I custom ordered the green Elan with the idea of it being a take on the rage about Sadowsky, etc. Jazz basses. Thus, the 'white woods' (ash wings, maple neckthru) to keep it in a Fender-ish wood menu.
I've always preferred a P/J combination to the doubale Jazz pickup layout.
The bass turned out magnificently once Susan translated what I was after into Alembic-ese, if you will, and it was her idea add the Sig electronics into the build, and as always, her advice was impeccable. It does some more choice vs. a traditional vol/fade/tone, and it was a conscious decision to be very Alembic and use filters instead of active bass/treble.
It turned out exactly as I envisioned, and it had some heft to it, but was by no means too heavy for me, IIRC it weighed around 10.5 pounds.
After a lifetime of clubs, drunks, druggies, and disappointments, I no longer gig, and I frankly bought it just for me, kind of as a reward for going through all that crap for all those years.
Three years ago, my wife required back surgery which ultimately was unsuccessful, and has led to her being partially disabled. Our income was cut in half suddenly as a result, and although we smartly had very little debt, and I had great medical insurance, nonetheless for a year we were really scratching to find our way through, and I sold both Alembics. I couldn't complain, I'd owned them both virtually for free, and sold both thru the Club. The idea of paying 8 months mortgage vs. keeping them and really struggling was not even a question, so off they went, and that was that. She comes first.
In terms of a low B, the green axe had the best low C's and D's I ever heard (your results may vary), I'd hear that low 'beat' of the first several harmonics.
The other Alembic was a five-string Spoiler with FatBoys, though it obviously had AXY's originally. Versus the P/J, I'd say the AXY's or FatBoys have more of a 'modern' tone to them, more in the vein of Barts or EMG's. The AXY's (and by extension, the MXY's) in comparison to FatBoys I'd describe this way: AXY's remind me of utterly clean studio monitors, while FatBoys would seem more like very good hi-fi speakers, maybe not as brutally precise, but with a slightly more visceral rendering, maybe just a bit of a Music Man vibe. Both are very good, and very clean.
Those vs. the P/J setup: The P/J is a very clean and strong Alembic version of a tone you probably know already, far more traditional than the AXY presentation.
In my experience, all of them were silent electronically.
Best of Luck.
