Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Fun Stories => Topic started by: jazzyvee on July 14, 2011, 04:17:45 PM

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: jazzyvee on July 14, 2011, 04:17:45 PM

Here is a you tube review of an Alembic Tribute and further from someone who clearly has not done his homework.
 
Some Inaccuracies include:
Active pickups, two outputs, kill switch, Pickups, off, humbucker and split.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYxfx0Vb4-A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYxfx0Vb4-A)
 
Very entertaining but not the best salesman for the guitars.
 
 
 

(http://alembic.com/club/messages/394/109092.jpg)
 
 
Jazzyvee

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: edwin on July 14, 2011, 08:47:36 PM

Pretty hilarious!

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: cje on July 14, 2011, 08:59:59 PM

The things that are wrong with this video are too numerous to mention, and it's late here in NY, so I'll leave that to others.
 
I had two initial thoughts, though:
 
1. This... kind of angered me.
2. Someone needs to call APS immediately.
 
I actually watched the entire clip, because I think the web at large is a bit starved of Alembic guitar sounds, and I really wanted to here something purdy - but I have to say I did find myself shaking my head quite a bit.
 
And as I'm sure you've figured out by now...Alembic Protective Services!
 
You were correct about one thing, Phil X - this is totally not your kind of guitar at all, ever... EVER.
 
On a side note, I'm going to think about asking Mica to add a kill switch to my build...

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: terryc on July 15, 2011, 05:35:56 AM

Note the black nail laquer..says it all really!

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: jazzyvee on July 15, 2011, 06:19:17 AM

What is shocking is the fact he has such an expensive guitar on and is sporting a huge skull and crossbones belt buckle which would more than likely give the guitar a healthy dose of buckle rash.
 
No Respect.....? Total Disrespect....!!!
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/394/109127.jpg)
 
 
 
Jazzyvee

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: chuck on July 15, 2011, 06:32:15 AM

I feel like I have just wasted 13 min. of my life listening to this.
 
Chuck

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: benson_murrensun on July 15, 2011, 08:41:46 AM

This guy should have been in Spinal Tap.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: cozmik_cowboy on July 15, 2011, 09:25:34 AM

I was in a bad mood, and couldn't help myself; the e-mail exchange was:
 
ME: Just so you know, the bozo you have representing your business by explaining the Alembic Tribute on YouTube could not be more misinformed about the workings of instrument if he tried to be.  Entertaining, but embarrassingly wrong.
 
THEM: Thanks for your input but this bozo has done over 300 videos he has sold millions of records around the world, and currently has over 17 million views on this channel. sorry he didn't know all the details about this obscure guitar
, we do many guitars in a session if you need specifics please refer to the full and detailed description he's a player not a historian we do our best to provide him with as much info as we can. We try to have fun and show some rare guitars, and entertain you for free sorry if you felt slighted.
I wear my art on my sleeves...
 
 
Obscure?  Love it.  I noticed the buckle, too - should have mentioned it....
 
Peter

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: JuancarlinBass on July 15, 2011, 10:30:10 AM

Some things I will never WANT to fully understand.  
Being obviously uncomfy with this X guy's ways around the Tribute, and their response to Kozmik's note, I decided to do a little google search -which they should have done too on Alembic, by the way-, to see who this X guy was.  
 
Most of his work is not my cup of tea AT ALL. -Well, maybe the Triumph and the Orianthi credits...-, but it seems the guy really has been around:  
 
http://www.philx.tv/discography.html (http://www.philx.tv/discography.html)
 
And I think it makes it worse, in a way. Well, maybe it's his way of living, and I will not get into personal details. But I think, if you still have to play the Tv Salesman role on YouTube for some employer, then what's with the long list of recording credits and references? If I had an enormous amount of top-artists and producers references and credits, I certainly hope not to be playing Salesman on YouTube, not even for an instrument of my own. The attitudeon his website is no better, under my point of view. Maybe all this is nothing but a BIG exercise on tolerance for me. But I still dislike it.
 
No matter how many million CDs you might sell worldwide, o how many YouTube videos you may make. A Bozo is still a Bozo.
 
(Message edited by jcdlc72 on July 15, 2011)

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: benson_murrensun on July 15, 2011, 12:29:06 PM

(http://club.alembic.com/Images/394/109158.jpg)

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: hydrargyrum on July 15, 2011, 12:35:54 PM

All I can say is that this guys seems ate up, and to quote Rick James, Cocaine is a helluva of a drug.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: jon_jackson on July 15, 2011, 04:18:57 PM

That was 13 minutes I'll never get back.
-Jon

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: slawie on July 15, 2011, 04:32:43 PM

I did not watch the video.  
I cannot deny him the fact that he is successful performer.
 
Regardless of the stage, his capability to entertain an audience is evident.
 
slawie

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: bigredbass on July 16, 2011, 12:01:44 AM

It's exactly because of brainless, meth-freak pinheads like this that I refuse to play out any more.  I take a deep satisfaction that their floor-plan guy is laughing all the way to the bank, because with a staff like this, once they all come back from detox, the interest they'll have paid on most guitars in that shop will just about equal the national debt.
 
It's a pity every day I find one more reason not get my Carry Permit.
 
J o e y

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: lbpesq on July 16, 2011, 09:26:56 AM

Juan Carlos & Ben:
 
Your posts are an insult to Bozo!  This Phil X clown can't hold Bozo's nose!  And he was NEVER on the bus.  lol
 
My favorite part is near the beginning when he deduces the pickups might be active because there's a battery and so much going on here.  Genius stuff!
 
Bill, tgo

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: mike1762 on July 16, 2011, 09:47:53 AM

Maybe we could outfit X-boy with a kill switch
 
[moderator's edit: post edited after consulting original poster]
 
(Message edited by davehouck on July 17, 2011)

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: terryc on July 16, 2011, 10:10:11 AM

The guy is a complete knob head...the kind of guitarist I bloody hate to the core..full of his own shit..competely narcisistic..
I watched 5 minutes then off...

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: David Houck on July 16, 2011, 10:36:37 AM

After reading the comments here, I decided to watch the video.  I thought the guitars sounded great.  And he can play.  I didn't notice if he said anything disparaging about the guitars.  He looked like he was having fun playing the guitars.
 
I haven't read the comments to the video on the youtube page, but I notice that there are well over 23,000 views.
 
So in a way this is kind of an example of a great player walking into a music store, picking up an Alembic, and playing for a while, having fun, and saying cool guitar!, and then telling 23,000 of his fans about this cool guitar that most of them had never heard of before.  At the very least, he introduced some guitar players to Alembic.  Maybe a few them run an Ebay search, maybe a few run a Google search, maybe a few surf into the Alembic.com site, and maybe a few end up here at our club.
 
So yes, he didn't bother to learn anything about the guitars before he picked them up; but knowing nothing about the controls, I think he probably introduced at least some of his audience to some really nice guitars.
 
I will add this caveat before clicking the post button; I don't play guitar.  So I think the observations of the guitar players here in our club are probably more valuable than my own.  I've also never watched any of the other videos in the series, so I don't know how this video compares with the others.  He certainly didn't show off everything that Alembic guitars can do, but it did seem to me that he essentially picked up a really impressive looking guitar, said some really nice things about the way it looked, the wood, the adjustable nut, the bridge, and then plugged it in and played some really nice stuff on it, showing off the differences in tone that could be had from the switches, showing combinations of pickups, and having fun with it.  It seems to me that there are at least a few more guitar players in the world who have now been introduced to Alembic.
 
I do hope that the belt buckle didn't meet with the back of the guitars.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: terryc on July 16, 2011, 12:40:01 PM

Dave as usual your neutrality is wisdom indeed and maybe we should not be so judgemental and yes he has introduced the general public to Alembic so that is good..mind you I cannot see some thrash metal player hammering the hell out of the frets..can you??
(I still think it was crap though LOL)

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: David Houck on July 16, 2011, 01:27:05 PM

Terry; Black Sabbath on a Tribute is indeed a bit of a visual clash (though his cover of Sweet Leaf brought back memories of my band covering that tune when it first came out).  I hadn't heard of Phil X before this thread, but in the Alembic demo he runs through a lot of stuff and you can tell the guy can play; so I looked around.  Here's a nice example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLb6-m4Qudc) of him covering an old standard.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: herbbone on July 16, 2011, 02:28:20 PM

Wow. Not sure what to think. As we all know different guitar/bass combos have sounds unique to our own signiture. I true artist may be able to adapt a Gerry style to a different genra and make it work. As it is is I think PhilX has a job to do and really didn't take the time to understand the way an Alembics works. They are a different animal. I am still loving getting used to the sounds that can be made. Hope this makes some sense.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: terryc on July 18, 2011, 01:25:59 AM

Oh Dave..'Sweetleaf' from 'Masters of Reality', a blast fom my teenage years, I have it on vinyl in the orginal LP 'box', instead of a sleeve it was a 12 x 12 box with a flap.
That is one heavy riff that sums Black Sabbath at their best.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: hydrargyrum on July 18, 2011, 05:30:05 AM

Dave's right.  I'll go sit in the corner until I can learn to play nice.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: benson_murrensun on July 18, 2011, 10:25:57 AM

Dave IS right. To some extent any publicity is good publicity; and Mr. X's review was not particularly negative about the Alembic guitar. On the other hand, and in my own defense as well, calling someone a clown is not necessarily a put-down, for sure. I put forth the great Wavy Gravy as an example. Clowns are entertaining, and so is Mr. X.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: lbpesq on July 18, 2011, 11:44:59 AM

I can just imagine Mr. X selling cars:
 
Here we have a cool looking car.  They call it a 'Porsche Carrera 911'.  Must be a police car!  Calling 9-1-1 dude!  Now let's see the engine in this baby.  First let's lift the hood - WHOA DUDE, someone stole the engine right outta here!
 
Bill, tgo

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: mario_farufyno on July 18, 2011, 03:20:59 PM

Ha ha ha ha ha!
 
Bill, you're great!

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: Bradley Young on September 29, 2011, 09:43:02 PM

I thought that dude was great.  He didn't know the electronics, but was clearly making it up as he went along.
 
I guess I just appreciate someone with the cojones to unapologetically wing it.  Oh, and it was pretty clear that he's a pretty talented musician.

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: ajdover on February 20, 2012, 12:05:37 PM

I don't know.  The guy can play, but to me, he's just so .... irritating.
 
I will say this: If I were, for example, going to post a video on how to make a hollandaise sauce on YouTube, I would take the time to learn everything about making it as well as I could before posting.  I wouldn't make erroneous statements about it, no matter how entertaining it might be.  Yeah, this guy has played with a bunch of folks, is talented, etc. but speaking only for myself, I'll take less entertainment and more facts, in this particular instance, anyway.
 
Alan

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: funkyjazzjunky on February 22, 2012, 11:35:22 AM

Alan sums it up best.  They guy certainly meant no harm (and can play rings around me) but somebody could have spent 5 minutes to look up Alembic Tribute on a Google search and he would have at least understood some part of the electronics.  Then again the concept of a filter for each pickup may have blown his mind.  
 
Love the 'Kill Switch' idea and the 'hidden extra coil' idea.  
 
Of course our wonderful Moderator Dave puts it all in proper perspective.  But since this looks to be part of a professional series, I would hope for better preparation.
 
 
Vann-Di

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: lbpesq on February 22, 2012, 06:06:44 PM

The bottom line is whether or not this helped the store sell Alembic guitars.  My suspicion is that it did not.
 
Bill, tgo

Title: How not to sell an Alembic Tribute and Further.
Post by: poor_nigel on February 22, 2012, 10:54:32 PM

Bottom line for me is that I was both entertained by his idiocy and by the club members here commenting about him, pro and con.  This was a win/win for me.  I sincerely hope he did not scratch up the back of that Tribute, otherwise, no harm, no foul in my book.  Thanks all.  And . . . If I were in the market for a Tribute, I'd be glad he probably scared any serious customers away from this one, so I could get it cheaper, maybe.  Life of Brian time . . .