Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Fun Stories => Topic started by: jerico on July 27, 2020, 04:46:58 AM
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I've had my Further since 2006, and I've always thought the "bright" pickup setting was painfully trebly, and never used that mode. It only dawned on me yesterday to set the bright mode to my "normal" listening preference, and then allow the "normal" mode to be a slightly rolled off variant of that.
Seriously, what was I thinking all this time?! When we talk about controls that need to be explored, we're not kidding!
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:)
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Justin, do you mean adjusting tone with the filter while in”bright” mode, or are you referring to internal trim pots of which I am unaware?
Bill, tgo
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Hi Bill,
Simply just adjusting the tone knob while in bright, to a value a tad brighter than I'd normally want. That's it!
Facepalm...
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I never thought of that! Good idea! I do use the bright setting, but very occasionally. I much prefer the Q switch on my other Alembic equipped guitars. I’ll have to give your idea a try.
Bill, tgo
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Ironically, or perhaps unsurprisingly, a few weeks ago I started playing with the "preset depth" control on my Mesa amp, which I had also never used before (it basically controls the extremity of a V-shaped EQ curve - though I rarely even use the banded EQ on the amp). Normally I'd say I need to get out of the house more, but it seems that being stuck in here has me actually learning how to use my gear.
This is a great time to RTFM I guess (read the f***ing manual)!
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This thread was exactly the answer I needed. I've been trying to figure out these [off-on-bright] switches on my guitar... the bright setting was just too much from where I ordinarily would set the filters. They just don't have the same effect as a Q-switch does, and my brain was telling me it should... this actually is more usable for other things.
Now, if I could just play the thing... :P
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Note that the brightness is adjustable with a trimpot on each of the switches inside the control cavity.
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Wow, I’ve had my Further for 15 years and never knew that! Thanks, Mica.
Bill, tgo
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I missed the last few replies here - sorry, I am lagging behind the class a bit!
But yeah, wow, I didn't realize that either.
@Mica do you mean there's a separate internal trim pot for bright like in addition to the gain trimpot? I will need to open mine up and poke around a bit.
EDIT: I just opened my Further up, I do see the trimpots on the selectors (though I'm not sure I can easily access the one for the neck - it is sort of under the circuit board and the tube holding the pickup wires). I can't believe I never noticed that before though.
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My filters were almost always open and I rarely used them since 2004 when I got the Further. Been playing some other guitars for a while and started messing the tone controls watching Trey and others.
Getting back into this guitar I've been using the bright switches more in conjunction with filters, and it's brilliant (in sound and concept)!
Glad to hear and read others are doing the same :)
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@Mica do you mean there's a separate internal trim pot for bright like in addition to the gain trimpot? I will need to open mine up and poke around a bit.
EDIT: I just opened my Further up, I do see the trimpots on the selectors (though I'm not sure I can easily access the one for the neck - it is sort of under the circuit board and the tube holding the pickup wires). I can't believe I never noticed that before though.
Yes - you found them! We set them near the middle usually. If the bright is too bright, you can turn the trim pot on that switch down and it will be nearly the same as the "on" section.
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^ (so I can find it again...!)
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Funny, this thread is years old and I referred back to it a few weeks ago too, and went in and did some adjustments on all of the trim pots again! They make a huge difference!
Happy hols y’all!
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I haven't adjusted mine yet... but I might just to see. I don't think it's the [bright] setting that I need to tweak. If I understand Mica correctly here, the trimpots only affect the high frequencies that are attenuated in the upper-most position of the switch. I think what I need is a [mellow] switch.
I don't know if what I'm thinking about exists, but imagine that the switch had a fourth position that was between [OFF] and [ON] that was *less bright* than normal. Nuts, huh?
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Wasn't there something somewhere on the Club site about "mellow filters", maybe a year or so ago?
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I believe some very early Alembics sported “mellow filters”.
Bill, tgo
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Songdog, if you search for mellow filters and you can see a few discussions about them, here is one
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=4431.msg53431#msg53431 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=4431.msg53431#msg53431)
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Mica's post there answers part of my question, thanks for posting that one Rob. :) I actually had read about mellow filters, but only anecdotally... there isn't much to read. Maybe it is what I'm thinking about here.
So according to that link, mellow filters apply a less harsh roll-off value to the filter; of 3dB/octave rather than 12dB/octave. Having had the experience of a Series guitar for a while, I can totally understand that being desirable for some folks. 1116 would make your ears want to hide in your watchpocket if you weren't careful with those knobs and switches.
The Skylark controls on my Little Darling guitar operate functionally much like the Series controls, in that each pickup has a volume and filter, but the switches are selectors, to cut the pickup off, on, or to brighten it. There are no Q-switches. (attaching pics) I don't know enough about guitar electronics to know whether the Q is default toggled [ON] in the absence of a Q-switch, (like a bass) and I am in fact, brightening a Q'd filter setting. Ideally, I kinda' wish these switches, particularly the one for the neck pickup, toggled a mellower option rather than a bright one in the uppermost position.
Again, probably user-error... just me needing training wheels. No idea if what I'm thinking is even possible. I should just play more and think less. ::)
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I didn't try turning those bright trim pots ALL the way down, but maybe that would get you what you want? Like the "bright" toggle ends up being less bright than "on"? They are a little hard to get to on my Further but maybe you can access them a little easier on that (gorgeous) Darling.
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Songdog, if you search for mellow filters and you can see a few discussions about them, here is one
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=4431.msg53431#msg53431 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=4431.msg53431#msg53431)
Thanks. I haven't always had luck with searching the site, and I was kind of cramped for time when I answered earlier.
Here's the one I was thinking of, found by searching today. If you read down the thread, it actually has a sample schematic for a generic (not Alembic) filter.
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=27767.msg282275#msg282275