Won some alembic bits in an off chance finding of a guitar equipment auction

[jazzyvee]

I found link to a guitar equipment auction on basschat and decided to have a look. Registered this morning and there were some alembic bits and bobs and I fortunately managed to get an IN-2, a bridge minus the tone block and a box of alembic goodies, tools, a couple of sets of series pickups with humcancellors, pots and a series bass card. I hope everything is complete and in working order although the series card does not show a chip in the socket. The pickups will most likely go into my 1980 Series I shorty as I think the existing ones may be slightly microphonic though they still sound great. I may also change the pots as when I first had the bass it was causing a squealing noise but that has since stopped after GeePee's dad took a look at it. But if the are the right ones then it may be worth doing.
As it happens the In-2 is an american voltage unit so if that can't be changed to 240V UK rectified at a sensible price it will be up for resale if anyone is interested. Apparently the serial number is #14 not that it tells me anything that it's probably really vintage.

[edwardofhuncote]

BINGO - that's an instant win for your little short-scale Series! Very Nice. 

[JimmyJ]

Geez, what a haul!  Was the Entwistle's spares kit or something?  Amazing. 

Jazzy, because of the vintage of these parts, you'll find the preamp card's ICs soldered to the back side of the board - in tiny robust metal packages.  The empty socket you see is for the wiring harness. 

Also note the old style mini-coax connectors for pickups and board.  If your shorty doesn't have those you'll need an adaptor to swap anything in.  And of course if you change components you won't have the noise mod.

What a great, rare find!  Congrats!

Jimmy J

[StephenR]

What a great find... congratulations!  I would think changing the power supply on the IN-2 would be possible, and not terribly expensive, but if you decide to sell instead I would be interested.

[keith_h]

The IN-2 should not require much power so I would consider a 240V - 120V adapter. I can order one on Amazon here in the states for about £21.

[gtrguy]

Looks like you also have the wiring strip that goes into the PF6 card in there. If you want to sell the card and maybe the pickups that you remove I am very interested.
Dave
USA

[gtrguy]

Also, that plastic bag looks to hold the chips for the PF6 card.

[jazzyvee]

There was only a few Alembic items, in fact there were three IN-2 units, two working, one had 3 DI outs and one was for spares or repair but was incomplete apparently. Maybe around 8 bridges and the box of goodies which was the main thing I wanted to get because of the pickups and the pots really. I chose that bridge because it has uncut saddles and the IN-2 was a curious purchase. It's a bit in need of tlc but it could replace the DS-5 in my F-2B rack and provide me with DI outs. Fingers crossed that everything works. I will try to find out where the stuff came from. I would imagine they are from one source. Maybe there is something in the box to reveal the source. Of course if there is anything that I don't need it will be advertised here first.

[mica]

I'm almost certain that these parts were from Entwistle's tech.

[jazzyvee]

Wow, thanks for chipping in. That's good to know I may have something from the great man. A question though. If I was to put a pair of these pickups on my S1 shorty, would I have to use the humcancellor from the boxed set for it to work effectively or is the one in my bass a good enough match?

[edwin]

Nice score! I would definitely get the IN-2 up and running. The DIs in it sound as good as anything I've ever used. The normalled FX loop is super handy.

Great score on the pots and other parts, too. Keep all that stuff around, you never know when you'll need some spare parts.

[jazzyvee]

With all that vintage oxidisation, hope the switches and sockets on the in-2 are in better condition than they look.
Is there any kind of instruction manual anywhere as a pdf?

[gtrguy]

As far as replacing S1 pickups without replacing the  humcancellor, I  think you just have to try it out to see how it works. I have done it on a couple and it was OK, but the replacements were around the same vintage and I live in a pretty rf noise free area.

[JimmyJ]

Jazzyvee,

If that photo is the actual IN-2 that you bought, the 1/4" jack next to the 5-pin connector is an unknown mod. 

But the IN-2 is not a complicated device and there are only a few components, as you can see in this thread:
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=21890.0

Basically in and out jacks, a self contained power supply, two very nice UTC audio transformers for the DI outputs, a selector switch with some summing resistors...  and that's kinda it.  In other words, if yours has been stored in a swamp and is badly corroded, you could completely rebuild it without spending too much money.

Quite a score!  In my road trunk I'm lucky to have a collection of spare bits.  Two preamp boards (one pre-tuned with RW's mod), a prewired p/u selector switch, a full set of knobs, 5-pin connectors of all variety, etc.  This is why I guessed that the kit you found could only have belonged to either JE or maybe MK.  That collection of rare parts might not mean much to somebody who didn't know, but for all of us in here ... just wow!

Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

It's funny... when Jimmy J. posted that notion yesterday these may have been Entwistle's spares, I thought; yeah, very, very possible, and Jimmy is one of the few guys who would recognize what would be in a gigging Alembican's spares kit. Then Mica (almost) confirmed it. Small world in here some days.