Quote from: FC Bass on August 03, 2026, 12:20:25 PMBarend: You need to come over here in the north and check out my Elan.
It has both a pan pot an pickup selector, config can easily be changed by switching the pickup leads. Might be a nice subject for a new vid :-)
I might even be willing to lend it out to you for a while, it's currently being unplayed (since I got the SII) and it would be great to see a vid with a capable player like you featuring this bass! :-)


It is a 5 string though... :-)

  Thanks for the offer. I am sure we will meet some day! Maybe we even can organize a small Dutch Alembic meeting or so in the future.

Btw nothing against 5 string basses. I am just more comfortable on 6 and 4 string basses. I like the symmetry of an even string number 

Quote from: FC Bass on August 03, 2026, 12:20:25 PMBarend: You need to come over here in the north and check out my Elan.
It has both a pan pot an pickup selector, config can easily be changed by switching the pickup leads. Might be a nice subject for a new vid :-)
I might even be willing to lend it out to you for a while, it's currently being unplayed (since I got the SII) and it would be great to see a vid with a capable player like you featuring this bass! :-)


It is a 5 string though... :-)

Thanks for the offer. I am sure we will meet some day! Maybe we even can organize a small Dutch Alembic meeting or so in the future.

Btw nothing against 5 string basses. I am just more comfortable on 6 and 4 string basses. I like the symmetry of an even string number 

Quote from: StephenR on August 03, 2026, 09:05:58 AMAgree that a master volume vs pan pot is a personal choice and playing style and how frequently you alter your tone on the fly would affect that choice. Cosmetics comes into play, too, especially if you prefer the look of minimalistic controls.

I prefer having two volume pots and a master volume on my basses. If you look at Mica's explanation of how both choices work it seems clear to me that the pan-pot option is slightly limiting tonally.

Here is why I see it that way... say you really like the sound of the neck pickup at full volume and just want the bridge pickup to contribute a bit more high end so you don't have to make adjustments at the amp. If you add 10-20% bridge pickup the tone will be brighter but the neck pickups tone/volume will not change and I can still turn up or down using the master volume. When I play a bass with a pan pot and try to do the same thing by panning slightly to the bridge pickup to add treble it always changes the output and tone of the neck pickup slightly, too. I can hear and prefer the sound of adding 10-20% of the bridge/treble pickup for more high end response and high-mids punch to subtracting 10-20% of the sound of the neck pickup and losing some of the tone that provides. The difference can be subtle, but real, even with mono-output. With stereo it is more pronounced.

On a related note, after having a Series I for years I came to the realization that I do not care for two volume controls and no master volume. The Alembic electronics are sensitive enough that it is pretty much impossible without a volume pedal or master volume to increase or decrease the output volume on the fly without loosing the tonal balance between the pickups. Adding a master volume to my Series I made it way more user friendly and enabled me to start taking it out to gigs regularly again, wish I hadn't waited 30 years to do so. I don't use effects pedals and dislike the clutter a pedal-board brings to the stage so I didn't want to use a volume-pedal for the same reason.

Very well explained. A master volume is indeed a nice option for a series 1 or signature.

For on the fly pickup balance adjustment a pan knob is more easy because you only have to adjust one knob to adjust the pickup balance and if you have set the pickup height and internal trim pots right the volume doesn't change when adjusting the balance.

But I am happy with both. You'll adjust to what you have anyhow.

I wouldn't go from a master/pan setup back to two volumes at gunpoint.  I can set the blend (as Jimmy points out, it's actually a tone control with more bridge or more neck, etc.) and whatever I set, I haven't changed the output volume.

I'd never go back to two volumes.

I used to have standard signature setup on two of my basses and still had to adjust the volume if i changed the pan setting significantly from one pickup to the other and or filter settings significantly say from mellow to bright to keep my same overall volume.  When i got my series II, to me anyway, it felt like i had more control ( i accept this could be a perception rather than a fact).  But now i prefer the two volumes on two filter alembics and had my signature electronics changed to anniversary so that my mode of operation on my main gigging basses are similar. If it was a cheap and cheerful mod, i would add master volume circuits to my dual filter basses. I could use a volume pedal but that means trying to synchronise 3 moving limbs while standing on the other. 😂🫣

I'm kind of a pan-preferred player, and that's what is on both of my current two Alembics, but I adjusted to Series two-volume controls easily when I had them. I will say, having a Master Volume on the newer one of the two was a bonus. Most of the time, I tended to favor the neck pickup in volume, and left that filter open almost fully. The bridge pickup I tended to be a bit less volume than the neck, and I closed that filter to get a darker tone. Occasionally I would either engage the Q, or turn the volume up for a passage I wanted more presence. 

The Master Volume on my other Alembics is basically a boost setting. I play with it at about 75% and give it a quick twist when needed. The pan/blend is usually set at the center detent, or biased to the neck pickup slightly. The older I get, the less I fiddle with stuff. 

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on August 08, 2026, 06:16:15 AM<snip>
The older I get, the less I fiddle with stuff.

Preach! 

My Distillate is "basic", yet I can dial in a myriad of tones.   
If I had a pan or separate volumes, chances are great I would get lost in even more options. 

Quote from: pauldo on August 08, 2026, 07:25:09 AM

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on August 08, 2026, 06:16:15 AM<snip>
The older I get, the less I fiddle with stuff.

Preach!

My Distillate is "basic", yet I can dial in a myriad of tones. 
If I had a pan or separate volumes, chances are great I would get lost in even more options. 

Come to think of it, the Distillate I had back then had been modified so the the 4-way pickup selector switch was a pan. I used it exactly the same way. Just made more sense to me. 

My boat has three oars (so to speak)

Further - Master Volume only w/ 3 pickups/ Switches

Kit - Two volumes, one for each pickup no switches

Epic - Volume with Pickup Pan no switches 

I'm finding these configurations don't matter much to me as the controls are useful in each guitar's application.    Frankly its very interesting!