Hello!
It's good to finally make an account here.
A little about myself: (and my Alembic obsession
)
My name is Dawid, I'm from Poland, and a recent Alembic owner.
I was a long time lurker in the Alembic club, to the extent of remembering that there once was a different board, which is now archived as I believe.
It all started with seeing and hearing the bass playing of Jack Casady. I, at the time, was a pretty young fellow, mostly listening to heavier music, but from that moment something changed in me. It was the absolutely masterful touch, phrasing, innovative and roaring tone of Casady that made me a lifelong fan of the Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and later the whole "bay area" thing. Through learning all I could about the bands, the interactions between them and all the behind the scenes life, I learned of the group of technicians and luthiers that later became the Alembic. It really is fascinating how through intelligent and informed design, along with a lot of imagination, Alembic became the first to offer such custom instruments and active electronics. I made a promise to myself, that one day I will play one of these basses.
A lot of time has passed since then. There was a lot of instruments that I played, most of those I eventually sold on to fund another. There aren't many basses that actually were what I was looking for, and I always was a kind of DIY person, so I designed and hand built my own bass guitar. This one, alongside my Guild starfire and Epiphone JC, will stay forever with me. It is a completely different approach, featuring a deep neck pocket and pickup spacing based to produce a singing tone with long sustain. Of course the Alembic itch was never scratched fully and eventually resurfaced years later, which leads to the next part of the story.
Years ago, while browsing the forum, I saw a post by Dannobasso showing his 6 string Spoiler basses. I always was a fan of the Spoiler shape, it is both ergonomic and aestheticaly pleasing to the eye. Seeing a six string, with the tight string spacing, Spoiler shape and incredible woods... Well it seemed like it was "it". If I was to ever own an Alembic, that's what it would be like. By some incredible stroke of luck, years later I was fortunate enough to get on the forum just as one of his basses was for sale. Thanks to user Otis, we have made a deal and now I'm the owner of a six string Spoiler with an incredibly comfortable feel and sound. Frank is a great guy, he really showed a lot of patience and determination to make our transaction happen. Truly it was all in the helpful spirit of this forum
thank you Frank!
As for the bass guitar itself: funnily, active electronics, in the sense of "bass + treble" control, never spoke to me. I always preferred a passive bass. But Alembics are a different beast, the whole philosophy of sound manipulation was different, and something that resonated with me on an important level. It's active, but sounds completely natural and incredible. There is no wrong or weird settings when changing the sound. I will write a bit more about it in a dedicated thread, since I feel that I'm rambling a bit...
So, anyway
once again, I would like to say hello to everyone here!
Cheers,
Dawid
