OK, so I freely admit that I'm basically a "fiddle with it until it sounds good" kind of player and I'm generally aware of the technical purpose of the various controls on the gear I use, including those on my Alembic basses and guitars. I usually set the controls so I can easily access a fairly large variety of predictable, but usable tones fairly quickly and then leave them alone until I need to tweak something.
The other night, I started working with a new drummer who was (of course) impressed with my bass and curious about the functions of the controls, so I gave him a quick sonic tour and in the process learned a few things myself.
This may sound a bit ignorant, but the Europa/ Rogue Q switch is really a powerful tool - more powerful than I originally realized. When I pressed it down during my demo, it allowed the "wah wah" effect (fun) but I was also able to dial in a very punchy, crisp and clear tone by favoring the bass PU a bit with the blend control and turning the tone control down a bit lower than where I normally leave it.
This was particularly effective when used with a thumb slap - it sounded like a cannon.
And varying the tone control slightly helped to further define it and push it up or back in the mix as needed.
I'm sure this all old news to most of you, but discovering it made me feel like a newby and reminded me that, as Alembic users, we have at our disposal some pretty potent tone shaping capabilities. It's easy to dial in lots of good tones without much effort and they all work real well, but, with a little further exploration (and refinement of your technique as required), you can also dial in the perfect tones for your style and purpose.
