Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: herbbone on May 17, 2011, 03:41:51 PM
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Hello,
I am awaiting delivery of my first Alembic. A 1974 series 1. I have found the postings in this club to be very informative & helpful.
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welcome herbbone..a 1974 series I, please can you post pics so we can all drool over them when it arrives!
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Actually there are pics in in the showcase. It seems this bass has a history here. Pics can be found in showcase under 74-124 Series 1
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Welcome Mark, and congrats on gettin' your hands on one of the old ones!
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Welcome Mark! Congratulations, Play it Healthy! Art
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Oh nice vintage early Alembic..nice engraving on the metalware..Congrats on your purchase
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Here is the link .
http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/35292.html?1300823712 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8393)
Welcome to the form.
Enjoy
Jazzyvee
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That one?
Oh, it is gorgeous, congrats!
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THAT ONE!
Nice one Mark! That is one sweeeeeet bass.
Would love to hear a recording of it if you ever get the chance.
Welcome to the camp . . .
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+1 for really nice...
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Slight setback. Electronics have some issues... buzzes after playing awhile. pretty bad. Seems to me old dirty pots. I had the same issues with my Fender Twin amp. Just needed a good cleaning and checking of the connections. I'm hoping this is as easy. Any suggestions? I am unsure if I should take it to the luthier or do I need to send it to the factory to be fixed. I really want this 100%. It plays like a dream. I never had a fretless and for some reason I can play this effortlessly. What do you think my best course of action is?
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I would contact Alembic by phone on Monday if I were you. They'll get you sorted.
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Try exercising the pots (turn them back and forth about 50 times) and see if that helps. It might need the upgrade... in which case it will need to go back to Santa Rosa.
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I would start with Mike's advice - these should be sealed self-cleaning pots, so turning them through the full range of motion 50-100 times should clean the pots pretty well. Do NOT use a contact cleaner or such, as that won't help with a sealed pot.
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What is the upgrade? At any rate I'm going to call Alembic and see what they say. This bass is way to nice not to be fully functional.
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The Upgrade (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=268)
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Update. I have done some troubleshooting and here's what I come up with. I know both pickups work and sound really good. The pickup selector switch may bad or have a wire off as when I play using the batteries only the bridge pickup will sound, if I use the preamp I can use both depending on the output. But not both. The left output will make only the neck PU work, but when I use the middle or left output only the bridge PU sounds. Also 5pin cable or inputs are causing shorting and popping, if the cable is still there are no problems. I do get a bad squeal when using the batteries only after playing a while, but hasn't happened since I changed the batteries. Can low batteries cause noise? Any suggestions. I have called the factory but they haven't gotten back to me yet. I'm still thinking(hoping) these are minor and easily fixed.
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Well, the bad news is that it may be that your 5-pin cable may need replacing, It's not cheap, but you should only have to do it once and be set for another 30 years.
The good (sort of) news is that your 1/4-inch connector is working properly: It's actually a stereo output, so using a standard mono cable will only yeild output from 1 pickup. This can be changed, but you'll have to do a search on the club. The connectors were designed to be used either with the 5-pin or 1/4-inch, but never both.
Good luck, and keep at it!
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Hi Mark - A blated welcome to you. The 1/4 output jack is stereo, so you would need a stereo jack/cable to hear both pickups using it on battery power. You have a 'special' preamp, if I remember right, so I will leave that for others to answer. I never use batteries, so I have no idea what it would sound like when one runs low on battery power and dies. On calling the factory, endeaver to persevere!
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They make awful noises as the batteries are dying. You really have to use the external power supply or be be prepared to change batteries... often. I had a special 1/4 cable made for my Series I: it took the stereo output and summed it to mono. It requires a couple capacitors... you can't just hook a TRS jack to a TS jack.
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herbbone welcome to the vintage alembic owners side of the club, ive had old#72-12 since 1980 so hold on to that puppy for life man!
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And a welcome from me and Old #10 too!
Bill, the guitar one
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Thanks for the advice and welcomes. Issues seem to be working themselves out as play more. Preamp is working fine. Perhaps moving everything cleaned some stuff out. I had a bad cord from it to the amp. The battery issue is solved. That is what I think got me out of sorts. The squealing was awful. Since using the power supply all noise is gone. Big relief. Looks like It will make it's debut on Sunday with some friends. I also have to say, Barnes, that is one of the nicest instruments I've seen. Wow.
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Hey herbbone -
It's more likely that things are working right than wrong. As has been mentioned, older Alembics like this one (until sometime in the 80s) have a stereo 1/4 jack. If you stick a normal guitar plug into the 1/4 jack, you're dependent on the two 9V batteries and you'll only hear the bridge pickup only in two of the four selector positions (bridge only and both pickup positions). In the neck only position, you'll hear nothing and you'll also hear nothing in the standby position.
You need to use a stereo 1/4 cable to get both pickups out of the 1/4 jack and, if this is a Y-cable that comes out to two 1/4 jacks, they need to be plugged into amp channels that are electrically isolated from each other, otherwise you're hear nothing. Bass amps often have only one preamp channel, but may have two paralleled inputs. If you try to parallel the stereo pickup outputs, they short out and you get no output, and this will happen if the amp inputs are in parallel too.
You can convert the output from the 1/4 jack to a mono out to use with a regular guitar cord or wireless unit by adding two resistors in series with each of the outputs then connecting them together (I don't know the values off the top of my head). This can be done inside the bass for $2 of parts.
The onboard preamps of the Series basses are optimized for great headroom and sound and not for battery life! So unlike an EMG setup where a 9V battery lasts for 1000 hours, the two 9V batteries in a Series will be dead in less than 40 hours. As they drop, at first it will sound fuzzy, then you'll get squeaking and squealing, then probably no output except for the squeaking.
If you can tolerate the short cable, use the 5-pin with power supply and make sure the jumper cords to the amp are good and your sound will be as awesome as your bass looks!
David Fung
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Thanks again for all the help. I feel somewhat humbled. I should have taken my time to try to understand the way everything works. I am very happy to upload some of my basses & guitars. I play them all. I've have my 74 Rick since 1985. I have never gotten the sound out of any of my basses like this Alembic. Absolutly amazing.