[paulkogut]

I stumbled onto a truly bizarre but kind of awesome combination guitar shop/burger joint in a non-descript Chicago neighborhood. http://www.tommysguitars.com/

One of the many cool things hanging on the wall was a Kawai/Alembic bass. I suggested the owner take some pictures and post them here. Who knows if he'll follow through, but it might be the kind of thing someone here is looking for, so heads up.

[ugly rumor]

One of the few non-Gibson basses I have owned was a Kawaii F2B model, a replica of the Alembic series 1 bass. The bass was extremely well made, but the electronics were terrible. I used that bass mostly in rock music, where tone didn't really matter. The quality of construction was outstanding, and it was beautiful to look at. But I never achieved a tone I liked.