Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Swap Shop and Wish Lists => Seen on craigslist, eBay, and elsewhere => Topic started by: gearhed289 on January 08, 2019, 06:45:10 AM

Title: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: gearhed289 on January 08, 2019, 06:45:10 AM

Here's something you don't see every day. Tuned EADG one octave up.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233085124241?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT (https://www.ebay.com/itm/233085124241?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT)

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: edwardofhuncote on January 08, 2019, 08:14:01 AM

Can't be many of these around... I was just asking Mica about the "Shorter Scale Bass" a while back.

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: sonicus on January 10, 2019, 01:36:00 AM

I asked the seller of this particular bass as to what the string gauges in its current tuning  were as well as to who the manufacturer of the strings is .

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: hieronymous on January 10, 2019, 09:46:37 PM

Interesting - I had my 32" scale Spoiler/Exploiter set up as a piccolo for a while - it was fun!

Wolf, it'll be interesting to hear the answers to your questions.

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: edwardofhuncote on January 11, 2019, 06:49:12 AM

I mulled over the idea of a 28" scale bass a little while back, since my upper back is such a mess its looking like eventually I'll be playing bass from a chair. A shorter scaled bass was one solution that seemed viable. Anyway, I remembered this 28" scale bass http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=7466.75 and talked to Mica about it. So you could string this up to standard pitch with some regular short-scale strings too, though I'm guessing if this bass was built as a piccolo/tenor, the nut and saddle (and tailpiece) slots were filed for smaller gauge strings, so one would have to change that.

Wolf makes a great point... I really don't know where one would source strings for that length and gauge, for an octave above standard. I don't know if regular guitar strings would work. Maybe? Baritone guitar strings? I'm curious about that too.

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: sonicus on January 13, 2019, 05:33:13 AM

I have yet to any response from he seller . I will give it another try or anyone else can as well  . :) 

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: edwin on January 13, 2019, 06:00:14 PM

DR and other string companies would probably be happy to make custom sets. I had them make me a piccolo set a while back for an experiment that didn't go so well (not because of the strings).

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: sonicus on January 14, 2019, 09:34:17 PM

The seller responded and wrote that he does not remember what the string gauges are however he remembers that the manufacturer was   :  D'addario .    :) 

Title: Re: EVH-style Alembic piccolo bass
Post by: gearhed289 on January 15, 2019, 08:07:07 AM

GHS has traditionally been very good about making custom sets.