Is anything wrong with my 1987 PERSUADER???

[boris270547]

Since two years I own an ALEMBIC Persuader. I feel that I don't get a proper balance of Neck- and Bridge-PU. The Neck-PU is much stronger. Although I lowered the Pickup almost to the limit and adjusted the Bridge-PU close to the strings, I can't get the funky Slap Sound I expect to have in the Mid Position of the Balance Pot. Is anything wrong with my bass?
Usually I play passive 4-String-Basses and I never had that kind of problem with any of them. Who can help?

[jwright9]

Nothing wrong with your bass.
The bridge PU's are notoriously more quiet.

There is a kit you can get to boost the level though.

Looking for link...

[adriaan]

It's the Pan preamp module.

And welcome to the Club, Christian!

[edwardofhuncote]

Having made this modification to my 1989 Persuader, I can attest to the vast improvement that it is. Do be aware that the Persuader is usually a 2-volume harness and requires a conversion for this module to work. (I think...)

*It just so happened my bass was already converted.

I also extend Greetings and Welcome! 

[lbpesq]

Hi, Boris, and welcome to the club.   Before doing major surgery, have you adjusted the internal trimpots?  If you have a separate volume for each pickup, then you also have separate volume trimpots for each in the control cavity.  They are usually blue with a tiny white screw in the middle.  These can be adjusted separately, so the pickups can be more equally balanced if you so desire.

Bill, the guitar one

[mica]

For a Persuader there is only one overall gain control.

The biggest problem arises when the PJ pickup combination was used - the P is the loudest up where the string is happily moving, and the J is down in slow town by the bridge. The disparity in volume is exaggerated. The solution is as Adriaan suggests, and upgrading to a pan preamp (you'll need the Persuader option that also includes a new 1-volume harness). This is something that you can install yourself, it requires no soldering. Then you can play around with the height of the pickups without concern for the output because you can always adjust with the separate preamp for each pickup that it will have after the upgrade.

[boris270547]

Thanks a lot people,

I'm living in Germany and was quite amazed about your readiness to give advice and help to a ALEMBIC Newbie like me.
Seems to be a very good thing to be a member of the CLUB. Of course ALEMBIC owners are a small and exclusive community world wide. Still a very positive experience for me.
I knew that the P-Pickup is much stronger than the J-PU, but on my FENDER PJ this was no problem. Just a matter of height adjustment.

I will try the two trim pots first. Maybe that will already do. I'll let you know.

Kind Regards and many thanks

Christian

[StephenR]

Hey Christian welcome aboard!

Re-read Mica's comments, there is only one gain control in a Persuader. If you want to adjust the gain for each pickup individually you will have to put the upgraded harness in. All of the connections are modular and snap into place, very easy to do. First you could see how close you can get to balancing the pickup output adjusting only pickup height.

Agree that the Alembic forum is a great place to get info, support with the products, and meet some cool people. Very different vibe here compared to most other instrument related forums.