Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: glocke on September 16, 2021, 04:02:00 PM
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Has Alembic ever made (or maybe even thought about making) a pre-amp pedal of some type based off of any of their rack mount pre's?
I for one would be interested in such a thing...
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Gregory,
I also would ‘jump’ on a pedal from Alembic.
If memory serves, the SF2 intent was to be a pedal, but to get all the Alembic deliciousness into a small box just wasn’t feasible. Which speaks volumes to their integrity with providing customers with the absolute best product according to their vision… and when the vision is coming from a Wizard…. well - you know. ;)
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Gregory,
I also would ‘jump’ on a pedal from Alembic.
If memory serves, the SF2 intent was to be a pedal, but to get all the Alembic deliciousness into a small box just wasn’t feasible. Which speaks volumes to their integrity with providing customers with the absolute best product according to their vision… and when the vision is coming from a Wizard…. well - you know. ;)
I would think that these days, getting those electronics into a pedal would be an easy task?
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We have seen at latest couple basses around here that have an SF2 (or maybe it was one channel of one) as their guts; if half an SF2 would fit in a bass, it could probably fit in a stompbox.
Maybe not one of the "nano" boxes that are currently all the rage, but whadda ya want fer nuthin'? A rubber biscuit?
Peter (who has no idea why The Chips just forced their way into his post......)
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I'm absolutely certain alembic "could" make pedals if they wanted to. The question is do they want to invest so much time in developing pedals at the expense of time making and servicing instruments?.
Just from what Mica wrote recently about the brass plates for the blaster switches, wanting them made in USA, i doubt that they would want their pedals made outside the USA so they could be made cheaper and in quantity. I would be surprised if the cost of building an alembic single channel SF-2 pedal or F2-B could done cheap enough for it to be sold for half the cost of the rack mount unit.
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If Alembic made one, or had time to R/D one, I'd line up for it.
With that being said, their neighbors down in Petaluma make a fantastic preamp pedal, with a studio-grade DI, and a dedicated tuner out. Check out the Mesa Subway+ DI. It is very Alembic-friendly.
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I tried the pedal preamp route recently using a Grace Design Felix. Although a versatile and great quality preamp, I found bending over to adjust things not a good fit for me. You also still need a power amp, which is another thing to carry (unless going direct out to board and monitors). So, I found either a small head with amp and preamp built in (i.e., Walter Woods or GK MB500) or a three space case with power amp and F-1X/F-2B to be better options for space, handling, and operation. At least that works better for me.
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I tried the pedal preamp route recently using a Grace Design Felix. Although a versatile and great quality preamp, I found bending over to adjust things not a good fit for me. You also still need a power amp, which is another thing to carry (unless going direct out to board and monitors). So, I found either a small head with amp and preamp built in (i.e., Walter Woods or GK MB500) or a three space case with power amp and F-1X/F-2B to be better options for space, handling, and operation. At least that works better for me.
You bring up a good point about the lack of ease to adjusting a pedal preamp. I've thought they are most useful if used as an effect to be able to quickly change tone with a foot switch. I can't see the need one for travel or putting the pedal on a cabinet with the availability of high quality microamps that have built in amplifiers. I'd rather use something like the custom preamp Alembic made for Stanley Clarke that can be seen here: https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=425.0 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=425.0) . Along with a Class D power amp it would make for a light and flexible combination.
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I am also of the mindset that I don't want to be bending over to adjust the controls on a pedal or pedal board. I also hate having stuff around me on the stage floor that doesn't absolutely need to be there and fail to see how having a pedal board is more convenient than a rack. But, given the popularity of pedals I am probably in the minority.
As far as a single channel SF-2 (SF-1?), it wouldn't be an SF-2 without the ability to mix two different types of filters. There are already low-pass and high-pass filter pedals available from other companies. Given the current list price of an SF-2 I am not sure there is enough of a market for an SF-2 pedal at the price point it would have to be sold at. It probably would also not be worth it because of the amount of R+D unless Alembic has gotten a continual stream of requests for a pedal version over the years and know up front they will sell many.
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Think about it. With the wood, the inlays, the magic electrics, an Alembic pedal would be a work of art! This is inspiring!