Alembic AJ-II-HB Bass Made in Japan Activators Headless

Incredibly rare Alembic AJ-II-HB made in Japan under license by Rokkomann (Alembic's Japanese distributor.)

According to Mica Wickersham of Alembic:

"This was made by Rokkomann, Inc., our distributor in Japan for many years. At the time these were made the exchange rate was terrible and there was no market for very expensive products that wound up costing twice as much. I believe there are about 50 of them. We supplied the pickups and electronics, they made the instruments. These are the only Alembic branded instruments that were not made in our shop."

AJ = Alembic Japan
II = Carved maple top (the I was solid mahogany)
HB = two humbucker sized pickups (the J version had two Jazz sized pickups)

Rokkomann had lots of experience making stringed instruments, particularly violins, and you can see that influence in the body shape and carving.  The pickups are Alembic Activators, controls are Volume - Volume - Filter, it sounds incredibly huge.

The bridge is completely made from ebony with fret-wire inserts, and is fully adjustable for intonation and overall height.  Tuning is at the body end, Steinberger style, and is very solid and nicely made.  The strings are fixed at the headstock end with the custom-made string anchors, double-ball end strings are not required.  The bass does have a small headstock so it's not truly headless, but since the headstock is so small there aren't any dead spots to speak of on this bass.

It's been around the block a bit, I imported it directly from Japan a few years back, but it's been a great player and can cover a wide range of styles from jazz to funk to rock.  Not sure I'd play it in a metal band, mostly because it's not black :)  But it's a super cool and rare bass, and I can pretty much guarantee you'll be the only person in your town to own one!

Ships in a vintage Yamaha hard case, pretty sure it's for a BB series bass.