New Non alembic Beater bass.

[jazzyvee]

Today I got myself a non alembic beater bass. It's a brand new Atlas Galaxy Shark 5 hand made bass from Thailand by a very small family company, father and two sons who make guitars and basses. It's gonna serve two purposes.  Firstly it will be staying at my girlfriends home so I can practice when I'm over there and she is doing other things. Also it means I can put the standard Alembic  electronics back into my bocate Europa bass and transfer the East Electronics filters that it currently has into this new bass as although it sounds good it is not particularly versatile but it feels good in my hands.
 
I went to the Northern Guitar show in Liverpool today looking for guitar parts to finish off a strat self build. Didn't find any thing there but found this small company selling their own design of guitars and basses. It's a bolt on bass and I'm not exactly sure what the controls are, nor was the seller really,  but it sounded and felt good to play. I think bass, mid, treble boost and cut with pan and master volume. I presume the switch is an active/passive one.  
The top is walnut with quilt maple in the centre and stripes of flame maple, ebony and walnut. The body is Ash with a maple and walnut laminate, walnut top and ebony fretboard.
Apparently it is the father who makes the basses and he is retiring soon so there won't be anymore made and this was one of the last 4 remaining basses.  
 
 
 
Jazzyvee  
jazzyvee

[jazzyvee]

Picture gremlins at work again so here is a reposting of the images.

 

 

  I have now found out what the switch does. The two pickups are the companies own design of humbuckers called R-supersonic pickups, so the switch turns one coil off the neck pickup so you get a single coil in that position which can then be blended with the pan control to the bridge humbucker.   jazzyvee  (Message edited by jazzyvee on February 11, 2014)  (Message edited by jazzyvee on February 11, 2014)

[mario_farufyno]

Since they sell directly, Carvin make some nice basses for fair prices

[lbpesq]

Used Carvins are a great deal as they are high quality instruments that don't hold their value well.  If you can find one, Daion basses are excellent, especially the Power Mark XX bass.  It's a passive bass constructed like Alembic meets PRS.
 
Bill, tgo

[sonicus]

I have seen and played Bills  Daion  Bass , I agree that there seems to be a degree of good quality,

[sonicus]

Jazzy,       Your Atlas , looks interesting !    
 
 I picked up a beater lined fretless at a local guitar show about a year ago. It had been modified to fretless and was sold to me as an unfinished project . I would say that who ever did the finger board work knew what they were doing and even gave it a hard finish like a Pedulla Buzz bass, or like Jaco's Bass .   However somehow the intonation geometry was impaired to the original location of the bridge. I quickly figured out that I would need to extend the measurement from the 12th fret to bridge saddle by one inch to be able to intonate correctly per the lines on the finger board. I moved the entire bridge  assembly forward one inch and now it plays __SWELL !  This bridge has fine tuners.
  It started out as a ___USA Fender Precision Deluxe Plus . As part of the mods someone added a Bartolini Jazz pickup in the neck position.  The two other pickups are Lace Sensor and the Active Electronics are Philip Kubicki .
 
(Message edited by sonicus on February 12, 2014)

[pauldo]

Pardon the hi-jack.
What is the process for making a 'hard finger board' on a fretless?
 
I have been toying with the idea on my Frankenstein fretless.

[sonicus]

Pauldo , ___Jazzy please pardon us __
      I think Jaco did his own as well , however I would recommend that job to a luthier with that kind of finish expertise . Pulling the frets , filling in the slots with wood or synthetics. prepping the finger board for the hard finish and application of that finish.  That is it I think ,as far as I know , but I am not a luthier !  Mr. Jerry Dorsch, who was  one of the  founders of Modulus did one for me back in the mid 1990's. I still have that Bass as well , it was a quite successful and splendid job !
 
(Message edited by sonicus on February 12, 2014)

[sonicus]

Jazzy,  
regarding your new Atlas Bass  ;  It is a good looking instrument .The combinations of wood choices and the such seems like it will give you that low end definition and punchiness I think you like .  ___Am I correct ?  Have you played it yet  through one of your larger festival rigs ?  
 
Wolf

[jazzyvee]

Hi Wolf, It is an attractive instrument, I have no intention of gigging with the bass it was just bought as a practice instrument for use out of my home. It's actually a 35 inch scale, something I didn't realise at first until i started playing it more at home. It certainly does have that bolt on bass punch but interestingly not as pronounced as my all maple Elan & Europa basses and it also doesn't sound anything like a fender bass.  The bottom end is good but the mid range and the treble are a bit harsh but it's fine for practicing. I'm really not used to 3 band eq on basses so finding different sounds using the controls feels a bit odd.
 
Maybe you can give me some pointers on how 3 band eq works. On this bass there is only one control for each of the bass, mid and treble so i'm not completely sure what is going on when I move them either side of the mid point.  
 
For example, the bass control( well the one I think is the bass)  when I move if clockwise i get less bottom end and more lower mid. When I move it anti clockwise from the centre i get more bottom end and less lower mids. The other two controls seem to give me more treble or more mid when I move their knobs clockwise and less when I move anti clockwise from centre.  
 
 
Jazzyvee.

[sonicus]

Hello Jazzy ,
                   As to your instrument in question  , as far as   the EQ goes , I would have to have a close look with ear and eye  . The way that you describe it it seems perhaps like the midpoint on each EQ potentiometer could be considered  0  or flat   and plus and minus adjustment in either direction respectively for Bass , Midrange ,and  Highs .
 
 I have 2 vintage original green face Furman PQ-3  three band Parametric EQ's in  a rack complete with an Alembic F-2B Preamp . On the three Band Furman PQ-3 The controls left to right are gain level , and then the same for each of the 3 respective bands ( LOW,MID,HIGH)  Frequency_____Bandwidth________Plus/Minus Equalization.  I believe Phil Lesh , Jerry Garcia  and Bob Weir had similar EQ signal processing in one of their various configurations of equipment in the 1970's . I think Jerry purchased one of the earliest  Furman PQ-3's .
 
             As far four band Parametric EQ there would be three separate potentiometers for each range as well; My Neptune Electronics 342 Parametric has Low ,Low Mid,High Mid & High bands .Each band would have Frequency,Band Width & Gain Potentiometers. A total of twelve potentiometers per audio channel just for EQ . I use that one in my studio playback setup  along with a 31 band third octave  Graphic EQ set up with an RTA ( real time analyzer).  And there is also the dual channel rack mount oscilloscope from HP  ___Yes,  I am a gear geek _____.
 
   I hope that anything that I wrote was of help.
 
 Wolf

[rustyg61]

Jazzyvee, my Schecter 5 string has the same controls & Wolf is right, the center indent is the neutral position with boost & cut for each control. I start out with everything in the center, then boost the bass to get the fullness, the mid to get the attack, & the treble to get the edge if needed. If you find that any one of the 3 are full on, then cut them back to center & turn up your amp & start over. The only time I have ever cut was with a brand new set of strings. I had to cut the treble slightly, but otherwise I only use mine for boost.

[edwin]

As far as the hard fingerboard thing goes, Jaco and Pedulla (and David King on my fretless 5) used epoxy. I think it was Petit Poly Poxy for Jaco. It's really durable and provides that singing sustain. Not for everyone, as it doesn't provide a very upright sound, but I like it.
 
David King tried an experiment with a cyanoacrylate finish on my fingerboard. I didn't think that was as successful. Something about the epoxy has more give to it. The superglue is more brittle. After 20 years, I think I'm ready to get my fingerboard recoated, mostly due to chips on the edge of the board more than playing. I've played the heck out of this bass, including lots of slapping, and the coating has held up really well.

[sonicus]

Edwin ,  
               Yes,   I believe the  fretless finger board finish materials are as you described. I have three fretless bass fingerboards finished as such including a Pedulla Buzz 4 that I like the best of that type. If Alembic made one  like that I might favour that one !  I have toyed with the idea of replacing the Bartolini  PJ Pickups on my Pedulla Buzz 4 with an  Alembic set with electronics ____    
Alembic Pickups and electronics  still rank first place to my ears ___The Alembic Gold Metal !  ____

[jazzyvee]

I have eventually found the details about the tone controls on this bass. It  is indeed a 3 band Eq with a switch that puts the neck pickup in single coil or hum bucker status. The bridge is always a hum bucker.
]http://artecsound.com/pickups/index.html
 
JAzzyvee