Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: germansal on February 10, 2014, 01:19:44 AM
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Hello everybody i want to replace the 3 positions switchs of my 79 series 1 bass,and put a couple of cvq,tell me your opinions and experiences,regards
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your filters will give you more when you want it or less if you want it....that's the advantage with CVQ's.....I love mine!
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I don't know for sure but I would be surprised if the only thing you needed to do to get CVQ is to change those switches for pots.
I love the CVQ on my S2 bass and like Keavin alludes to it is extremely flexible. My experiences of using CVQ on-stage has been that the acoustics have never been good enough to hear the subtleties when making fine adjustments of the CVQ.
However the fixed points of the Q switches on the series I basses are much easier to hear and utilise when you need to change the character of your tone.
Jazzyvee
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As Jazzy said, it's not just a matter of replacing the switches with pots. Strongly suspect your electronics would have to go meet their maker to make it happen.
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The Q-function of the series electronics doesn't come from the 3-position switch.
The only thing the switch does is route the signal via three different circuits which give you the different Q-values.
I know there's a guy on ebay selling CVQ pots claiming that exchanging the switch for this will give you series 2 electronics.
That's not the case.
Like xlrogue6 says to get this you'd have to send it back to Alembic and have them modify it.
I can't imagine a guide to convert your series electronics being posted here on the forum any time soon. ;)
(Message edited by count on February 12, 2014)
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When I visited Alembic about a year ago, I asked Mica specifically if you could change Series I CVQ electronics to Series II by changing the switch to a pot, and my understanding is that the answer was yes.
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If that is the case then why is the difference in the price of choosing series 1 or 2 electronics basses in the quote generator so great if the difference is just the cost of 2 pots and a master volume?
Jazzyvee
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Continuous Wood Back plates, Inlaid Logo with Shell, Third Neck Laminate on 4-string, gold Hardware. All standard on Series 2, optional on series 1
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When I installed the Series pickups and electronics in my Starfire, the bag of random parts was for a Series I setup. It was fairly trivial to substitute the pots and associated peripherals for the switches. It's a few more parts than just the pots, but if you have a reasonable amount of experience with electronics assembly, it shouldn't be too terribly problematic (I did make the mistake of putting in the wrong value of caps by a couple orders of magnitude creating filters in the Mhz region the first time around).
As far as quick changes on stage, I definitely hear what Jazzy is saying, but with some practice, it's not too out of control. I much prefer the pots to the switches. But I think it also depends on your technique, the music you play and how you expect it to respond. With round wounds, playing finger style or thumb, I don't think it would matter as much as playing pick style on flat wounds. At least, that's been my experience.
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Ken bass I was referring to just the cost of just the electronics not the rest of the s2 bits. If you choose a Clarke sig in the quote gen. Choosing electronics upgrade to Series I adds $5700 whilst s2 adds $6400 to the cost, so I would be surprised if 3 pots were $700. But I accept my view may be wrong.
Jazzyvee
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Jazzyvee, I would guess that the circuitry is different on a SII & SI. Open the back plates on your SII & SI & see if you can see anything different besides the pots.
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Sorry, Jazzy, I thought you were referring to the difference between A Series 1 and A series 2 in the quote generator. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...
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As edwin says, it involves soldering, caps and resistors. And obviously the switches themselves.
Not everyone are comfortable with messing about with electronics on instruments priced in the 6-10k price range. ;)
For those of us that doo however, the mods involved aren't too substantial, but I stress you need to know what you're doing.
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My guess is that there's also some fine tuning involved for the CVQ. The switches (if my memory serves) brings in and out various resistors to control the resonant peak. Matching resistors, especially using parts with very tight tolerances, isn't too challenging. But making sure that the sweep of two pots (the frequency pots are dual pots) track properly with the other parts might be a little more challenging. When I rebuilt mine, I used parts I had that were readily available. I'm sure it's not up to the standards of the mothership, as I didn't spend any time matching the parts. Ron spends a lot of time tweaking these things, and this might be one part of the circuit that is susceptible to noise. Any time you are playing with a resonant circuit, it takes a bit of attention to keep everything right where you want it. AKA Just exactly perfect. This is important where a small signal is being amplified many times over, potentially with thousands of watts in front of thousands of people. It's not a complicated circuit, but there are details to get right.
I do have a bag of WIMA caps and 1% resistors to rewire my bass with closer tolerances, but I just haven't had the time. I also want to install a master volume. I had a master volume pot around here somewhere, but it's gone walkabout, so that's on hold, too.
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I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR MICA S OPINON
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Has the mothership ever thought about push/pull pots to replace the Q switches so as to tidy up the front face??
Easier on the user too..less hand movement.
Just a thought
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and another thought...stacked controls..lower for filter and upper for the CVQ on the SII basses
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Converting isn't really hard, but it's not easy. Unless you are skilled at soldering fine parts, you should take it to someone who is. The CVQ pots are not cheap, we would probably suggest that pre-load them with the needed parts so there isn't as much delicate work to do in the field.
No stacking unless you want the bass to be even thicker (like at least 1 inch!) since those are both dual pots. Same story with the push-pull on the already enormous Series I/II filter pots.
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ok thanks ,but can you tell me the price of each cvqs,because i saw a guy who sell them on ebay,are the same or not?and by the way i,ve bought 4 hat knobs for my bass with the ordre number2958 ,can you tell me when will i recieve them?Regards from Spain
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AND ANOTHER QUESTION,YOU THINK THAT IF I REPLACE BOTH 3 POSITIONS SWITCHS,AND INSTALL THE CVQS I GONNA HAVE A THICKER BASS?
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Mica thanks for explanation but why are the signature potssmaller than the ones for Series basses?
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Terryc: Don't know about the newer stuff, but on my PF5 'tronics the signal first passes through the first stage of the pot, then a resistor, before it splits into a cap bypassing the IC's and another path going through the second stage of the pots.
It's all part of the voodoo of the series electronics! ;)
Germansal, like I mentioned earlier: Even though that guy states that it's only down to changing the pots, he's not telling you the whole truth. There's a nice little bag of resistors and caps that are also part of the equation.
And the switch/pot exchange obviuosly won't make your bass thicker. It would ALREADY need to be thicker to accomodate the taller pots. But since you already have a series instrument that shouldn't be a problem.!
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Nicolai, I think by thicker he means will his bass have more bottom end on the tone. :-)
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Haha, then no. ;)
It will be cooler though!
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MICA I VE ALREADY SEND YOU AN EMAIL ASKING FOR THE CVQ PRICE ,CHECK IT OUT AND LET ME KNOW ,THANKS
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HELLO EVERYBODY IM STILL WAITING THE FOLLOWING DATA,I NEED THE PRICE OF THE PAIR OF CVQ FOR MY SERIES 1,I VE ALREADY SEND AN EMAIL TO MICA BUT NOTHING HAPPENED...
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Since this was posted before Mary emailed you the update yesterday, I'll post here to update all interested parties.
It's not just a simple thing to change to CVQ. I need to find out how much time it takes to make just that part of the circuit, and make the documentation to help someone in the field make this upgrade. I will gather these details, and as soon as they are available I'll let you know they are available.
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Ok Mica thanks, and i ll be keep on waiting regards
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Hello Mica ,do you have mews ?????of the CVQs''''''''''''''''''??????????
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Mica Im still waiting for the infa about the CVQ sssssss!!!!!!