Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: Paul Lindemans (palembic) on September 20, 2002, 04:35:24 AM
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Friends,
I start this new thread because otherwise others are gonna be too full.
Let's talk scale.
I start with a quote from Paul Reed Smith. He once said : Building a good electric guitar starts from considering the guitar as an 'acoustic', not as an electric. This is controversial -I know- but let's agree upon this.
S every element you put in to an electric will have some consequences for the sound. I guess the neck-through body design is used to get a better sustain: a better reaction of the quitar to the trembling of the strings. Even the lamination of the neck (maple/purple heart or ebony or another very hard type of wood) is for having this result + re?nforcement again the huge tension of the strings.
Now the next step is the scale of the neck. I was always told that the lower the string, the longer the scale for more defined sound. I guess that's why we have those 5 strings with 35 necks and even 36. Low B's are sounding well defined without the borderless lows getting everywhere.
So the Medium and short scaled basses must have definitely different sounds no? To get where the long scales go you need ...the electronics and/or amp and/or PA no?
Hey ...I certainly believe that medium and short scales give an easier access and greater playability but I think they lean on the (great Alembic) electronics on board.
Well ...I'm just asking.
Be Alembicious!
Paul
PS: I think I start another thread about that borderless-low somewhere. It's something that really puzzles me also in electronics, amp and PA.
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I am a big fan of the short and medium scale basses myself. I have a short scale bass that has more bottom end than some long scale basses. I am not sure if it is really electronics here or not since it is basically a standard Alembic with pf6 electronics. I think in this case it may be due to the sandwich. It is a sandwich of birdseye maple, cherry, and walnut. It sports a walnut and maple neck. It sounds like no other! Very deep and defined.
I also have a medium scale Alembic bass that is all walnut that has the best sound going. Is the walnut in these two instruments that is giving them their deep voice?