Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Factory to Customer => Topic started by: mica on April 09, 2004, 06:24:52 PM

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: mica on April 09, 2004, 06:24:52 PM

Someday this vermilion will be covered in black spectraflare paint:
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/9377.jpg)
  Neptune's trident will be featured on the bass as well
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/9378.jpg)
  The inlay is to be in sterling silver:
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/9379.jpg)
 Placement is under review.  

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 09, 2004, 08:25:32 PM

The glyph looks nice - on the fingerboard is agreed - just need to consider position.
 
Alembic logo - silver, surface mounted with shell inlay on headstock. Just MOP inlay rather than MOP+Paua might suit the overall black + silver theme better. What do you think?
 
Regarding orientation of the glyph and logo - it might look a bit weird if they are oriented differently - so I think they should be either both vertical or both horizontal (when the instrument is upright in stand). Mounting the logo horizontally under the strings on an Orion peghead should work well. Views?

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: waggaboy on April 12, 2004, 03:09:59 PM

Nice minimalism David :-) What does spectraflare paint look like?
 
Sean.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 12, 2004, 07:07:48 PM

The design reference for the nightbass was a moonlit night. The colour scheme is black and silver (as an approximation to mithril).  
 
Susan wouldn't settle for a regular opaque finish, and discovered Spectraflair. To quote the manufacturer:  
 
SpectraFlair pigment is a new light diffractive colorant manufactured by Flex Products Inc. that uses the company's light manipulating Color by Physics technology. By controlling the physical dimensions and surface microstructure, SpectraFlair pigment Silver 1400 generates the appearance of multiple, bright rainbow producing prisms moving over a liquid silver color. The pigment has a pleasing, elegant and dramatic visual appeal that is unique, durable, and easy to incorporate...Coatings containing SpectraFlair enhance the contours of 3-dimensional objects and create spectacular visual effects.
 
Maybe Susan will share her Spectraflair field trip experience with the club.  
 

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: palembic on April 12, 2004, 11:53:13 PM

Wooooo ...Far out man

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: waggaboy on April 13, 2004, 02:06:27 AM

OK, expectations are high -- I expect an animated GIF of a Bass changing colour sometime soon!!!
 
I am already imagining the bass-player specific stage lighting rig that will be required to do this paint justice!!!

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 13, 2004, 03:10:08 AM

As far as I am aware, this will be the first time SpectraFlair has been used on a musical instrument.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: effclef on April 13, 2004, 05:35:28 AM

dnburgess - I wonder if that paint is a variation on the chrome illusion one that Bass Northwest has had for sale for months and months:
 
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/9459.jpg)
 
The retail is $5350 but they're having an exotic bass sale, so who knows, it may be quite reasonable. Essence electronics, weird shape, possibly trying to be a Fodera? If you take a look at their pictures on the site, the body has very little contour carving. Unique!
 
EffClef

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 13, 2004, 06:00:44 AM

Chromalusion is a Dupont paint system that has been an option on Alembic pricelists for a while. My understanding is that Chromalusion allows colour shifting between up to six different colours - whereas SpectraFlair doesn't shift colours. Rather it diffracts light to produce rainbow type effects, generating a theoretically infinite number of colours.
 
SpectraFlair is usually applied to silver backgrounds, to maximise the rainbow effects. Applying it to black should produce a fair more subtle effect. (To the extent that a black and silver Rogue could ever be called subtle.)
 
David B.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: adriaan on April 13, 2004, 06:21:00 AM

Once I had a Korean built Yamaha BB350F in pearly white. Tacky colour, but it had a similar effect to the Chromalusion - streaks of green and red would stand out depending on the lighting. I'm guessing the Alembic finishes are based on a better product, but anyway it's an acquired taste.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: keavin on April 13, 2004, 08:41:44 AM

man id love to have that same color paint one on a series I,however ive seen a series I before with a pearl white paint on it, the bass player in the group 'mothers finest'(back in the 80s)

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: palembic on April 13, 2004, 10:50:25 AM

IFF (!!!!!!) I'm well informed there was always been a tradition to use car -laquer paints on guitars. Fender used car-laquer for it's first opaque coloured guitars and you bet when Cadillac or Chevrolet or Buick had a new colour hop ...you could track it in Fender (custom) colours.
Now Dupont highly specialises in car-laquers. I think the white on the Yamaha is the same that is/was very popular on cars. White on first sight but changing colour depending the angle.
 
PTBO

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 14, 2004, 03:46:46 AM

Susan, I think chrome tuners and straplocks will look better than black. What do you think?

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 14, 2004, 03:49:55 AM

Also no fingerboard inlays (other than neptune glyph). I think fifth fret looks best for the inlay.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: adriaan on April 14, 2004, 03:57:39 AM

It would be nice to see what nickel would look like on that, it's less distracting than chrome.
 
Second thought: the hardware finish should not outshine the sterling inlay. The trident in the picture looks more like pewter than like the sterling hardware on the 25th Anniversary model - but I'm guessing it's a draft and not a picture of the real thing.
 
Trident = Maserati?
 
(Message edited by Adriaan on April 14, 2004)

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on April 14, 2004, 04:13:25 AM

I have already specified nickel hardware. I thought that didn't include the tuners or straplocks for which the only options that would work appeared to be chrome or black. Maybe I had it wrong?

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: mica on June 10, 2004, 04:05:19 PM

Thought you'd like to see that your peghead shape was changed:
 
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/10669.jpg)
 
It's already back in spray - this pic was after rough shaping.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on June 10, 2004, 06:44:11 PM

Thanks - no one will ever know.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: mica on June 10, 2004, 06:57:00 PM

It'll be our little secret.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: mica on October 01, 2004, 09:00:57 AM

I heard you wanted to see some pictures of the finished Nightbass:
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/13076.jpg)
  The inlay turned out very nice:
(http://club.alembicguitars.com/Images/631/13077.jpg)
  Impossible to capture the spectraflare paint in a photo. I'll try again when we've got a sunny day and see if that fares any better.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: jeff on October 01, 2004, 11:00:51 AM

Message below - sorry.  
 
(Message edited by Jeff on October 01, 2004)

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: jeff on October 01, 2004, 11:02:25 AM

Wow! The bass has a Darth Vaderish quality to it.  It is beautiful, evil and cool, all at the same time.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: basstard on October 01, 2004, 11:17:51 AM

An amazingly beautiful bass. Definitely one of the best looking colour-finished Alembics I've ever seen. It's got a gothic vibe to it... something I like A LOT.
 
And are the strings DR Black Beauties by any chance? A friend of mine has put them on his Jazz Deluxe lately, and boy are they good!

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on October 01, 2004, 06:45:56 PM

Thanks - I wanted an instrument that would appeal to rockers who might not appreciate the traditional organic Alembic vibe.
 
Yes - those are Black Beauties - I look forward to trying them.
 
David B.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: kmh364 on October 01, 2004, 08:08:35 PM

That'll be a wonder down under, Mate! Good on ya.
Just in time for summer as well.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: David Houck on October 01, 2004, 08:53:26 PM

David; it is indeed a very nice looking bass!

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: waggaboy on October 01, 2004, 09:59:33 PM

Well done David!!  There is more than a little Clark Kent in you...  Besides the psycho paint you found black strings -- something else I never knew existed.  
 
Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh next time I'm up in Sydney.
 
Peace,
Sean.

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: basstard on October 02, 2004, 01:05:40 PM

I appreciate BOTH traditional organic Alembic vibe AND your new gothic beauty!

Title: David's "Nightbass"
Post by: dnburgess on December 15, 2004, 12:34:40 PM

I have rechristened the Nightbass as the Black Rogue. It arrived on Monday.
 
My wife, who has now seen many Alembics, promptly stated it was the most beautiful she has seen.  
 
The overall effect is much better than the photos. The spectraflair finish and nickel hardware are superb.
 
It is definitely warmer sounding than any other Alembics that I have played - which was the intended effect. Don't know how much of this is due to the vermillion body vs the DR Black Beauties. I'll experiment with strings in due course.
 
A public thank you to the folk at Santa Rosa.
 
David B.