Author Topic: "The Cleansing" is Done!! (Read 291 times)

bucky · « **on:** July 17, 2003, 02:16:45 PM »

Well my fellow Alemicists, the Alembic Princess of All Knowledge Alembic (that'd be YOU Mica) and Brothers in general. . the first cleaning of my Alembic Brown Bass (SN 74 - 52) is complete and I must say I am in awe. . .not so much of my hard labor - though it took me roughly an entire day of my time - but of how incredible the woods of this remarkable instruments have aged. I had noticed immediately upon my repossession of it that the woods were much darker. But they we're also very *thirsty* as well. I don't know often Mark - it's other owner - oiled the finish but I'm betting not more than once a year if that. After collecting information about the finish - Thank You Michael - Dela217 for your gift of the copy of the original manual for the guitars of my year 1974. I never received any literature or even registration papers when I originally purchased it in '74 and getting this information was a godsend. It goes into some detail about the Watco and oil finish Alembics and after much trepidation (I would just die if I put the wrong thing on this incredible finish and ruined it) I chose a Watco product - Watco Rejuvenating Oil mainly because of the name and the fact it claimed it could be used on ALL oil finishes without damage of any kind occurring. WOW . . were they ever right. . I applied a thin coat everywhere and my Baby seemed to drink it up and start to glow noticeable almost instantly!! And Boy. . the luster and depth to the woods now is breathtaking. While I gave the oil some time to soak up much needed rejuvenation I started on the Bridge. Now. . I had already decided there was NO WAY I was going to take this intricate piece of art apart SO I started at one end using a product that Mica had suggested called Flitz. It's a paste of sorts and I was applying it with the tips of Q-Tips for accuracy. Well. . I'll tell you after about an hour of work I had only covered about an inch of that Bridge - and getting down in between the Bridge pieces with the Q-Tips was absolutely driving me nuts! Plus this method was not getting all the dirt out. Hmmm. . what to do. I them remembered that our drummer Jerry used to use a product called Brasso to clean his Zildjian cymbals and concert gong. And it was *liquid*! Ah HA! A Brainstorm hit me! I thought why not get some Brasso, our some in a bowl and just submerge this side of the Bridge pieces and all? And THEN all I had to do was use the Q-Tips to get the remaining cleaner *out*. Well to make this already boring story a bit shorter that is exactly what I did. And I'm here to report that it worked *fantastic*! You see this brass had nearly 30 of gunk and deposit on it. And I think that it was actually necessary for me to submerge it to get all the crap off. Now I had no idea how the brass would actually clean up. I didn't really expect it to be returned to it's a original shine - we all know how new brass actually looks like shining gold it's so bright - BUT what I discovered was that to my great pleasure the years had actually *added* a depth and occasional stain to certain areas of the Bridge and Battery cover that made it look marbled and quite beautiful. . so back to wipe the excess oil off the body. And after I did that I was blown away! It revealed a completion that truly needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate. I tried taking pictures with my cheap Polaroid to post here but they so did not portray the intricate detail of the way this has cleaned up so I've decided I'm actually going to purchase a digital camera just for these new pictures. SO My Brethren (and Alembic Princess) I'll ask your indulgence just a bit longer until I can faithfully record my Brown Bass newly revealed beauty to you all. . I PROMISE you pictures are forthcoming! Oh yeah, one more thing - My Brown Bass will be making her return to the concert stage August 2nd and 3rd in Seattle Wahington at the The Progman Cometh Festival at the Moore Theatre. My band Glass will be one of the acts playing and I must say I'm quite excitied about having the actual bass I used in the studio 25 years ago playing some of the very songs I wrote on her back then. . who says dreams don't come true(-;

Your Servant in All That is Alembic

Jeff

P.S> Now to find those elusive 1974 Era gold Schaller tuners. . .guess it?s time to call Fat Dawg back. . .cover me Boys, I?m goin in. . . .

dnburgess · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2003, 04:09:02 PM »

I love this kind of obsessiveness.

Reminds me, I have to get some Brasso to clean my back cover plate - only just took the sticky paper off (after 13 years! - you don't want to rush into these things) and there's lots of gluey gunk to remove.

bucky · « **Reply #2 on:** July 17, 2003, 04:28:43 PM »

Dnb:

Yeah. .I DO get a bit compulsive - especially about my Alembic. My wife thinks I'm nuts, of course. And complained for two days about the overpowering odor of Watco and Brasso that lingered in the house. . I just smiled, closed my eyes, leaned my head back and riffed away on ol 74 - 52!

Never rush. .

Jeff

mica · « **Reply #3 on:** July 17, 2003, 05:22:10 PM »

We've actually taken to removing the back cover paper at the factory these days. It's nigh impossible if you wait to long as you've found out, David.

We've found that lemon oil works great for removing the remaining offending paper. Take he backplate off the bass and let the lemon oil soak on it for a good hour. Later, the crud will wipe off.

There's a product availble here called Goo Gonethat will also do the trick, not sure if it's available in Sydney.

bucky · « **Reply #4 on:** July 17, 2003, 06:59:11 PM »

Yeah. . Goo Gone is *great*. . and I've never had it ever affect any surface in a damaging way. It's the best for any glue removal.

Jeff

palembic · « **Reply #5 on:** July 22, 2003, 08:17:47 AM »

Hey Jeff,

if you WANT to spend the money for a new digital camera, please do.
OTOH if you have a plain old manual camera of the cheapest AF: you can always ask in the store to put your pictures on a CD: so you got the pictures in digital fomat = easy to upload.
Just a humble hint.

Paul the bad one (well ...er ...bad ...euh)

bucky · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2003, 11:01:22 AM »

Paul:

You know. .that's a great idea. My problem is - and I'm sure all of my fellow Alembic owners can relate to this - this bass is SO beautiful it's just impossible to capture all the beauty with the meager photographic tools I have at hand(-; Kind of like when you meet an incredibly beautiful woman. . you're left speechless because there just are no words. . .

I took a whole roll the other day with my regular fixed lense 35mm. . we'll see how they come out. A friend has my really great camera - my Minolta Maxim. When I get THAT back the pictures - including some great close-ups - will really flow. .

Take Care,

Jeff

edwin · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2003, 01:04:12 AM »

Try taking the pictures in natural light with no flash using the new Fuji Velvia 100 (RVP 100) slide film.

Edwin
Who's pictures of his Alembic aren't all that great, but the shot of the Stratoblaster on the Alembic site turned out OK.

bucky · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2003, 01:34:52 PM »

Edwin:

Thanx for the tip. .I've got some coming back today I'm hoping will be alright. .

Jeff

dfung60 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2003, 10:40:58 AM »

Just a note on getting better photographs.

A great camera never hurts, but if you want to take better pictures of instruments, the first thing you need to work on is improving your lighting. The light quality of electronic flash is great, but if you use an on-camera flash, you often won't get good results. That built-in flash is designed to help get enough light in for details when you're popping off a snapshot of your mom, but when you're shooting your finely polished Alembic, you'll get a lot of glare. At shooting distances, for all intents and purposes, the on-camera flash is at the same location as the lens, so the reflections will all be captured on film.

The simplest thing you can do to improve your shots are to go out to Sears and buy a pair of cheap halogen worklights, probably around $15 each. Place one at your right, 3-4' away, aimed at your instrument. If you take a picture now, the instrument will be well-lit so you can zoom in for close-ups but there won't be any glare as it's being cast off to the left.

The only bad part about using one halogen light like this is that it will cast harsh, dark shadows. So plug in the other light and place it on a similar position on the left. Now the instrument is fully lit from all angles and the left light wipes out the shadows from the right (and vice versa).

Halogen bulbs like this are catagorized as tungsten lamps, so if you're shooting film, you would want indoor film. With a digital camera, you should set white balance appropriately for accurate colors.

You can spend hundreds more on color-controlled photographic spotlights, or thousands on a pro flash system, but if you're not going for artistic effects, this system on the cheap should work fine. With the pro gear, you can control the balance between lights so you can retain some shadow (this is called key and fill lighting), control where the light goes (use shutters so you don't get glare off of a bridge), or diffuse the light source to soften the shadows. But if you want super-sharp details, this is the way to go. Once you've addressed the lighting issues, your $10 point-n-shoot

While you have all this stuff set up, take a picture of your mom too. She'll look better than with the built-in flash too.

bucky · « **Reply #10 on:** July 25, 2003, 05:31:37 PM »

Hi dfung60:

Those are great tips. I would never have thought (or known) about halogen lights. And I will most definetly consider getting some for when I shoot My Work of Art for real. .

Thanks,

Jeff

poor_nigel · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2003, 09:17:55 PM »

Hey Bucky/Jeff - Look at my other post for info on an old Schaller for your bass. These tuners are not particularly hard to find, if you are willing to accept chrome ones and have them gold plated. Later.

bucky · « **Reply #12 on:** July 29, 2003, 08:20:01 AM »

poor_nigel:

Yes. . I have heard this from another member. And you know I may have to go that route. THANKS!

Jeff