Alembic (!) Sighting

[gtrguy]

This was in my Facebook feed this morning from Cover Band.

[jazzyvee]

Check it out here it was one of the famous alembic April Fool's jokes.
http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_knobfest2010.html

[gtrguy]

I like the 'Singer Mute' button shown in the detailed explanation of what the knobs do!

[lbpesq]

My favorite is the balance control on the back of the headstock to adjust neck dive angle.

Bill, tgo

[fclef6]

Nothin’ against bluegrass, but it needs a bluegrass mode…dobro down, mandolin mute, fiddle freeze, and banjo bypass.

[pauldo]

😂

[edwardofhuncote]

You definitely don't want to ask the bluegrass crowd what knobs that bass needs... I fought that good fight for Alembic. (and lived to joke about it)   

[cozmik_cowboy]

When I was young & foolish, I once asked a 'grasser why he didn't play electric bass; I got frostbite from the change in his attitude.......

Peter (who then listened to a 10-minute lecture on the deficiencies of all amplified instruments)

[hammer]

As someone who also plays in that genre (and like Greg with an Alembic) I once asked the same question of the bassist for a Czech Newgrass group that was doing a house concert at my place at the time. I got the same ice cold stare. I then asked the upright bassist if he wouldn't mind me disconnecting the "acoustic transducer" he was using to get his bass loud enough to be heard amongst an electric guitar/PU aided acoustic guitar, fiddle that was amplified, banjo which was set up with two microphones, and piano. Or alternatively, if I could turn his amp off so I could hear the pure unadulterated "acoustic" tones of his upright.  He smiled at me and then asked me to show him my collection of Alembics, one of which he played for their final set. 

[cozmik_cowboy]

As someone who also plays in that genre (and like Greg with an Alembic) I once asked the same question of the bassist for a Czech Newgrass group that was doing a house concert at my place at the time. I got the same ice cold stare. I then asked the upright bassist if he wouldn't mind me disconnecting the "acoustic transducer" he was using to get his bass loud enough to be heard amongst an electric guitar/PU aided acoustic guitar, fiddle that was amplified, banjo which was set up with two microphones, and piano. Or alternatively, if I could turn his amp off so I could hear the pure unadulterated "acoustic" tones of his upright.  He smiled at me and then asked me to show him my collection of Alembics, one of which he played for their final set. 

Where's that consarned "Like" button?

Peter

[keith_h]

When I was young & foolish, I once asked a 'grasser why he didn't play electric bass; I got frostbite from the change in his attitude.......

Peter (who then listened to a 10-minute lecture on the deficiencies of all amplified instruments)

Around here I think a lot of the folks who refuse to try an electric bass might say it is because of the tone but if you dig down it ends up boiling down to tradition. It is also not uncommon for these same folks that while the music is important it is trumped by preserving tradition. I've noticed less of this with younger folks who will play electric or switch up instruments and tend to believe in expanding upon tradition rather than hold rigidly to it.   

[edwardofhuncote]

For me, it just depends on the gig.


Last year, I filled in for my Dad in a Stanley Bros. tribute band. Any bass guitar of any kind, would have been completely out of context there. The Stanleys were about as primal and raw as it got, and no, anything other than an upright would not cut it, visually or tonally. I'll take it a step further; to really nail the Jack Cooke tone, I played the Ol' Man's bass, strung with synthetic gut strings rather than mine and it's hybrid chromesteel wound on perlon. Way too much *boing* for traditional bluegrass.


With the neo-oldtyme band, I took even more liberties. Most of the music we were playing in that band was written without a bass part in mind, or even rhythm guitar. It's fiddle/banjo driven, so the rhythm section was wide open to interpretation for Brian and I. Probably very few of you ever heard it, or will, (just a couple folks I burned CD's for) but we put this moving, arpeggiated, sometimes melodic/harmonic line underneath the lead instruments. I played a fretless Turner Renaissance 5-string bass on 90% of that project, something the traditionalist element in oldtyme music circles would not accept under any circumstances. But we got booked easily as an Appalachian String Quartet. And the folks paying us couldn't have cared less. I played my Alembic Custom fretless 5 string, right up to the very last gig we did. I even played my fretless Hyak on a couple. No disrespect to the oldtyme crowd, I can hang with any of them on my doghouse, any day. But I play what I want to on my gigs.


With the Harwell-Grice Band... those guys wouldn't care if I played a washtub so long as I held their pocket. They think my Alembics are cool mainly because of the Grateful Dead connection. The music though, is perfectly suited for an electric bass guitar. It's a loud, plugged-in jamgrass band. You would have a very hard time getting an upright to cut through that racket. And honestly, it's just too damn physical. For me anyway. Those guys play hard and fast... Josh is like the Tasmanian Devil on Red Bull. If I ever do get back to gigging with them, it'll be on bass guitar.   

[cozmik_cowboy]

For me, it just depends on the gig.


Last year, I filled in for my Dad in a Stanley Bros. tribute band. Any bass guitar of any kind, would have been completely out of context there. The Stanleys were about as primal and raw as it got, and no, anything other than an upright would not cut it, visually or tonally. I'll take it a step further; to really nail the Jack Cooke tone, I played the Ol' Man's bass, strung with synthetic gut strings rather than mine and it's hybrid chromesteel wound on perlon. Way too much *boing* for traditional bluegrass.


With the neo-oldtyme band, I took even more liberties. Most of the music we were playing in that band was written without a bass part in mind, or even rhythm guitar. It's fiddle/banjo driven, so the rhythm section was wide open to interpretation for Brian and I. Probably very few of you ever heard it, or will, (just a couple folks I burned CD's for) but we put this moving, arpeggiated, sometimes melodic/harmonic line underneath the lead instruments. I played a fretless Turner Renaissance 5-string bass on 90% of that project, something the traditionalist element in oldtyme music circles would not accept under any circumstances. But we got booked easily as an Appalachian String Quartet. And the folks paying us couldn't have cared less. I played my Alembic Custom fretless 5 string, right up to the very last gig we did. I even played my fretless Hyak on a couple. No disrespect to the oldtyme crowd, I can hang with any of them on my doghouse, any day. But I play what I want to on my gigs.


With the Harwell-Grice Band... those guys wouldn't care if I played a washtub so long as I held their pocket. They think my Alembics are cool mainly because of the Grateful Dead connection. The music though, is perfectly suited for an electric bass guitar. It's a loud, plugged-in jamgrass band. You would have a very hard time getting an upright to cut through that racket. And honestly, it's just too damn physical. For me anyway. Those guys play hard and fast... Josh is like the Tasmanian Devil on Red Bull. If I ever do get back to gigging with them, it'll be on bass guitar.   

Wanna really freak people?  Try a Gold Tone fretless Microbass; about the size of a Barbie® ukulele, and sounds more like a doghouse than anything else I've ever heard!

Peter