Alembicized Guild M-85 II

[edwardofhuncote]

Might be time to plug, and redrill if that longer screw doesn't do the trick. 

[hieronymous]

Wanted to share a pic of current Bass Forest Guardian - Kismet!

[sonicus]

Swell   

[hieronymous]

Picked up the AleM-85 for the first time in almost a year! Felt inspired for some reason, played along with some '74 Dead, even managed to capture some on video.

I love this little bass![/youtube]

[rv_bass]

Sounds great!  Very cool fretless! 

[mario_farufyno]

Looks really cool and sounds great, what warm tone.

[hieronymous]

Thanks everyone! It is a fun bass to play and I'm really happy with the tone I basically stumbled on. Well, there was some thought that went into it - I turned the bridge pickup up higher than I normally would, and the other day realized that I had the Q-switch on (just the bridge pickup), I think that's a significant part of the sound I'm getting.

Here's another video recorded a couple of days later - same settings, different pick (graphite Telefunken that Edwin turned me on to)

[edwardofhuncote]

Part of the fretless tone recipe' I seem to keep dialing in on both my Custom and Distillate... favor the bridge pickup, close the filter to about 30% open, boost the Q, and push the bass a little. 

[hieronymous]

Part of the fretless tone recipe' I seem to keep dialing in on both my Custom and Distillate... favor the bridge pickup, close the filter to about 30% open, boost the Q, and push the bass a little. 

"Tone recipe" - I like that!

[hieronymous]

Haven't stayed up to date in this thread - here is my latest:

Playing it with a wood pick I found in a local store - ordered some new strings, pretty sure these are the same LaBellas that have been on it since I got it back from Alembic! (I'm actually not sure how long ago that was) Might try some Pyramid flats - wish me luck!

[pauldo]

That attack sounds tasty.

[sonicus]

Exemplary

[DistillaMatto]

If I was just listening I would have thought it was fretted. Nice fretless slides without loosing the beat.

[hieronymous]

Here's another one - I turned the bass up in the mix and only used the neck pickup, still with the wood pick and Tech21 Geddy Lee MP40 SansAmp:

And in other news - my first-ever set of Pyramid flats arrived! Not sure that I'll put them on right away, but I am kind of excited...

[hieronymous]

Apparently Chris Squire used a fretless Guild JS-II (a short scale) on a section in the fourth part of the song Close to the Edge from the album of the same name. It appears to be from around the same time of the AleM-85?!! Conjecture on my part, since I have no idea how many unlined fretless basses they produced in the 2-3 year span of mine and the release of Close to the Edge. Whatever the case (and I would like to do more research), I had a great time doing a bass cover with mine.

There are several clams toward the end, but apparently on those sections he was playing his Rickenbacker!