Alembicizing a 1966 Fender Precision Bass

[jwright9]

I am excited about Alembicizing a 1966 Precision bass that I recently bought.
I will be installing the P-J AE-1 Activator's in the bass as soon as they arrive.
The P bass has been converted to a fretless and had a Jazz pickup added at some point.
So it was a perfect project to add the PJ activators to.
When I got the P bass it had some no name PJ pickups installed that sound decent.
I am very excited to see how it sounds with the activators installed. MY guess is that it will be a night and day difference in tone and clarity.
I may have the neck re-fretted. Not sure. Depends on how it sounds once the Alembic electronics are installed.
Will also do a before and after demo of the bass.

This is the bass

[lbpesq]

Looks like a cool project.  Are you planning to add a Q switch?

Bill, tgo

[hieronymous]

Very cool - I've also got an Alembicized P-Bass & an Alembicized Tele-Bass.


Following up on Bill's question, I would strongly recommend getting the Q-switch - I find that the hard-baked +8 or whatever value it is without the switch gives too much variation in volume when boosting lows as opposed to highs - I personally think being able to set it at zero makes it much more flexible (someone else can probably put it better than I did)

[jwright9]

No Q switch for now. I can always add one later.

[mario_farufyno]

Can you record a little sample to show us how it sounds now? I would love to hear...

[jwright9]

Can you record a little sample to show us how it sounds now? I would love to hear...

Definitely. I just made a short video but perhaps I'll do a recording with my Pro Tools rig.

[lbpesq]

I added a three position Q to the bolt-on bass I built with Alembic P-Bass pickups.  Definitely a worthwhile mod. 

Bill, tgo

[jazzyvee]

Harry from my experience of my Elan that has two sets of P- pickups, I think the zero Q position works best for me. I can't recall ever using it on a gig with the Q on. I tend to use the bass and treble boost and cut switches and infact the treble switch is always in the cut position which gives enough punch but no knockout! :-)

[gearhed289]

I bet that's going to sound great! I'm glad to see they didn't put the J pup right up against the bridge like I often see on these mods.
And since we're talking switches, definite yes to adding a Q. Mine is almost always "off". Bass boosted, treble flat (Distillate electronics).

[edwardofhuncote]

On the subject of Q-switches... I have found that the 3-position option with 0-3-6 dB of boost is much more usable for me. I have it on both my Persuader 5-string (which has the P/J activators) and liked it so well that we included it to the electronics on my subsequent Custom fretless 5-string, but both of my Distillate basses are the standard 2-position Q, which if memory serves, is a 0-8 dB. Lotsa' *boing* there... I've learned how to make use of it by rolling off the highs and the closing filter a bit. Still... it's pretty harsh. It can be a very useful tool... if you're suddenly in a spot where you need to cut through some muddy mix, it's as simple as a flick - let there be BASS.

Unless I am mistaken, on J9's project here, without the switch in the circuit to toggle the Q to <off>, it will be <on>. Someone please correct that if I've misspoken.

[StephenR]

It seems counter-intuitive to need a Q-switch installed in order to be able to defeat the baked in +8dB boost that the Activator circuit has without it but that alone makes the switch worth installing. Being able to select the amount of boost is an improvement, too.

I played my Alembicized Quantum bass for almost 30 years with no Q-switch and liked the way it cut through in just about any sonic situation but since putting the switch in the range of tones I can now get is much broader. Adding the variable bass/treble boost cut circuit to that bass made it easier to tweak the sound slightly from song to song when onstage. I like the simplicity of having only one filter in that bass but the more recent additions to the circuit have almost made it like getting a new instrument.

[edwin]

It seems counter-intuitive to need a Q-switch installed in order to be able to defeat the baked in +8dB boost that the Activator circuit has without it but that alone makes the switch worth installing. Being able to select the amount of boost is an improvement, too.

I played my Alembicized Quantum bass for almost 30 years with no Q-switch and liked the way it cut through in just about any sonic situation but since putting the switch in the range of tones I can now get is much broader. Adding the variable bass/treble boost cut circuit to that bass made it easier to tweak the sound slightly from song to song when onstage. I like the simplicity of having only one filter in that bass but the more recent additions to the circuit have almost made it like getting a new instrument.

That's interesting. I'm thinking about expanding the capabilities of my Modulus with 3 Alembic pickups. Two filters would be nice, but maybe the bass/treble?

I find that I usually have the Q switch in the 0db setting. There are plenty of highs coming off the pickups.

[StephenR]

Does your Modulus have a pan pot? My bass has an on/off switch for each pickup, no way to blend the pickups. I never liked the sound of two pickups engaged simultaneously on this bass, it always sounds like there are phasing issues. Pickup position on the early Modulus basses was very different from the later ones, they were still experimenting and finding what worked best. Each pickup on its own sounds really good.  So, an extra filter wouldn't be much help unless there was a way to switch the filters between pickups for quick tonal changes via the on/off switches, clunky if it could even be done. My Distillate had the bass/treble boost cut switches but I didn't care for them. The variable bass/treble pots are more like having a CVQ instead of a Q-switch and are very powerful, a little tweak has a big effect and they are asymmetrical 6 dB cut/12 dB boost, cool circuit. Someone mentioned that I have kind of a psuedo-East Meets West setup on this bass, whatever you call it I like it.

[jwright9]

OK, so just got the pickups yesterday.

Tried to install them...

I didn't account for that fact that there is no room in the control cavity to fit the 9v battery. In order to make this work the cavity needs to be routed more to allow room for the 9v battery.


Oops..

I am not up for a project of this scope at this point. Too many other things going on and don't  have the time. Also don't want to put any more money into this project.

If anyone here is interested in this project, I would be happy to sell it to you for what I have into it.

Send me a message and we can talk.

I just bought the Activators from a shop in France. Supposedly they were New Old Stock. Never been used. I believe that to be true as they look new and unused.
https://reverb.com/item/20432100-nos-alembic-activator-p-j-ae-1-80-s

The bass is a 66 Precision bass. The neck was professionally converted to a fretless at some point. It was done well. Nice neck. Comfortable and easy to play.
The tuners, bridge and pickguard are not original.


Please message me if you are interested. Thanks!

I may also be interested in selling the activators separately but would prefer to keep it as a package.

[hieronymous]

Bummer! When I had mine installed in my P-Bass they somehow managed to cram the battery in there, but when I took the pickguard off to change the battery, I couldn't get it to fit! Ended up having a battery box installed so I can change the battery through the back instead of taking the pickguard off. I could never have done that myself though.