Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: achimbosch on June 27, 2024, 03:44:04 AM

Title: new/1980 Alembic Series 1
Post by: achimbosch on June 27, 2024, 03:44:04 AM

Hellohello ....
2 weeks ago I bought this brand new 1980 Series 1 from Japan.... used of course ;))) - Serial 1980 or 1694
Im asking for help in many way, lol
1) it sounds tremendous!!
2) when I play it at home with reduced volume of course... I get a hum when I come close to the amp, 60-50 cms. when I play the bas on stage the hum gets louder, still bearable, but not for an Alembic quality.
3) the DS-5 that came with it (Japan) is wired 117 Volts, I opened it and I cannot find a way to rewire it to 230 Volts Europe, there are some plastic capped cable connections inside, but can not find out which way to 230V connection
So if somebody has got a manual, I would be very interested
4) since the DS-5 is not ready I am using the 14" jack plug and I read in a different page that I can only use the neck pickup with the jack plug?

help would be appreciated aaaaa lot  :)

Title: Re: new/1980 Alembic Series 1
Post by: rv_bass on June 27, 2024, 03:53:30 AM

Welcome and congratulations!

Here is the link to the FAQ page with lots of good information

https://club.alembic.com/index.php?board=23.0 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?board=23.0)

And here is the link to the trim pots, try adjusting them to see if you can reduce or eliminate the hum


https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=273.0 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=273.0)

https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=269 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=269)

Title: Re: new/1980 Alembic Series 1
Post by: edwardofhuncote on June 27, 2024, 05:47:41 AM

Adding another welcome and congratulations. Rob already pointed you to most of the help you'll need.

Here's the DS-5 rewire page- https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=230.0 (https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=230.0)

I have a medium-scale Series bass #80-1684, a very close neighbor of yours... would love to see a picture of it, so post one in the Showcase when you can.

Title: Re: new/1980 Alembic Series 1
Post by: garyhead on June 27, 2024, 08:05:37 AM

Thanks guys for the info in this thread.  I bought 80 1662, in the same historical neighborhood, earlier this month and I need to start at step #1 with the setup.  Pickup screws look questionable and the guitar-side pickups are loose.  The control cavity looks ok but there are no ferrite beads on the pickups.  There is no noise  / hum coming from the pickups.

I had a horrible 60Hz hum at first.  The DS-5 was sitting on top of the power distribution rack so I moved it about 3' away from my rack and the hum was gone.  Is this normal? Does my DS-5 need additional shielding?

I'm waiting for a few bits & bobs to arrive before I start taking photos.  When completed, I'll have a completely ridiculous Stereo rig with a "Neck Column" & "Bridge Column."

Title: Re: new/1980 Alembic Series 1
Post by: achimbosch on July 11, 2024, 01:22:34 AM

thank yoooouuu all - did the hum cancelling and all "junk" is gone. perfect!!

for the STANCOR-2 transformer, it cant be rewired, I had to learn, so it will/must be a new one.