Pan/Alembic Telecaster

[Paul in Colorado]

I have in my possession a friend's Japanese Tele copy from the '70's that was modded by Alembic. They sheilded the control cavity and the control panel has a three way switch, Volume, Tone, Phase switch and output jack. The lead pickup isn't working and at first glance, nothing seems broken, but I'll be taking a closer look in the next few days.

Overall, the build quality isn't too much to write home about. I think modern Squires are probably better guitars, but it's not horrible either. It plays well and the neck pickup sounds pretty good. The lead pickup has a chrome conver like the neck pickup, in fact they might be the same.

Has anyone else had one of these? As I remember, Alembic bought a bunch of these Tele's and Strat copies and improved the electronics and sold them through their distributor. They are nothing like the high end Alembics of the day.

[Ringo]

I've never seen one of the guitars you described.
But a few years ago, someone in the mid south area was taking cheap Fender Squires and putting an "Alembic" decal on the peghead, then selling them off at some local pawnshops.
I guess they were trying to cash in on the high end Alembic guitars.
Hopefully the pawn shops didn't pay too much for them, but I do know a guy who bought one, then found it out it was just a Squire.
I don't think he was in it for too much , and he made a player out of it.
I've seen a lot of fakes and frauds over the years but these were pretty bad, just a homemade "Alembic" decal on a Squire.

[maestrovert]

...i had a Pan Alembic Tele style....PHENOMENAL guitar ! white/creme alder body, white p/g....
"Pan" logo inlaid in abalone.....maple neck/slab bird's eye maple board...it had a zero fret, with a threaded steel 3 saddle top loader bridge and quite good Pups too....

i wish i had it back (yep, one o' THEM !)....i'm keepin' my eyes peeled for one....

[Paul in Colorado]

Here's what I got back from Alembic:

Hi Paul,

The name Alembic was used on these guitars without our permission,
knowledge or participation. Pan and Alembic had the same distributor,
and
while we offered some advice to Pan on how to improve their guitars, it
was a real stretch to use our name they way they did.

I'm sorry, but we have no information at all about these guitars.

-Helpdesk

Alembic, Inc.
3005 Wiljan Court
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
707 523 2611 ph
707 523 2935 fx

[waddeem]

Hey Maestrovert, maybe all those guitars you're talking about migrated to Portland. I see those all the time here. Never picked one up, thought they were just cheap copy's.