Mod The Modulus ....

[jazzyvee]

Hi Keurosix what do you think of the ACG Filter and which one did you get?
 
Jazzyvee

[keurosix]

Hey Jazzy, the ACG filter is a very high quality item. Very easy to install, and is amazingly quiet when playing. It's about 1/3 the price of an Activator set, but the Alembic circuit is still my favorite. The one I got was the ACG/East EQ-02 for 2 pick up 4 knob configuration: Vol/Balance stack, Bass Filter Stack, Treble stack, and passive tone. It has a low pass filter like the Alembic circuit, but the voicing is a little different than the Alembic. It is more like an SF-2 with a very broad range of center frequencies. I need to put better pick ups in the bass to match the quality of the circuit, but did rig up a bartolini p/u as a test, and it performed flawlessly. This link is to a page at Best Bass Gear in NC, USA where I purchased it, but you would have a more direct outlet in the UK, right? Anyway, check out the link and a very good description of the circuit and how it works is there.
Kris
 
http://www.bestbassgear.com/acg-eq-02-two-pu.htm#

[edwin]

I have an ACG Filter in one of my '67 Starfires and I love it. Mine is a very early one with a separate filter for each pickup, so it's kind of a like a Series II setup, although with different frequency points. Since you live in the same country as Alan, maybe you could pay him a visit and get an up close and in person demo of his pres and his basses! He was really great to work with.
 
Mario is right about Alembic and scale length!

[jazzyvee]

Kerosix, I have a confession. I had two of the ACG/East circuits installed in my Europa 5 bass last year around October. I met John East and Alan Cringran (ACG) at the Manchester Bass Day and had a long discussion about their circuits. After trying them out and mentioning to John that I had alembic basses and that I would be interested in having  one circuit for each pickup on my bass. He offered to do a modification to cater for the low impedance pickups at no extra charge and I even took the bass to his home where he makes the circuits and he installed them into the my bass. He's a really nice guy and used to design mixing desks for Sony and other high end studio electronics.
 
Anyway the bass still sounds incredible and alembic like and now as it has one low pass with variable-Q, one high pass filter with gain for each pickup, one master volume and pan.
 
The upper frequency cutoff is the same as alembic but the low end of the low pass filter goes down lower than alembic to 80Hz.
 
After John finished installing the electronics he told me that this setup is the same system he installed in one of Stanley's Spellbinder basess and mine is the only other bass with this setup.
 
Although I've not spent anytime playing a series Bass, this one now sounds closer in tonality to the bass sounds I hear on Clarkee's records so I'm very happy.
 
I really was considering having a series bass commissioned last year and had a few emails back and forward to Alembic to help the decision making process. But the price was still too high for me to feel comfortable with at the time so the ACG/EAST system was really a cheaper way of getting what I hoped would be a series sound.  I wanted to mention it here ages ago but I'm very much an alembic puritan so still have a guilty streak about changing out the heart of the alembic sound.  
 
The bass does sound amazing and the variety in tone is astounding, clean and quiet, powerful. It has less warmth than my alembic basses but the scope for tone shaping is extremely wide.
 
I need to get a few club gigs under my belt with it to hear it in context.
Jazzyvee