Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: jazzyvee on May 17, 2025, 09:06:04 AM
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This is a video by Johnny Lee long with a Distillate and non alembic electronics including a passive option. To me the passive option still sounds useable if the batteries failed.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GqAyot9y4Ko?playlist=GqAyot9y4Ko&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&loop=1&start= (https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GqAyot9y4Ko?playlist=GqAyot9y4Ko&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&loop=1&start=)
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Johnny's hilarious... a real character and a great player. I'd love to meet him in-person sometime.
Having had two Distillates both with their original electronics intact, I'm afraid he's not selling me on these, whatever they are. I'm of the opinion though, that it's hard to screw up a great bass, and this one sounds okay. It looks to still have its original AXY's, and I believe that's the main thing with these basses... that '81 I had was pure magic with everything set dead flat. A passive switch would be handy, especially on one of those early Distillates in place of the battery-draining LED. (which I even thought was pretty cool...) Personally I'd much rather it was an actual switch rather than a push-pull volume pot. The switch in his setup here (mounted in that now-vacant LED hole) is some kind of mid-contour control. That's probably the most useful thing I hear in Johnny's demo here. The bass and treble controls I thought just sounded generic knowing what I do about the boost/flat/cut option that came on these. Again, it sounds okay... Johnny Lee makes anything sound pretty good. I'd still sound like me.
I suppose this is one way to go, failing a complex DIY or having the Alembic shop repair the electronics. He is partly correct about that; there aren't easily sourced off-the-shelf parts in these. They can be fixed though, even upgraded. Probably not worth the cost or the time if you're in his biz.
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He seems a great guy and really enthusiastic about basses. I fully understand why alembic are fully active but when I was touring using my orion guitar i did wonder if it would be possible to have a passive option especially when we had to travel light with no backup guitar. In the end I got to the point of putting in a new battery whenever i was carrying that guitar abroad regardless of how long it had been in there.