Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Showcase => Spoiler Basses => Topic started by: hieronymous on August 09, 2006, 12:04:19 AM

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on August 09, 2006, 12:04:19 AM

Hi everybody, I hope you don't mind that I'm starting this new thread to make up for  this misnamed thread (http://alembic.com/club/messages/411/16203.html?1154965722 target=_blank).  
 
1985 Spoiler/Exploiter, serial #85S3579.
 
Seen here with my 1976 Rickenbacker 4001 Autumnglo:
 

(http://alembic.com/club/messages/411/30495.jpg)
 
 
Both can be heard on this tune as well:
 
 circumambulate (http://hieronymous.us/music/circumambulate.mp3 target=_blank)
 
The first bass you hear is the Exploiter - the second bass that comes in with the drums and playing the bass part is the 4001. The Rick is played through both channels of an Alembic F2-B - one clean with the bright switch on, one distorted, though the distorted track is mixed down quite a bit. Neck pickup, played with a pick.
 
The Exploiter is being played through a Demeter Compulator, then a Roland RE-201 Space Echo, and then through another compressor, before going direct into ProTools. I've got the gain on the Space Echo pretty high, and the second compressor has a tube in it, so that probably accounts for the slight bit of fur. Oh, and for the most part I'm using a really thick bone pick - only the intro and outro parts are played with a regular delrin pick.
 
(Normally I would play all my parts through the F2-B, but I didn't have long enough cables to include it! It was interesting to experiment with a different setup though.)
 
Oh, and before I forget, the credits: composed by Bridge/DeGuglielmo - drums by Greg DeGuglielmo - drums recorded/engineered by Damon Burke at Oxbow Studios in Wayland, MA - bass parts performed and recorded by hieronymous in Lodi, CA.
 
Hope you enjoy it!

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on August 09, 2006, 10:49:04 AM

Here's a shot of the headstock:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/30520.jpg)

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: David Houck on August 09, 2006, 05:54:44 PM

I really like that tune!  The tone of the Alembic is very nice!  Very cool!  The drum work is very nice as well.  Great tune!

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on August 18, 2006, 09:00:07 AM

Thanks Dave! Greg is really an amazing drummer. His playing is so musical - not mere bashing, though he can do that too!

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: olieoliver on August 18, 2006, 09:16:04 AM

That is acool tune. I checked out your other tunes on myspace, some cool effects. Is that all bass on the tracks?

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on August 18, 2006, 09:43:55 AM

Thanks olieoliver! Yeah, at the moment everything at myspace is bass - there's an 8-string Tune and Fender Mustang bass on next to last (http://hieronymous.us/music/next_to_last.mp3 target=_blank) (plus Moog synth), basking in the autumnglo (http://hieronymous.us/music/basking_in_the_autumnglo_3.mp3 target=_blank) is a Rickenbacker 4001, and afternoon stroll (http://hieronymous.us/music/afternoon_stroll.mp3 target=_blank) is the Jaguar Bottom Master. (The links in this post are higher quality mp3s.)
 
(Message edited by hieronymous on August 18, 2006)

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: 57basstra on August 27, 2006, 10:33:21 AM

Man, those are two great looking basses!

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on August 27, 2006, 10:36:27 AM

Aww, thanks 57basstra! I really lucked out with these...

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on September 13, 2007, 03:38:06 PM

A new pic of the Exploiter:
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/43990.jpg)
  Which brings me to a question - can anyone explain the color difference on the pointy parts? It follows the grain, I've just never seen anything like it on another instrument. Here's a close-up:
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/43991.jpg)

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: kungfusheriff on September 13, 2007, 07:05:09 PM

From what I understand, not being a botanist, is the color and grain variations are due to the mineral content in the water the tree absorbed when it was alive. Just a glorious freak of nature, in other words.

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on September 15, 2007, 02:22:27 PM

Thanks kungfusheriff! Here's another shot:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/44049.jpg)
 
I had it strung piccolo at the Norther CA gathering, but for now I have put regular strings back on it. I bought strings to set it up with cello tuning (5ths), but starting on D, so DAEB.

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on October 04, 2007, 01:33:47 PM

I haven't put the cello tuning strings on yet, and actually haven't been playing this bass as much as some of my others. But it's making a nice backrest for my cat Sadie:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/44785.jpg)
 
(I took it out of the sun after I saw this picture - I didn't realize the sunlight was hitting it in the afternoon, but that's where Sadie likes to nap...)

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: Bradley Young on October 04, 2007, 08:03:59 PM

I'm in ur music room
 
nappin on ur bassez

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on December 25, 2007, 04:26:03 PM

Video featuring Sadie and the Exploiter:
 
sadie & alembic bass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyDlWwdFeGo target=_blank)

(http://alembic.com/club/messages/411/46951.jpg)

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: David Houck on December 25, 2007, 09:15:47 PM

Nice soundtrack!

Title: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: 57basstra on June 06, 2009, 06:53:14 PM

Cool CAT!

Title: Re: Exploitonymous at last!
Post by: hieronymous on March 23, 2018, 10:47:09 AM

This bass is long gone, but I dug up an old recording with it - recorded in 2002! One of the first recordings of my then-new music project hieronymous


https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/schweppes-first-take (https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/schweppes-first-take)


The strings were pretty dead, so I put new ones on the next day and we recorded a much different version of the song that I will post at some point. Also, my current band Stanley Lighthead has been playing this song as well.