Author Topic: Alembic P Pickups (Read 166 times)

luke_s · « **on:** May 23, 2005, 02:23:39 PM »

Hi. I have a fender P bass with two sets of Alembic Ps in it. I'm wondering if there is any info on these pickups avaialable. I bought the bass (1983 American) around 1989 with the pups installed, no preamp. I havent used it in several years but the last time I was playing it was around 96 when the engineer said he had trouble getting good output from my bass. At that point I had a Bartlini TCT installed. It sounds better, but has nowhere near the output of a bass I recently built with Bart Js and an HR4.6.

So, I'm considering parting with this bass and was wondering, what these pups are worth. I'd like to price the bass accordingly. Or should I pull them and sell them on their own. Secondly, would it be beneficial to add an Alembic preamp and keep the bass. Its really just gathering dust. I can post pics if that would help IDing the pups.

mica · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2005, 02:55:30 PM »

There's only one kind of P pickups we make, so a photo for ID won't be necessary, but folks around here are addicted to pictures of basses, so I'm sure they would still be welcome.

The pickups are low impedance, and hence output and need a preamp to be heard at all. It should actually be so low as to be pretty much not usable without a preamp. The preamp we provide has an adjustable gain set with a trimpot on the inside of the instrument, so you can set it to match other basses you might swap between during a set.

If you like the bass acoustically, and it plays well, you might want to keep it. Adding an Alembic preamp (really all the electronics:output jack, volume and either a filter or a bass/treble module) will let you hear how the pickups were intended to work with the tone controls. If you have 2 split pickups, you'd also need a pan control.

Others will no doubt chime in their advice for selling - good luck!

David Houck · « **Reply #2 on:** May 23, 2005, 03:05:56 PM »

I believe the answer is yes, the Alembic pickups need the Alembic preamp. You might want to call Alembic, tell them you have the pickups but no guts, and ask if they can sell you the guts. I would recommend getting the volume, pan, filter, and Q switch. My guess is, it won't be cheap. I believe the price for that setup with the pickups is $850. So it might not be worth it to you to do it. But if you really like the way the bass feels, then the bass will probably sound great with the Alembic guts.

luke_s · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2005, 03:33:04 PM »

Here's the pics