Forty Five Years Of Alembic, And What I Have Learned

[sonofa_lembic]

It has been almost a half century since I purchased my first Alembic bass, and I felt it might be of value to describe what I have learned from playing Alembic instruments continually since 1978.  That is not to say I did not play anything else in that time, but when it mattered, I always used an Alembic.  I have owned or played just about everything out there, and from this shotgun approach to satisfying my curiosity about all things bass, I can look back on all of it and sum up my observations in this thread. 

To date, I believe the count of Alembics I have had pass through my hands is over 90, and at the risk of insulting some of you, I am proud to say not one of them was an Epic.  I always felt the Epic was a result of pressure from Guitar Center to force Alembic to make an affordable model, and on principal alone, I have refused to own one.  It is my slap in the face to GC for holding companies hostage the way they do.  I have played many of them, so I am well aware of the positives associated with the Epic, but I am not interested in set neck basses nor circuits and pickups made to sound less like an Alembic.  Sounding like an Alembic is exactly where I want to take this thread, since it is the most important point I have to make after my long career as a professional musician. 

The crux of all this is that after more than fifty years of Alembic's existence as an instrument builder, the sound and workmanship has never been duplicated by any of the myriad of bass guitar builders out there.  I can remember late nights at Seymour Duncan, discussing pickup design with their head engineer, and winding custom pickups for basses I was building.  I kept telling him that Alembic had the best range of tone and a clarity that was far beyond what Seymour was offering. No matter how much I explained the essence of the Alembic sound, he just never got it, and thus, their attempt at active electronics to this day is mediocre at best. 

This scenario seems to be the same with every other electronics/pickups manufacturer on the planet.  They have had the best sounding product staring them in the face for half a century, yet they simply can not achieve a product that will do what even the most basic Alembic circuit will do.  I truly believe in my soul that my career would not be what it has been without the Alembic tone.  I hate to use the word "tone" since there is so much more involved with what the Alembic circuit and pickups do for my performances.  There is clarity on stage, clarity in the audience, definition of individual notes, percussive clarity, smoothness of the high end, (especially when popped), as well as recording purity.  There are some nice sounding instruments out there, and certain basses have an iconic tone, but they are one trick ponies which still can be outperformed by an Alembic even at their own game.  This has been proven time and time again where rock anthems that we all swore must have been played on a Fender Precision, turned out to be an Alembic. 

Then there is the quality of craftsmanship and playability of an Alembic.  Nobody has come close, and Alembic just continues to perfect the perfect, leaving them all in the dust.  Sure, sometimes we have to take into consideration balance, ergonomics, and weight, but I have always felt beauty, feel and resonance were more important for me.  A perfect example of this is how my 1959 Precision bass feels like putting on your favorite pair of slippers.  Eight pounds, comfortable, and well broken in, but where is the workmanship, sustain, and most importantly, tonal variation?  That is just too much to give up for some comfort.  (Ask me this in another ten years when my back is a virtual pretzel, and maybe I will change my tune, but I seriously doubt it).  To be honest, I would rather stop playing that give up what the Alembic bass allows me to sound like.  That being said, there is no reason why you can't order an Alembic made to your spec's which focus on balance and light weight.  After all, Alembic is "Beyond Custom". 

What I ultimately want to express in this thread is this.  The Alembic bass can not be replaced by anything in existence to this point, and as a result is unique to the world of bass.  It blows my mind that to this day, nobody has achieved what Ron did way back in the stone age.  I can say without any hesitation that I rely on Alembic to do my job to the fullest, and I often stay awake at night stressing over the thought of what would happen if Alembic ever went away?  I need them, and I am often reassured by the Wickershams that they "ain't going nowhere." If you are new to Alembic, this thread will be a glimpse of what you come to realize over a lifetime of playing.  There is nothing like an Alembic, and nothing else will do.

[jazzyvee]

Thanks for posting that, you experience is warming to read. I have had alembics for a mere 22 yrs and at least half of that I was an occasional bass player and primarily a guitarist. So i would only claim about 10 to 11 years of constant alembic bass use and that is as a weekend warrior rather than a seasoned pro like yourself, Jimmy J and many others on the forum.
  For me acquiring an alembic was the achievement of a dream and at the point i bought mine I could not really describe myself as even a decent bass player. So basically my development as a bass player to whatever standard it is today is a result of learning on what I still feel are the finest sounding basses I have ever played.

Just the past couple of weeks i have been working on some tracks for upcoming gigs and festivals and playing through my stage rigs with my series and signature basses and with each one I have been rewarded with the most glorious sonic experiences. As you say, every note speaks for itself there are no dead spots the sustain, the sound envelope the dynamics are simply astounding. Sometimes when I get on stage for soundcheck with my bass and there is a really good PA and FOH team I take some time to try out some of the more open sounds as well as mainly deep bass sounds that i need for most of my gigs just to hear how fantastic it sounds.

I often feel overdressed on my reggae gigs carrying an alembic and only using the low end as it is absolute overkill for that genre when you consider most of the classic songs were recorded on really basic instruments and sound amazing. There are a lot of basses that sound heavier on the bottom end than alembics do when you use the onboard controls,  however I have been told many many times by FOH guys about how much depth and clarity there is in the bottom end of my bass and they only ever need to remove some of the high the higher frequencies coming through the DI  and leave the rest.
I know here on the forum we are always singing to the choir, but sometimes you never tire of hearing great songs.

I have an annoyingly curious mind and as much as i try to understand the finer points of what makes these basses sound and perform so beautifully i get to a point of frustration which is ironically the same thing that happens when i get on a plane flight. I try to work out what it is it that keeps it in the air. Eventually i accept that all i need to do is play the bass and know that Alembic have designed the interface in a way that I can use it to get the best sound i can from it.

Since owning my first alembic I have not done any bass gigs without one and i firmly believe playing these basses have given me access to my sound. I have played other basses in shops and rehearsals but I have always found something lacking, or a sound i can't get and to me most basses I hear sound like FSO's in a different body. Not a bad thing but not for me.

I look forward to other members experiences learned since playing alembics

[edwardofhuncote]

My introduction to Alembic was a life-changing experience.


I went from being a clueless guy who bought a stripped-out Persuader 5-string, to a client waiting for a Custom fretless 5-string with just a phone call. That poor old Persuader had bounced around the online market for years, and nobody ever kept it because it had no Alembic parts left. On that first phone call, they treated this stranger like I had bought a 25 year-old bass, new. Immediately, I made up my mind to order a new fretless companion. It took a couple years to realize, but I'll go to my grave with those two basses. Along the way, I've met some really nice folks, and bought a couple more. I frequently correspond with folks here who love these things as much as I do. It's beyond a fun hobby. It's like a family.


I have had to give up playing out for a while, but I can't imagine taking a stage again without an Alembic over my shoulder. Don't think I'd really want to.

[cozmik_cowboy]

That is just too much to give up for some comfort.  (Ask me this in another ten years when my back is a virtual pretzel, and maybe I will change my tune, but I seriously doubt it).

Can you say "bar stool"?

I am, as I have mentioned on occasion, a bad guitarist; I have fooled with bass some, but not to where I could lay any claim to being able to play it.  I also may have said a word or two about having earned my living as a soundman & stagehand in my youth, and so I had heard rumblings about "Alembic"; I knew Phil & Jack played them, and that made them seem like a good idea.

Then, when I was studying at The Recording Workshop, come my day to play producer, I got a WG² to record.  The instructor was the bassist in the hot band from around my hometown, so I asked him to put a Phil-like bass line under it.  He said "Sure, I know just what you mean", went out, and came back with a Series I.  As producer, I was quite pleased with both his playing and his tone.

Fast forward to '83:  I am working at (oh, the shame of it!) Guitar Center; one day after work, a few of the guitarists & a keyboard player decided to take advantage of the environment.  After we locked the door that night, they set something on fire and started playing.  I did my fair share vis a vis the combustion, looked around, and pulled a Spoiler off the wall.  Plugged into a Yamaha B100-115 II ( a fine amp), and commenced to "jamming" with the boys. 


I use the quotation marks because, as I said, I don't play bass,and played guitar even worse then than now, so my contribution was to wander aimlessly around in a box scale.  Which did nothing to diminish the fact that the bass did indeed live up to its name, and Spoiled me for lesser instruments; it played like a wet dream and sounded sweeter than a girl saying "Yes".


Even with having finally having gotten the chance to play Alembic guitars in the last few years (thanks, Bill!), and loving them, I still love the classics; a '59 ES-330-TD remains the electric guitar of my dreams.  But since that night in '83, as far as I'm concerned bass = Alembic.  They are perfection (or will be once Ron finishes the instrument-levitation circuit I'm sure he's working on...........)


Peter

[sonofa_lembic]

I hope we will see more stories of folk's experiences in this thread.  I would bet that at the end of it all, we all will see that there is a strong commonality between all of our evaluations of what an Alembic provides to us. 
I would like to address the concept that other basses on the market provide more low end.  I have always recognized this as an "audible illusion".  Alembic basses provide all the low end as well as all the high end.  In every case, more than any other circuit out there.  Some low end frequencies are more audible than others to the ear, and when you have ultra lows and then ultra highs competing for recognition in your brain, you can be fooled into thinking that the Alembic is all high end oriented.  The reality is Ron engineered it correctly to work in real world situations, and if you record as well as play large venues at higher volumes, you will come to see that the mix of highs and lows is perfect.  Without those ultra clear highs, your signal becomes mud, and you hear more low end, but there is no definition allowing the audience to single out the bass if they choose to.  I have heard for years that Fender P Basses "lay in the mix" so well, but I have found my Alembic basses to be even better in the mix.  In the studio, you just can't beat an Alembic.  Live, there is no other bass on the planet that drops perfect tone onto the audience like an Alembic.  Ron was amazingly successful at creating the studio sound in a live setting.  Playing in a padded living room at low volume won't tell you what your Alembic is capable of, but trust me, on the gig or in the board, the bass is unrivaled. 

It is heartwarming to hear how we all struggled to own our first Alembic.  In my case, I was in high school, and had to sell everything I owned which included a Puch moped, my Technics stereo system, and my 1975 Fender Jazz Bass.  It was a used 1977 Series I point body in the blue case.  I will never forget the day I finally paid it off, and had to borrow a bicycle from a fellow student to ride 12 miles to the shop, and then ride 12 miles back with a huge heavy blue case under one arm.  That was pain I will never forget, but it also shows how excited I was to finally have the bass of my dreams. 

I have never been the sentimental type who still owns his first Alembic, but I do envy those who are.  Finances as a musician have always dictated that if something new comes in, something needs to go to fund the new purchase.  That explains how I can have had over 90 Alembics in all these years.  I wish I had registered all of them so Alembic could keep a running tally.  One thing I can say is that there was never a dog in the bunch, and that I never fear letting go of one because the next one will be just as good.  Maybe different, but just as good.  As I have aged, I do find myself wanting to keep certain basses, but in the end, they are tools for my job, and I respect them more than I bond with them.  They were all great, and had I had the means, I would love to have kept them all.  I guess my true sentimentality and loyalty is directed more to the Wickershams and the craftsmen at Alembic.  That is forever, and will never change.

[adriaan]

The first Alembic that I had the pleasure to try out was a SC Signature, with the decal on the peghead and all, but I distinctly remember it having a pickup selector and a single filter so a case of "Name That Alembic!" right off the bat. Having played passive basses exclusively, I struggled to get a neutral sound, not helped by one of those Trace Elliott stacks that was all mids. But the playability was of course fantastic, all notes everwhere on the neck sounding glorious, and the price tag way out of my league. Fast forward a few years spent with a neck-through Yamaha that served me well, and then I got to play an Epic at a music convention, just after it was introduced. Somehow I had funds to buy it, and when a few weeks later I picked up the Yamaha again, I knew it was no use - it was such hard work to get any music flowing, the Yamaha was soon on its way out. Then later a Spoiler with the filter, had to get a blend installed to liberate the tones, but still struggling what to do with the filter - playing strictly at home by this time, anway ... And so to the point when a Series II found its way into my possession. That's when filters started to make sense - having one for each pickup to me is just the best of the best. I feel very fortunate for circumstances to have brought me there.

[gtrguy]

I am going to have to play devil's advocate I am afraid.

I love Alembics and they have a superb build quality and tone (and I do include the Epic in that evaluation) but there are many other bass guitars that also are superb. A good Fender P or J bass, a top of the line Yamaha TRB, a Rick 4001, vintage Musicman stingrays, vintage BC Rich Mockingbird and Eagles, even the lowly Peavey T40 are instruments that easily come to mind. Shun me if you want and I am not denigrating an Alembic in the least, but I am no purest.

I would compare this to various cars; all are a comprimise in some way, designed to fill a certain need at a certain price.

[StephenR]

Will come back to address Trevors initial query when I have more time to organize and write my thoughts...

Meanwhile, I own a 1964 P-bass and a 1977 Stingray, they are both nice basses, if the one sound they make floats your boat they are excellent choices to get those tones... but they don't come close to the quality or palette of tones I get from my Series basses or even my Modulus with Alembic activators. I stopped playing four-string around 1985 the Fender and Musicman have been sitting in the closet since then. I got both basses for so cheap that I have just kept them all these years in case I ever find the need or desire to play them. I am less pure about having to gig with a bass built by Alembic but since 1983 my preference has been to play instruments with Alembic electronics. No shunning involved in these comments, just my views, whatever instrument gets a musician where they want to go is the right choice for them.

[sonofa_lembic]

Playing devil's advocate is certainly welcome, and many instruments other than Alembic's have taken some of the best musician's in the World to great heights.  My emphasis with this thread is to express how the Alembic does what all those other instruments don't.  There are a boatload of instruments out there that I have owned and respected and loved to play.  Among them are the many Ken Smiths, Foderas, Sukops, Carruthers, and mid 70's 4001 Rickenbackers I have owned and used.  They are all World class and well made instruments with very useable tone and excellent playability.  They all have amazing artists using them who have built their careers around them, but we all know in the long run, it is still the fool, not the tool that ultimately allows them rise to the top.  Still, a great bass does not hurt, and is often the definition of that artist's sound. 

Basically, I have been there and done that when it comes to all manner of basses.  I have done my homework when it comes to understanding what else is out there, and that is why I feel qualified and wanted to start this thread.  When you are constantly using multiple basses for decades and decades, you get to know what they can and can't do.  In most cases it is what they do and what you wish they could do better.  My point is that there is nothing else out there that does what the Alembic does, and that all relates to qualities that are the end result of real world situations and use.  Once again those qualities are how well the audience hears the bass, how well the tone cuts through yet still fits perfectly in the mix, how well it records, and how wide the tonal range is.  On these points, the Alembic is unique and outperforms any other instrument on the planet.  This is really not an opinion so much as it is a fact supported by the laws of physics.  I can't tell the "Devil's Advocate" what to like, but I can describe what is going on sonically with an Alembic that does not occur when I use any other bass.  I have had the advantage of a lot of experience with Alembics, and the ability to A/B them to so many other fine instruments under conditions that truly test the metal of each instrument, and I suspect the D/A might have come to discover the same things I have observed if he had experienced what I have.  Then again, some people don't really care or pay attention to the details, and that in its own way is bliss, but for me, it is important to know what I am putting out there sonically.  I liken it to listening to your fellow players on stage.  When you use your ears, the music invariably becomes better, and when you are in tune with what the Alembic is doing better than other instruments, you are sending a better sound out into the audience and ultimately the universe.
 
One of a thousand stories I have of why I know the Alembic sounds better is a drummer I work with regularly, chided me on not using my Alembic on the gig.  He said he knows immediately if I am not using an Alembic because he can't hear any clarity coming from my rig, and my solos sound like I am playing under a wet blanket.  This has been the case so many times over the years, and it applies to virtually every boutique or workhorse bass I have ever owned other than an Alembic.  I have had people in the audience tell me the same thing.
 
One thing I have failed to mention is that you need to have a rig that can reproduce what the Alembic bass can produce tonally.  If you are getting 16Kh out of your bass, and use a rig that peters out at 3Kh, you will never understand any of what I am trying to explain in this thread.  That is where the F2B, F1X and Super Filter are so critical to all of this discussion.  They are among the very few preamps that allow you to hear what the bass is capable of.  You can still get great tone, presence and recording from your Alembic bass through most amps, but to really maximize the character of the bass, you need a rig with the same tonal range as the bass. 

One of the few people out there who did recognize Ron's work, and used Alembic design to influence his product, is James Demeter.  When James made his first and best sounding preamp, the VTBP, he was basing it on the Alembic F2B.  The result was a preamp that gives the F2B a run for its money, and is able to do justice to the tonal range of an Alembic bass.  I still own my original VTBP made in 1983, and it works as good as it ever did.  It was one of the first three made.  The other two went to Leland Sklar and Bob Glaub.  I still prefer the high end clarity and bass of the F2b or F1X, and use them most of the time, but I felt James should be mentioned here as one of the guys who was smart enough to solidly compete with Ron's designs.  James will tell you that he was basing his preamp off a Hiwatt amp, but I remember distinctly telling him I could not afford an Alembic F2B, let alone find one, and that I wanted something similar.  At least a year later, he had a VTBP prototype done for me.  He was working for John Carruther's shop back then, and I have to credit Alembic with introducing me to that shop to have my first Alembic repaired.  James replaced a blown IC for me, and to this day, we interact regularly including my playing on his video demo. 

[gearhed289]

I'm also in the "I like a lot of basses" camp, but I do believe nobody can touch Alembic with regard to build quality, beauty, and state of the art electronics. I love my Rics, I recently bought a MIM P Bass that I absolutely love (never thought I'd say that!), my Fenderbird is great, and on and on. I have about a dozen basses. Only one is an Alembic. There's a lot of truth to the old "sound comes from the fingers". I know there are many other factors, but I bring this up because when I was 18 and jonesing for an Alembic that there was no way I could afford, I bought an aluminum neck Kramer. Four knobs and three switches, but totally passive PJ setup. And I would get older dudes coming up to me after a set and ask how I got "that Stanley tone". Go figure! I was 50 when I finally bought my first Alembic - a long scale '86 Distillate. What a fantastic instrument! I wanted a medium scale, so I bought a bocote Spoiler. Nice bass, but it didn't sound as great as the Distillate, so that went away. A few months back, I sold the Distillate and bought an Elan 5. That didn't work out, so I sold THAT one. Now I'm back to - guess what? Another Distillate 4, but this one is in Exploiter form with the medium scale I wanted. This is a forever bass! I can't say enough good things about this bass. It is a dream come true.

[sonofa_lembic]

Your original Distillate should have been a medium scale.  That was how they were spec'd from the factory.  I guess if it was a long scale, it was a custom order. I still have a 1982 Distillate, and it is one of my favorite basses ever.  I especially love it because the setup and fretting was done by Bob Malone who worked at Alembic at the time.  In my opinion, he was one of the top craftspeople Alembic ever had on staff, and his fretwork and attention to detail assembling the instruments is awe inspiring.  Today's crew of craftsmen is highly skilled and innovative, and they are the most dedicated group Alembic has ever had.  Most of all, Bob Nelson should be recognized as the most prolific and experienced shop manager ever.  Alembic is the people as much as what they create, and Bob, James, Jack and Kris are a huge part of it all. 

[gtrguy]

As for being a devils advocate, I am not in any way complaining and my post was done with the full knowledge that the wonderful folks on this forum are without doubt the 'best in the World' who take the time to listen to others, and when they respond, it is always with kindness and respect.

That I always appreciate!

[OJ Dorson]

At 15, I made a new best friend named Jason who was a prodigy on bass. Electric, upright, whatever... he's good at it. I played bass clarinet (and regular), but from the minute I met Jason I *needed* four strings. He had an Alembic Elan with a filter and a Fender PBAC-100 fretless. I loved that Elan fiercely. My dad found me a Gibson EB-2D and a big amp "combo" about the size of a tallboy dresser. I loved it - and I should've kept it - but I craved something more modern. Jason was jonesing for the Pattitucci thing and was talking about Ken Smith non-stop and had me convinced. He ordered a six-string neck through BMT and I sold my Gibson and put that money down on a 5-String Burner (Artist, bookmatched walnut). After five years with the Smith, I sold it and bought a Kawaii FIIB - thinking "I'll never have the money for a *real* Alembic" - and over the last six years I've bought and played almost everything. I've had a CT (and two Hiltons), a Fodera, a couple different Smiths, Ibanez Musicians, Sadowskys, masterbuilt Warwicks, several Alembics... so many different basses ranging from the highest of high-end to SX Jazz clones.

After all of that, I can confidently say - and often do - that the two finest basses made are Alembic and Ken Smith. I think it's funny - a person could draw some similarities between these two in their construction and materials, but the end result is so completely polar... just as polar as the people behind these instruments. I tell people if you need the "Smith Sound" get a Smith; and if you need "every sound in the universe" get an Alembic.

There are other basses which are well-built and very good instruments that will do the job and get you your paycheck just fine, but these two are just so far beyond everything else out there. You may find plenty of basses with which you easily form an emotional attachment, too.

[sonofa_lembic]

OJ, I think your assessment is spot on.  Those two basses are my favorites as well, and while the Smith sounds solely like a Smith, the Alembic is the do everything bass.  Like you, I have had the Hiltons and many Carl Thompsons as well as some really obscure stuff like a Bilodeaux.
 
I also think that Jason Mendleson who owns Fret Nation is a super fellow, and one of the most helpful people I have met supporting the bass community.  He turned me on to my favorite bass cabinets from Jeff Genzler, the 12" Array cabs. I am still leaning toward keeping the Bat Bass for now, but as you are aware from this thread, if something new comes in, something has to go.  I am really settling in with Alembic #74-124, and am in love, so I will let you know what I decide to do.
 
I also am very familiar with the four string Smith you are looking to purchase from my friend Matt.  I told him you are on the up and up.  Yep, it is really a small community in the long run, so there are few secrets between us all.  I did the setup on the bass, and it is a nice one. 

[OJ Dorson]

That's my Jason! We've been really good friends since ~1995.

I have two of those Genzler 12's now, too. One from Jason and one used at a super good deal - could not pass up! When I talked with Mark yesterday about that Smith I was really happy to learn that you'd blessed it. Seems that our bass tastes (yours and mine) are very similar. Now that I'm done with a few years of bass-promiscuity, what I'm looking to do is settle down with a Series and a Smith and learn to play! Of course, I'll keep a couple weirdo basses around, but I want a "forever" Series and a "forever" Smith. I hope it can be BatBass, but I will understand (and be sad) if you can't let it go. I was just thinking about that bass as I commented on another thread about the value of truly "unique" Alembics; those basses have to connect with their next caretaker. I showed it to another bass friend a while back and he said, "well, I'm glad you think it's pretty! I hope you get it!" I think it's beautiful... as if someone pulled all those options out of my head. I'm biased, but I don't think you can find a better match for it.