Author Topic: Distortion? (Read 211 times)

jazzfusion23 · « **on:** December 19, 2010, 10:09:41 AM »

Hello everybody, I'm new to this website and I don't even own an Alembic. But I have been thinking about buying one. Only problem is I play in a fusion based band with distortion. I'm currently playing a Les Paul, through a Marshall. I really want a very warm, distorted sound, and also a very clean sound. Do Alembics sound good with distortion?

jazzyvee · « **Reply #1 on:** December 19, 2010, 10:56:38 AM »

Hi Jazzfusion, welcome to the forum. I own a couple of alembic guitars and a strat with alembic activator pickups and used to play in a fusion band until recent years. Just so you get an idea of the tone I was looking for. We played a lot of Chick Corea Elektric Blues band stuff.

Anyway from my personal experience and there are others here with far more than I have on the subject who I'm sure will chip into the thread, I have not found all my alembics to work well with distortion for me unless it's via a tube amp. I used a fender strat ultra for years with an original ProCo Rat pedal and it is great for getting the warmth santana/scott henderson type tone I like for soloing and some crunch for lines and rhythm.

However when I bought my orion guitar which has two pickups, volume bass and treble. I found that it did not respond very well to that pedal nor other solid state pedals I tried in stores.

I then started doing a lot of touring with reggae bands and although I was only using distortion on a few tracks I struggled to get a good overdriven sound using the Orion guitar unless I had a back line with a valve amp such as a boogie or Fender twin then I could use the on-board valve overdrive channel which sounded fine. I have virtually given up finding a pedal for the orion guitar as it seems to enjoy sounding clean. I changed the electronics to the alembic filter circuits a few years back and that made a positive difference but for my needs it is not as pleasing to the ear as overdriving with my strat ultra.

I even went against my principles and bought a Line6 XTPro Live digital pedal hoping I could get something decent out of that thinking I could use it as a pre-amp, by-passing the one on any stage amp I was presented with thereby getting a consistent tone.

But it has been an expensive mistake as the overdrive sounds are too thin and tinny and even with all the sounds off on there I was loosing so much of the natural sound of the guitar since everything gets ADDA converted through that pedal.

A couple of pedals were suggested to me as they are valve driven. Mesa Boogie V-twin and a Radial Tonebone Tri Mode but I haven't found any of the Radials for sale in the UK and the V-twins are usually out of my budget by the time I find them on ebay.

On the other hand my series I guitar sounds great through that Pro-Co Rat pedal and even better through my Fender Twin overdrive channel. I can get that bite that Larry Carlton gets to the creamy over drive that Santana gets and the filters really allow you to fine tune the tone of the overdrive to great effect.

I know it's not gonna be that easy but the best thing is to try one out in a store.

In reality most of my playing has been bass in recent years but I plan to change the balance more to guitar over the next year so I will be revisiting this scenario.

But for all other sounds the Alembic takes some beating and it also takes time to find your personal tone due to the wide sounds palate available and the fact that they don't start out sounding sound strat like or Gibson like.( I haven't found mine yet).

Jazzyvee

Jazzyvee

skyboltone · « **Reply #2 on:** December 19, 2010, 12:15:02 PM »

Welcome JazzyFusion23: I don't know a thing about Alembic guitar electronics but to add a comment to Jazzyvee's very thorough recount of His experience may I offer this:

Both Larry Carlton and Robbin Ford use Hermida Zendrive http://hermidaaudio.com/wp/ pedals into Fender Twins when their Dumble OD Specials are down. I think it's gotten to the point for Robbin that he's got the Zendrive on pretty much all the time. Larry uses a box stock 69 ES-335 and Robbin uses about a hundred different axes including some from Baker and a well beaten Telecaster.

Another point is that Alembic will give you whatever you want. If you buy one of their guitars off the shelf a trip to Santa Rosa with your rig would be in order. Or a long series of telephone conversations.

Further on point though, your LP would not be at it's best through a Marshall, for fusion tone. I do know of a First Class small shop in Chicago that can build you an OD amplifier made for your needs. Recently when Larry Carlton was in Chicago for a gig and his stack of Dumble amps were inop, he used this fellow's gear for the shows. PM me as I'm not sure how appropriate it is to post a commercial outfit. I'm not connected with this guy financially nor with Hermida either so anyway who knows what's right. I don't guess Alembic has a line of amps. Come to think of it if you buy an Alembic F2-B and push a HiWatt power amp section with it you could hardly go wrong for what you're after. (That was Gilmour's rig for years) For your use I would recommend the Zen with it though. I know a builder for that rig too. PM if you want to know.

So there you go. Three ways to get there.

crobbins · « **Reply #3 on:** December 19, 2010, 07:17:22 PM »

Hi Evan. I play my Alembic Trbute through a Mesa Boogie Mark IV. Lots of sustain, and natural tube distortion. It sounds great....

lbpesq · « **Reply #4 on:** December 19, 2010, 09:14:55 PM »

The best OD I've found so far is the Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic. Real tubes, sounds great. If you want more distortion, check out the Twin Tube Mayhem.

Bill, tgo

hydrargyrum · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2010, 06:15:18 AM »

Zvex effects sells a product called the mastotron that specifically is engineered to work with active guitar electronics. I've never tried one, but it might be worth a shot. I ended up selling my Alembics over concerns regarding my germanium fuzzes interacting badly with the active electronics.

edwin · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2010, 10:47:03 PM »

I wonder how Brad Sarno's new Earth Drive will do with active electronics. I know he's into the buffer thing with some guitars.

edwin · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2010, 10:47:11 PM »

I wonder how Brad Sarno's new Earth Drive will do with active electronics. I know he's into the buffer thing with some guitars.

jazzfusion23 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 25, 2010, 03:35:45 PM »

Thank you everyone for the helpful comments. I've taken a look at the the prices and right now it seems all I can afford is an Orion, and if an Orion can't get a good distorted sound then I'm not sure what I can do.

hydrargyrum · « **Reply #9 on:** December 27, 2010, 09:26:15 AM »

I wouldn't say that an Orion can't sound well distorted (I used to own a Baritone Orion). And if you've been getting your distortion from your Marshall anyway, then you shouldn't have any trouble. On the other hand you may have trouble with traditional fuzz pedals. To my surprise some of the old DOD distortion pedals sounded quite good with my old Orion. It's just a matter of finding what works best with that particular set up, and not expecting it to behave like a high impedance guitar.

echo008 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 31, 2010, 08:09:38 PM »

Zvex effects sells a product called the mastotron that specifically is engineered to work with active guitar electronics.

I have one of these I use on bass, I was just playing with it tonight with my Distillate, very warm.... more synth sounding than typical distortion or fuzz. Like a fuzzy pad type of tone if you know what I mean ... if not think of this as more of a synth pedal. Very very cool for sure and it works well at least with my bass....
- T

jazzfusion23 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 08, 2011, 10:26:19 AM »

A major infulence on me is Chris Poland in his new band Ohm, he uses Yamahas, and they seem to be affordable, this is really hard, I really wanted an Alembic, but I need distortion and a good price.

vbob · « **Reply #12 on:** January 08, 2011, 01:57:14 PM »

With my new used fretless Elan, I am using a vintage reissue ProCo Rat and my new used Roland AP-7 Jet Phaser through my Mesa Bass 400 - it's quite a rumble, but a fine one! good luck - Chris Poland is a player for sure - saw him with Megadeth in 1987 in Boston. Didn't he play drums for the Dead Milkmen too?