Olivo, Rare 80's, Alembic style, 1982-83 - Clear gloss finish over Padauk

This is a very rare 1980's build by a master luthier named Olivo Chiliquinga, and he still makes instruments by hand in Ecuador! This is a handmade instrument, #0-17, rumored to be one of around 30 that were built in the late seventies into the late 80s when he lived in Toronto Canada. So far there are only rumors about much of his history and these include working with several Canadian builders like Lado guitars. He made guitars for iron maiden, Frank Sinatras band, Shakira, and many others. He made this limited line of handmade instruments on his own while working for these other builders, building their instruments to their specs.

I bought this instrument in 1993 in Toronto Canada from a shop on Queen Street at Bathurst, it was the nicest instrument in the shop and they told me that they had sold many of the original instruments when he first offered them 10 years earlier. This Bass had belonged to a gig player who mostly played at weddings. It included a flight case and the original XLR wiring and preamp.

I gigged with this for many years thereafter into the early 2000s. It required some rewiring at one point, and I bought a modern drop in pre wired bartolini preamp for the matching vintage pickups- the photos that you see show it has the first replacement - and it doesn't have enough knobs and dials. It includes a push pole combo pot in gold, blender, volume and tone controls in black, switch selector- it works much like the original setup- I have the original wiring to include with it with the original preamp. These were originally made by bartolini as well. I would like to one day see if bartolini would rework the original wiring to a usable State again - it's an older circuit board and XLR jack to a preamp to 1/4" jack out... I bypassed that with the modern battery powered drop in from bartolini. It has full range of both active and passive tones with a push pull pot it has a pickup blender and 7 way switch for several taps, I can provide those specs from bartolini if you wish to see it. The photos are of an earlier drop in and I will include the same style bartolini drop in that has the right configuration for the original control layout... It includes the original flight case custom made for it woot l cables and preamp.

This is an amazing bass with a very cool rare history- I'm in contact with the original builder in Ecuador and working to get some more works commissioned!

I can provide a custom setup and video of it playing upon request. Only accepting reasonable and committed offers, I will provide fully insured shipping at your expense. Might be cheaper to hand deliver it in continental US. Please ask any questions and can provide more photos and video... Cheers!