How to use knobs and switches on beautiful Spyder bass ltd?

[RBW]

Thanks alot!

Richard

[RBW]

OK... let me get this straight... I should put the mono/stereo switch towards the headstock for most things and only put it away from headstock if I'm using two amps or stereo?  Very important because I generally have it (the switch) towards the base or away from headstock.  Is this why I'm not getting the adjustments I want?

Thanks,
Richard

Spyder

[mica]

Just make sure that whatever mode you are in, that you can hear both pickups. You should only change the mono/stereo switch when you want to change the output. If half of the controls don't seem to have any impact on the sound, then you are probably in the stereo mode with a mono cable.

[RBW]

Hi Mica,
OK I'm using a mono cord and I have the switch away from the headstock.  I can hear both pickups and all the dials.

I'm on a new journey... I'm finally thinking that the clockwise/counterclockwise is exactly the opposite for usual basses compared to Alembic???     Instead of having my usual tone clockwise to about 1/8" of end I'm trying to do the Alembic's pickup frequency filter all the way counterclockwise to 1/8" before end and seeing if I can solve some of my sound problems...  This should chew up and spit out a Fender Elite and I haven't been able to find how to get it to sound clean bass and slightly metallic treble hi's...   Am I going in the wrong direction?  I've read all the things and can't quite figure out why I'm not getting what i want...   

Just trying to find the sweet spot and maybe I'm doing it wrong...

Just dumping...  ha ha...

Later,
Richard

[keith_h]

Here is a link to a post from the Must Reads area of the club. It talks about the filters used to control the tone of your bass.

http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=308.0
Filters are a considerably different way to adjust the tone than the shelving tone controls on your Fender. In short unlike shelving tone controls that cut or boost around a set frequency the filter controls what frequencies are passed through. In practical terms for an Alembic bass when the low pass filter is fully open (fully clockwise) frequencies up to 6K Hz are passed through the preamp. When the the filter is fully closed (counter clockwise) frequencies up to 350 Hz are passed through. In other words closing the filter removes the higher frequencies only allowing those below the setting to get through. So wide open you will hear the most treble and fully closed will sound the most bassy.  IMO the filter also puts more importance on your amplifier settings that shelving controls do. 

I and some of the other players here tend to leave the filters mostly open and control what I think you are referring to as a "slightly metallic treble" with our fingers. By changing my hand position and using fatty parts of my fingers I can control the brightness and fret clack. I don't know where you are located but there might be a club member close enough and they would be willing to get together to work through some of this with you.   

[garyhead]

I was reviewing this post and diagram last night and on my Spyders (#25 4-String, #2 8-String) the LED and Stereo /  Mono switches are reversed from the diagram.