Author Topic: Who makes these basses? (Read 194 times)

pauldo · « **Reply #1 on:** April 20, 2012, 11:05:39 AM »

Olympic

David Houck · « **Reply #2 on:** April 20, 2012, 12:22:56 PM »

Pablo Massa. It appears to me, on first take, that the player here has special ordered a number of basses from this builder to be designed to look like Alembic basses, right down to the bird tailpiece. The player even calls one of them an Alembic Mark King on his blog. But various features differ from Alembic including the bridge, pickups and electronics. When I was watching the video Keavin linked, it looked like an Alembic, except for the knobs and control layout, but it didn't sound right. A few searches later, and yeah, it's a copy that doesn't sound like an Alembic.

terryc · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2012, 08:34:58 AM »

To be honest..the sound would have fooled me and how tuned are your ears to an Alembic sound??
How much copyright has it infringed??

David Houck · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2012, 09:40:28 AM »

I'm generally not very good at being able to say whether a particular recording is an Alembic or not. My memory for tone is not very good. And the only bass I really listen to anymore is mine; and my rig is set up to shape the sound to a curve that is significantly different from the signal coming from the bass. But in this case, perhaps because the knobs didn't look right, the upper register notes just didn't sound right. Listening to it again right now, in the melody section when he goes up the neck and gets the flat 3 and the flat 7, it sounds very nasal, not as clear and crisp and open as an Alembic. Again, my ears are really not that good at this kind of thing; so my observations here may not be worth much.

terryc · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2012, 09:56:00 AM »

I agree dave, my rig is set up for the music I play in my current band..either bass or midrange emphasis.
Back in the early 80's when I became a fan of Level 42, I thought Mark King was using an Alembic until someone told me it was a JayDee(well it looked like and Alembic!)

sonicus · « **Reply #6 on:** April 21, 2012, 10:08:36 AM »

Terryc, not that long ago I had a close look at a JayDee and found that even though it had the same neck laminate running through the body as the neck that it was really a SET NECK ! I was surprised !

terryc · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2012, 06:03:33 AM »

Yep Jaydee's look neckthrough but are not at all.
The early ones ate 9V batteries apparently.

briant · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2012, 06:08:30 AM »

Through my laptop speakers that sounds a lot like a Jazz bass that is dressed to look like an Alembic.

terryc · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2012, 07:12:04 AM »

Looked on website and no pic of that featured Alembic copy