BecVar Triple Omega 8-string 1978 - White

This is a BecVar Triple Omega 8 string, Serial 814578. Custom ordered by John Ferrara in 1978, it lived most of its life as a case queen. Bruce Becvar worked for Alembic during the 70s, and started putting out some basses of his own, likely "night shop" basses built at the Alembic factory, in the late 70s. The most famous of which was used by John Paul Jones in Led Zeppelin, another Triple Omega 8 string. In fact, this is the only other BecVar Triple Omega 8 string I've seen, and I was told the original buyer ordered it specifically after seeing JPJ playing his, but asked for it in white.

While this bass is painted in white, you can see the grain and construction thru the paint settling, and the Alembic style construction is clearly visible. The 32" scale neck is secured with a dual truss-rod system, and has done a solid job. The action is set to what I would describe as medium-low, having just had a set-up on the truss-rods. It uses Alembic style pickups, but a simpler pre-amp than the Series circuit, featuring a toggle selector (off/bridge/bridge+neck/neck), and volume/tone controls for each pickup powered by an onboard 9v. It is wired in stereo, and needs a stereo cable to operate both pickups (I'll include a splitter cable). The sound is massive, full, and clear with these electronics. The hardware also appears to be chromed Alembic hardware, with Schaller tuners.

While a case queen, it does have some wear, namely some paint chipping on the headstock where one of the octave string tuners rubbed the paint, and a small mark on the lower horn (on the side, not visible from the front). There is also a slight crack where the paint covers the fretboard on the treble side, but this is cosmetic and not structural. It has lived its whole life in its blue "Alembic-style" case.

She weighs in at 10lbs 10oz, so not a lightweight, especially in the case.