Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Showcase => Europa Basses => Topic started by: FC Bass on July 31, 2023, 04:19:08 AM
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Took a while, but finally made it! :-)
Pictures and vids will appear in the near furure, for now you'll have to do with these:
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Let me be the first Flip;
Congratulations & Compliments, man. I know you have been in line a while now. All the sacrifices worth it too, I bet. I wish you both many loud gigs. 8)
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I saw the Facebook post, congrats it's a beauty!!
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Also saw it on FB.
But again, congrats to your gorgeous new Alembic!
Greetz from Germany
Oliver (Spyderman)
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Well you did it Flip, the bass of your dreams built by the best in the business. What could be better. I know how awesome black basses can look so i hope you get some great gigs to let that beauty be heard and seen. Oh... well done Alembic for making yet another dream come true.
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Beautiful and magical!!
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Congrats my fellow black bass brother! Great shirt btw. Great health, wealth and inspiration to you Sir!
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A dream come true for sure!
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Congratulations... hope it is everything you wanted it to be, and more! Play it in good health...
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Congrats, looks great! And nicely done on the logo!
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Thanx all :-)
That logo is stunning, the rays have silver linings. Makes them shine crazy, extremely nice irl. (check it out on the Spoiler Jonny, very nice subtle detail)
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On the tube :-)
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Appreciate the isolated part, sounds huge! 😎
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I went back and listened to the isolated track of your Elan 5 Custom "Blackened" in the Showcase... there is just an extra degree of clarity to your SII here. And it it could be you were just going for something a bit darker on "God That Failed", but I can definitely hear it. I am guessing you will use these two basses to counter each other, as they are quite different-sounding. I bet they do feel/play remarkably similar. Well done, FC... quite an upgrade, my friend. 8)
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Solid! Very nice! :)
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Thanx!
Some killer B in this vid :-) (thanx Jimmy!)
Ed: Gues I must do a vs vid between those basses :-)
The "casco" is alsmost the same, only difference is the 3 piece chambered body on the SII (Elan has solid Maple body and Flame Maple top)
Somehow the neck on the SII plays a bit easier, though they feel/look exactly the same.
She will get some rest this week, I forgot the cable after recording this vid. Elan week it will be :-)
Here's a shot from the gig we did aug 3:
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I won't live long enough to get those bass parts down, Flip, but can you show me how to do that disappearing bassist thing? Dude, that's IT, right there. ;D
You and your new SII are killin' it. 8)
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I hear why you are happy with this bass.
Are those tapewound strings?
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Strings are DR Black beauties, currently going trough the third set :-)
Edward: It's multitrack video :-) I shoot about 30 sec of footage without me and than record the track, in the editor the 'higher track' is whats shown.
So I start with the no Flip footage on track 1 and fade in/out the Flip included track 2, very easy :-) (you can also see the bass appearing/disappearing) :-)
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and I forgot, also some (very short) moving pictures + sound from the first gig:
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Jump!
I think I will reupload this in the Future...
Forgot the earthquake video effect on the thundering low C's and I haven't figured out yet how to make a new Youtube channel...
(lost acces to my FCBass Youtube channel due to old 'not existing anymore' email address...)
Esit: Link updated, turns out it was very easy :-)
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Nice. 🤌🏼 the isolated track is delciious.
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Nice job with that one Flip. 8)
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Thanx!
Updated the link in the above message, was not as complicated as I expected. :-)
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Finally found some time to take some pics :-)
These are extremely difficult to capture, also I'm an Android noob (phone changed settings all the time)
But for now we have to do with this, at least it shows the bass without the protective paper on the covers :-)
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Plastic plates on the back, they're black and light! :-) Flamed Maple + Purpleheart neck and Flamed Maple veneer on back of the headstock (have we seen this before?*)
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Body
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Example of how hard these are to capture, can be used as mirror:
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Body back
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Ebony veneer on headstock, best of both worlds. In extremely bright light and up close, you can see brown strikes and from about two feet away it looks solid black
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This is something that has to be seen irl, I don't think the full beauty of this can ever be caught in a pic. The Silver lines around the rays are a great example of what Masters are creating these instruments (artworks) The tiny surface is perfect mirror like, reflecting light make the rays shine amazingly :-)
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With her older Sister:
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A little over 12 years between these two:
(* Yes) :-)
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Full specs:
C14809 completed April 10 2023
Custom Series II ULBII5
34 Long scale
Ebony fingerboard wood
Black Tahitian ovals, Abelone + Mother of Pearl inlayd under Logo, Silver lined Abelone rays
Black cosmos Alembic Gotoh's with Hipshot D tuner
Maple top laminate
Maple body
Maple back laminate
Flamed Maple + Purpleheart neck
Polyester finish
Series II electronics
Custom options: Europa body + headstock, opaque black finish body natural neck and headstock. Ruthenium plated hardware, red side leds
Still feels like we're on a honymoon when I pick her up (which happens a lot)
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The mirror picture is AWESOME! 😃
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8) Very Cool.
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Loud (too loud) :-) on stage:
There are some more songs from that gig on that channel.
Pics from that gig on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/V2kjPJT52VuTaG5b/ (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/V2kjPJT52VuTaG5b/)
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T. Michael Coleman one said, it wasn't too much bass that they hear, it's just the acoustics of the room, or the half-smoked joint behind their girlfriend's ear.
Turn it up, man. ;D
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;D
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That has a nice crunch to it!
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One year! :-)
This one had a better start than the Elan, IIrc I had to wait over a year for the first gig with the Elan.
The Europa got it's gig debut a couple of days after delivery and has seen many stages in Holland and Belgium since. :-)
Until recently it has been the only bass I've played, it's almost impossible to put this one down.
For gigs I took the Elan as backup, needless to say; never needed :-)
With the bigger pickups, it has also replaced the 4 string basses. I Used the '83 Spoiler mainly for fingerstyle playing, with the Elan I would hurt my thumb when using the "sharp" edges of the J pickup as thumbrest.
We will be playing some D-tuned songs again, for those I will be using the Elan (which was the task of the '88 Spoiler) Also we will be playing some half step down tuned songs, for those I will be using the '88 Spoiler.
Also plan to take the '83 Spoiler out again for some older songs. (f.i. Orion on a 5 string would be blasphemy imho)
So despite this extreme takeover, I've found a purpose for almost all. :-) (nothing in sight for the fretless yet)
A preview of what is to come, short clip of me practicing for the brutal downstroke series on YouTube:
-Warning, serious Alembic abuse!-
That has a nice crunch to it!
It's an Ampeg SVT 3 pro through a classic Ampeg 8x10, with gain at 11 and master at 11 (!)
A week before the gig we were informed we had to use their backline, so pissed and juvenile me crancked it all the way up...
So this is just: Bass - Cable - PS - Amp :-)
Oddly enough I did not get pushback from the monitor and foh people at all, they thought (rightfully so) it sounded great!
Guitar players used their backup heads (Line 6 and Kemper) and drummer only had his cymbals and snare, in hindsight this was our easiest gig ever! :-)
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Nice pick work Flip. Alembics are built to take heavy playing, the strings will give up first. 😎🤩🧐
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Hah, thanx and damn right! :-)
If you look closely in the vid, you'll see the E string is one of the original Alembic set. The previous E string couldn't take it anymore, snapped while hitting the first E of a song. :-)
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Awesome! Love the live Am I Evil too.
I believe that Creeping Death is the first Metallica song I was made aware of, back around 1985 or 86. A friend showed me it on guitar - but I don't think I ever tried it on bass until recently - his lesson came back to me!
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(https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZjR5dHB1eW54OXFsazJ0Y3VmNHE2cGRnYjg5ZXYwNnZ4bjZkbGd0eCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3Looa4RZ7xNhm/giphy.gif)
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;D
Comparison between two very similar, yet also very different basses. :-)
Also with those insane Newsted style downstrokes, hard work for the musical notes!
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Filling up the servers @ YouTube some more ;D
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Nice FC. 8)
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Thanx! :)
Onstage last night:
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Great photos Flip!
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Those pics are very nice.
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Have your band members mentioned a difference in the sound of the band since the Series II?
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Thanx!
The difference in sound is quite obvious, bandmates love it! :-)
I think I must do some reprogramming to get them sound a bit closer, when I used my Spoiler Friday (for the first time live since I got the SII) it was a huge step down sound wise. (the Spoiler did sound fantastic, but the SII sounds fantastic x4) :-)
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Cool shots.
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Thanx!
Sorry Jimmy, had to take it one step lower... ;D (tuned ADGCF with Dean Markley Signature Series Nickelsteel 45 65 85 105 128)
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I shared the video with a friend who is a big Metallica fan.
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Watched and 'liked' on your YouTube channel... I'm often amused by the nitpicking comments you sometimes get. Metallica fans must be a tough crowd to please. ;D
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Thanx!
I've started to pin the worst comments (so they will always be shown at the top) ;D
Inspired by Metallica's black album tour book, that was filled with only negative comments/reviews 8)
From the top of my head (I have the book somewhere, but I'm feeling lazy)
Comment from Keith Richards: If they are inspired by me, I did something horribly wrong... :o ;D
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All my gear in tha house! :-)
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Very cool. I hope your house is well built. That looks powerful enough to knock walls down.
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Especially like those Diesel 15's. Something about Alembics through Mesa-Boogie cabs just sounds right. (I have searched high and low for a Diesel 210 to complete my setup...) This place ruint me! 🤣
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I had 3 powerhouse cabs at one time. 1x15, which hardly got used, 4x12 used the most and a 2x10 which was my first. Great cabs that have a real punchy tone.
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Nice collection of equipment!
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Thanx!
The Mesa rig in action:
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From where in the chain is the direct signal coming?
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This is: DS-5R - Lehle P split Stereo - Lexicon MX400 - Radial JDI (very light compression from the Lexicon)
And Shure SM57 in front of upper cab, Mesa gets signal from the thru out of the JDI.
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Thanks!
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:-) Note: this is also the brightest setting of the bass, somehow the CVQ's are both maxed out. (with both filters full open) Normally I have CVQ's set at about 1/4 :-)
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Sorry to spam this four times, but I wanted it on the page for all 4 basses :-)
Metallica's Four Horsemen on four Alembics