Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: 2400wattman on May 25, 2007, 07:58:42 AM
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I play mostly on the bridge p/up and my attack can be heavy handed at times. So to make things comfortable at that end I try to get the bridge p/up as close to the strings as I can so my fingers just barely catch under the string. Ican't seem to achieve that on my Alembics and this is my only gripe about them. I have been thinking about radiused p/up covers to alleviate that and was wondering if it could be done. I've only seen one company do it(won't mention name)and thought it was a great idea.
Am I the only one thinking of this...I can't be or maybe I am.
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Are you thinking of the Ibanez Gary Willis bass, with the ramp? I seem to remember seeing pictures of a Rogue that had a factory-fitted ramp between the pickups.
Have you already lowered your action, with the bridge as low as it will go? And you still cannot raise the pick-up high enough? You should be able to find longer plate screws in a hardware store.
Note that you get a different sound as you change the distance between the strings and the pickup (further away is cleaner, as I recall).
You might also want to ease up on the heavy-handedness - you get a much wider dynamic range if you start with a lighter touch, and turn up the volume. Let your rig do the hard work.
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So the problem is that only 2 of the strings have the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of the pickup that you desire? Are the screws too short to get the pickup heigh enough for your needs?
Normally I wouldn't put the pickups close to the strings for a heavy handed player, since then the string can easily bottom out on the top of the pickup when you get excited and play super hard. Do I understand correctly that you want the radiused pickup to help you play less heavily?
Adriaan is right that adjusting the height of the pickup will change the sound. It's hard to describe, but the closer the pickup is to the strings, there is less noise. It's also louder when it's closer, so if your Alembic has 2 gain controls inside, you'll probably want to adjust (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=222) them to balance the volumes of the two pickups.
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The idea is for me to have the same feel of where the E & G strings are, for the A & D strings. Too much space between the string and p/up allows my fingers to get caught easily between them. I don't want them so close they're almost touching the p/up, just a little closer than where they're at. I'll seek out some lomger screws and see if that alleviates it. Thanks Mica
Adriaan, I was thinking about the first run of the Yamaha six string TRB basses. They had the slight radius to their covers.
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You could glue on a radiused piece of Ebony to get you the feel you're after.
Otherwise, we'd have to make a new master and mold to get the desired effect.
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I did think about a shell that would slip over the p/up. That way I would'nt have to glue or screw anything extra to the bass/p/up. Still have to try longer screws. I've been very busy and this is'nt my main gigging bass so it does'nt get enough attention.