Alembic Pickup Impedance

[Triassic_Ash]

Hi everyone,
Quick question. I'm aware that Alembic pioneered low Impedance pickups, but I was curious if only the series instruments have low Impedance pickups, or does Alembic make all pickups of there pickups low Impedance? Thanks

[adriaan]

Hi Ash
I went to the Must Reads section to look for the Alembic Pickups topic which tells you a thing or two about the pickups. In any case, they're all low impedance.

[bigredbass]

All Alembics are powered by either the power supply for Series instruments, or onboard 9v for the rest (AXY, MXY, Fat Boys).

In general, looking at any builder's basses,  IF you see a bypass switch and it will operate passively (no power to the pickups), you're looking at conventional high impedance pickups with an add-on powered cut/boost tone section.  Generally, when you throw the switch to go passive, one of the tone knobs then becomes a conventional tone control.  Yamaha's current BB 7-series basses are an example.

There are no Alembics that operate without either power source:  The 'low impedance' means far fewer turns of wire on the pickup coils which won't drive a conventional preamp or amp input without the addition of preamps in the wiring to get the pickups' output to those values.

[flavofive]

Minor clarification, and maybe an interesting factoid - bigredbass, I believe you're absolutely right that there are no Alembic guitars/basses that will operate without a power source.  The onboard preamp needs power.

For the pickups themselves, though - I too had heard the same thing for a long time, i.e. that Alembic pickups REQUIRE an onboard preamp.
But I was surprised to find out that at least the Alembic "Series" pickups will drive a preamp/amp if you run the pickups completely direct (no power supply / no onboard preamp).  I believe the other pickup types will too, but I just haven't tried them.

I tried it once when I was testing pickups, just out of curiosity.  You have to intercept the pickup wire and "skip" the preamp.  I was surprised - the output is definitely lower than a typical high-impedance guitar/bass pickup, but it's not as big a difference as I thought it would be.  I only needed to turn the Gain control on the amp up a bit, and it played just like a "normal" pickup.

I totally agree with your overall point though.  And yes, it's much BETTER to have an onboard preamp.

[jazzyvee]

When I was touring outside the UK with my Orion guitar and had to travel with just one guitar, I did think about taking the guitar to a an electronics guy to see if I could get a bypass switch to put the pickups direct to the output jack without going through the preamp, so i would have a fall back if the battery went flat. I decided against it and instead put a new battery in the guitar as a matter of course if I was travelling without a backup guitar.
I have read a on an old thread where someone put a bypass switch on his alembic bass so he had a passive option.
Found it.
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=1248.0

[edwin]

Hi Ash
I went to the Must Reads section to look for the Alembic Pickups topic which tells you a thing or two about the pickups. In any case, they're all low impedance.

I believe that all of them for the last few decades are medium impedance, with a resistance still in the thousands of ohms. I have a set from the very early 70s where the resistance is lower than 700 ohms, which is true low impedance.

[flavofive]

When I was touring outside the UK with my Orion guitar and had to travel with just one guitar, I did think about taking the guitar to a an electronics guy to see if I could get a bypass switch to put the pickups direct to the output jack without going through the preamp, so i would have a fall back if the battery went flat. I decided against it and instead put a new battery in the guitar as a matter of course if I was travelling without a backup guitar.
I have read a on an old thread where someone put a bypass switch on his alembic bass so he had a passive option.
Found it.
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=1248.0

Cool!  Thanks for the link - I always wondered if someone did that as a mod.
Hey, Joe Dart made passive Stingrays into a signature sound.  Maybe passive Alembics will be the next big thing

Hi Ash
I went to the Must Reads section to look for the Alembic Pickups topic which tells you a thing or two about the pickups. In any case, they're all low impedance.

I believe that all of them for the last few decades are medium impedance, with a resistance still in the thousands of ohms. I have a set from the very early 70s where the resistance is lower than 700 ohms, which is true low impedance.

Very interesting!  I wonder if Alembic in the ~mid-'70s figured out the maximum number of "winds" that would still maintain a flat frequency response, and went with that from then on?  (i.e. To make the raw signal as strong as possible, without compromising on sound.)