Vintage Alembic PJ Pickups?

[Corn Philips]

Hi everyone, I recently purchased a Ibanez Roadstar II Bass in pretty rough condition, but it had Alembic pickups that piqued my interest.

See Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/H1B2eTZ

The pickups are solderless connections and wired to a matching set of 2 volume pots, 1 tone pot, an output jack, and a 9V battery. The pickups and controls work, but two of the pots have had their shafts pulled out. One is missing and the other I can't seem to get back in place. Normally I would just buy a new set of pots and replace them, but due to the proprietary nature of these I wanted to do what I could to keep them.

So I guess my question is this: is it a good idea to replace these with a generic pot/jack/preamp set or is it worth trying to save the originals?

Thanks, Dave

[xlrogue6]

If you want your Alembic pickups to sound like Alembic pickups you'll want to get the right pots from Alembic. If you don't have solid soldering skills you'll need to find a good electronic tech to install them on the PC boards.

[mica]

It looks like the filter pot is the one that someone ripped the shaft out of. There is no generic replacement available because I'm not aware of any guitar that uses this same pot (we have it custom made for us). Maybe Kent can confirm that it's a unique part (he's an excellent electronic tech by the way!).

If one of the volume pots is toast it's a 100K audio taper value. Not unobtainable, but we have them that will fit as a direct retrofit on the board. You can call me at 707-523-2611 or email me mica at alembic dot com and I can get you the parts you need.

Also, there is a large output disparity on the P/J setup because of the physical locations of the pickups. If you like the sound of this system, you may want to change to a volume/pan and not repair the 2-volume harness at all:
https://alembic.stores.yahoo.net/panpreamp.html

[edwin]

I highly recommend the pan pot. I love the fact that it is an active blend and it's super easy to balance the pickups.

[gtrguy]

I can't see the pics but the small body active Ibanez Roadstar bass was a great under rated bass. I still have a 5 string and use it for recording once in a while.