is the same that was auctioned last year at Sotheby?s. This is wrong.
The Spyder he played in the film (during the Shepherd?s Bush gig) is the then main Spyder by John and was also THE one that failed at the Live Aid gig. This, at first main used Spyder, is now located at the Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin/Germany.
 
Oliver