Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Dreaming... for now => Topic started by: jazzyvee on November 06, 2025, 07:17:34 AM
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I am not really taken by headless basses even though the shorter overall length would be convenient. Also i'm not suggesting that it's something Alembic should look into either or stir up a can of worms.
But I logged onto mr Reverb app today and this Epic bass picture came up with the site banner over the headstock and i thought, that bass looks nice as a headless. Just sayin'
what do you think?
https://reverb.com/item/91376241-1995-alembic-epic-4-4-string-bass-guitar-walnut?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=91376241 (https://reverb.com/item/91376241-1995-alembic-epic-4-4-string-bass-guitar-walnut?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=91376241)
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In my estimation, a headless " Small Standard Body" short scale design would be a practical conceptual headless possibility with the Alembic pedigree. Thus, one would facilitate a compact travel instrument that elevates practicality for logistics.
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Funnily enough, I tried this once. When I was playing with Holdsworth back in the day a fella named Bill Delap built him several custom headless guitars. Allan was famously always pursuing "the next best thing" and went through gear a mile-a-minute. But he was also a very clever guy and had gained quite a bit of mechanical and electrical knowledge over his years of guitar tweaking. Bill was able to make some stellar instruments to whatever specs he could think up. Later ones included resonant chambers, "floating" tops, a very long baritone guitar, etc.
I got a little caught up in the excitement and commissioned Bill to make me what you see below - with Alembic Series II guts. It was a nice build but it simply did not work for me. The Steinberger tailpiece was impractical (difficult to tune), the body was too light and killed any sustain, and the strings simply felt like mush. I could have gone a bit further, gotten heavier gauge strings and worked on the mechanics a bit. But then I asked "why?" and just continued on with my lovely 4-foot long basses.
Working out where to put the tuners is one of the main issues with headless designs. And the string tension thing is confusing. Same gauges tunes to the same pitch you would think would feel the same. But not in my experience. Is it because there is no string beyond the nut and bridge? Or something to do with the bearing angle over nut and bridge? I don't know. And now I don't care. :D I ain't going there.
Jimmy J
PS: pay no attention to the stolen extra fret at the end of the fingerboard. My bad.
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JimmyJ
Very interesting and noteworthy whilst in the pursuit of perhaps " the next best thing", or trial and error during research and development. 8)
Best Wishes
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I built the body for this one,... in 2003? The core is Sapele, the top and bottom are 1/2" thk spalted maple. The neck is a Carbon Graphite one by Status, the headless tailpiece and head piece are by ABM. The pickups are AXY and a Fatboy at the bridge. I have a pair of AXY and a pair of Fatboys, tried various combinations, and just left it like this. I did like the dual AXY set up but the Fatboy was nice to run on its own for that burpy Jaco'esque tonality. The controls are volume & filter per pickup. I added the 3 position Q switches later - maybe in 2010, and at one time it had LEDs on the neck - hence the other switch. The LEDs are disabled now and that switch dioes nothing. The output goes to a Neutrik locking socket, yes Martha, it can be done. I never really put a finish on as I used this bass all the time for recordings or live shows, though these days I play a 4 string maybe 10% of the time. One of these days haha I might put a finish on...the knobs have a finish, and a falla called Devin Kline made them in matching spalted maple.
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In my estimation, a headless " Small Standard Body" short scale design would be a practical conceptual headless possibility with the Alembic pedigree. Thus, one would facilitate a compact travel instrument that elevates practicality for logistics.
that's basically a Kingbass from Status graphite :)