Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: jazzyvee on March 25, 2008, 12:36:13 PM
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Jazzyvee
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Reminds me a lot of Henry Ford and the Model T. Stacks of mass produced parts but you can get any color as long as it's black. ;-) Not that they don't have their place but it is not as personal as you have with individually built instruments.
Keith
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Who is that on the soundtrack for the first clip? It places it sounds like Eric Johnson.
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I actually stopped watching and flipped through a cigar catalog while listening. I agree Dave, sounds like E.J. to me as well
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I'm just amazed at the sheer output of Fender, Gibson, Ibanez etc. I wonder what the total production numbers are from the US, Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Vietnam etc.
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Both companies probably produce about the same number of instruments a month that Alembic have EVER produced!It really is no surprise from watching these videos that mass produced instruments tend to be wildly inconsistent in quality.
On reflection, having watched this makes me think that both Fender and Gibson instruments are overpriced!
It was a little too much like watching chocolate bars roll off the production line at willy wonkas factory for me!
John.
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One of the things I was thinking whilst watching is do the custom shop bodies and necks come from that production line or are they really made from scratch as individual instruments.
Do you know?
Jazzyvee
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I won't swear to this, Jazzy, but I've read that the standard Custom Shop models, as well as the CS Team Built pieces, are done on the same CNC machinery as the regular MIA stuff, while the Master Built ones are hand-made.
Peter
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I've just recently got hold of a one off Rob WIlliams (Woodworm Guitars) CSM Guitar from a friend of mine who was his first endorsee. It's a completely hand made super strat. I've had it only a few days now and like Alembics it has a mahogany body but also a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. The bridge pickups are Seymore duncan humbucker but I'm not sure of the neck and middle. It has some interesting coil tapping combinations which give the guitar the ability to extend the sound towards a telecaster as well as a heavier strat sound.
It's a very good guitar however I find the lower register notes on 5th and 6th strings not very clear in tone and with as bright an attack as the higher register notes on the guitar. Even in comparison to my existing strats.
I'm not looking to replicate the sound of any other guitar with this one but trying to think about what would give it a sound that works better for me.
To that end I was wondering about whether fitting an Ebony fretboard, like I have on my strat and Orion, and maybe a brass nut would give me some of that? I know that ebony in the neck lams of Alembics improve the sound and sustain but what exactly does an Ebony fretboard and possibly a brass nut do for a guitar?
Jazzyvee
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A brass nut will give you slightly more sustain and a noticably brighter tone. I've always heard that an ebony fingerboard should be a bit brighter than rosewood, which makes sense given its greater density, but I don't think I've ever come across 2 instruments where that was the only difference, so I can neither confirm nor deny from personal knowledge.
Peter
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Ebony is much harder and denser than rosewood. It is also much harder to source (and subsequently around ten times the price) than rosewood! Being much much harder on tools to work than rosewood only the very best luthiers tend to use it!
It is an incredibly strong wood and also adds considerably more to the strength of a guitar neck than rosewood ever would.
Ebony gives a brighter, more responsive sound than alternatives and adds considerably (especially combined with a maple neck/brass nut!) to the attack of percussive playing techniques like hammer-ons, slapping and tapping!
Ebony is my very favourite fingerboard material and I would baulk at having to switch back to rosewood. Hope this was helpful!
John.