Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: poor_nigel on February 15, 2004, 05:03:02 AM

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: poor_nigel on February 15, 2004, 05:03:02 AM

Bass Northwest has a very interesting Dingwall bass with a 37 B String tapering down to a 34 G String.  This is very innovative in my book.  If I win the lottery and order a custom Alembic, it will have these.  Definitely something to consider when ordering a bass they will make any way you want one.  Imagine this bass made by Alembic . . . .
URL provided for those who want to check out the pdf file on this bass.
http://www.bassnw.com/New%20Exotic%20%20Basses/dingwall_prima_artist_5_st.htm (http://www.bassnw.com/New%20Exotic%20%20Basses/dingwall_prima_artist_5_st.htm)

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: rami on February 15, 2004, 06:36:56 AM

Cool Bass!  What a great exercise in design.  Too bad about the bolt on neck though - for that price, I feel a neck through is more appropriate.  
Great design though - very innovative.
 
Rami

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: David Houck on February 15, 2004, 10:05:37 AM

The idea of an Alder treble core and a Walnut bass core is interesting, and probably more relevant on a bolt-on (or set-neck) than on a neck-through.  The Redwood top and back are nice.  The Neutrik locking jack is also a nice touch.
 
Mica has been asked about this before and mentioned that in addition to all the one-time engineering costs there is also the matter of the license fee that has to be paid to Novax.  When you think about it, just about everything on such a bass would be a one-time custom build; headstock, nut, neck, body wings, pickup positioning, maybe even the pickups themselves to get them wide enough for the proper angle across the strings, and of course individual bridge and tail pieces.  It would make for an interesting project.

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: bassman10096 on February 16, 2004, 08:16:03 AM

Wow.  This bass is engineered!!  Nice looking woods and woodwork, too.  The non-parallel frets are visually amazing, but look like they'd be a serious project to get used to.  I agree with Dave.  Virtually all would be a first time custom for Alembic (as I'm sure it was for Dingwall!).  Interesting design, though.  The kind people usually just talk about, but no one does.
 
Bill

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: adriaan on February 16, 2004, 08:39:06 AM

As far as I know Dingwall has been building basses with fanned frets for years now - don't know if they ever build without them. There are lots of posts on http://www.talkbass.com (http://www.talkbass.com) about Dingwall. Apparently you get used to the fanned frets a lot quicker than you might think.

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: palembic on February 16, 2004, 08:58:45 AM

Yep ...there was an A/B thing going on in one of the last years Bass-player of the passed century (sounds amazing no???) and the test-persons all gave the same comment. It's a LOT easier to play if YOU DON'T LOOK AT THE NECK.
Weird huh??
But it was chosen as one of the best sounding 5 strings (surely the best B-string)
 
Paul the bad one

Title: 37" B String - NonAlembic, But Interesting
Post by: bassman10096 on February 16, 2004, 03:04:28 PM

Shows how little I knew!  
 
Bill