Forty Five Years Of Alembic, And What I Have Learned

[rv_bass]

I like Alembic Series basses, 60s era Guild Starfire basses with bisonic(s) (or Alembicized Starfires), and one other.   

[bigredbass]

As I've said many times in many places:

Alembics just aren't for everyone. 

But . . . . IF you 'get it', there is simply nothing, and I mean NOTHING like an Alembic, and the wonderful family that builds and sees over their built ones as an extended family, and their owners, where I was fortunately included in my Alembic days.

Simply the best, and as good as it gets.

[jazzyvee]

Agreed, i got what alembic basses where about easily, however finding 'how to get my own sound' from it has taken a long time for me to grasp and now for me there really isn't any bass I would rather play. I have a beater and an acoustic bass guitar but never gigged them.

[pauldo]

Agreed, i got what alembic basses where about easily, however finding 'how to get my own sound' from it has taken a long time for me to grasp and now for me there really isn't any bass I would rather play. I have a beater and an acoustic bass guitar but never gigged them.

That is true.  I recall seeing Edwin in Denver when I was out there for a business trip.  He graciously let me try his Series bass… I was like an Amish guy in a Radio Shack store - completely lost. 

Finding the gentle nuances in these instruments takes time.  The Distillate feels like home to me.

[gearhed289]

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.

It was ordered as a long scale according to the wood card. 17'' from nut to 12th. Used to belong to HAMMER.

[lembic76450]

    Wow, this is a spot on discussion.  Thank you sonofa lembic for your observations.  One thing that I rarely
see mentioned about our beloved Alembic is that no one, at least to me, has come close to the dynamics that
are at our finger tips.  I whole heartedly agree about the sound being in the hands, but, Ron and Co. have made
available to us a whole 'nother dimension. 

    Like most here, I have other basses, a '63 P, a  '67 P, a '77 MusicMan,
and a few Alembics.  My main player is my '76 Series I.  Nothing comes close to the nuances that Ron gives us.
The Fenders, not so much, the MusicMan, a little more. I think Leo Fender was starting to get it.  I can get out of
my Series a whisper to a roar and any point in between.

    Last year I had some work done on the '63 P and the MusicMan.  I brought the P to a gig along with
the Series as back up.  I think that I made it through 3 songs.

     The MusicMan I had the electronics and pick up swapped out for a Seymore Duncan set up, which to me was a
huge improvement.  I have actually done 2 gigs with it.  Nothing can convince me to leave my Alembic at home, except,
another Alembic. 

      To borrow from the Dead, I got on the Alembic bus in '78.  It is still the only way to travel for me.

[jacko]

I only bought my first Alembic - an EPIC in 1995 (sorry Sonofalembic ) because I couldn't afford the Tobias 5 string I was lusting after at the guitar store in Birmingham so at THAT time Alembic was second best. Since then I've added 2 more Alembics to my stable and that's all I will take to gigs but they're just tools and to this day I still wish I had a pre-gibson Tobias 5 string.

Graeme

[hammer]

The first Alembic I purchased was the aforementioned Distillate. I was so impressed I ordered a Further for my son. Of course, we  if he was going to have a new Alembic, his father also needed one so the 3/4 body Signature Deluxe was created. Then there was the “need” to try a short scale so an SC was purchased, and a Europa long scale to balance things out. Along the way someone on this board, well everyone, stated that you really can’t beat the sound of a Series Bass.  A Standpoint, Standardpoint fretless, SC, and shopnight special later and…wow now that I’ve listed them all, I can see that there’s there’s a big drawback to Alembics. When you hear that sound… it’s habit forming.

[bigredbass]

Jazzy, I too found that there is a learning curve for Alembics, and it's a one way trip.  When I had mine, occasionally I'd go looking in a music store or two, then wonder why I was there (lifelong habit, I suppose) as there was nothing in there even close.  I felt like a guy that drove a Testarossa or SL600 to a Chevy store to look at new Corvettes . . .
that pure tone from those pickups, filters, and electronics is just unlike anything out there, a totally different world.

[sonofa_lembic]

"Dynamics" is a good word to describe the variety and responsiveness of an Alembic circuit.  They allow for so much more nuance in your playing, and for me, that is a significant factor in creating music with its own dynamics. 

I know exactly what you mean about taking a P Bass to a gig as well as an Alembic, and favoring the Alembic for the night.  You know immediately that the tone and presence is lacking when using the Fender, and everything comes back into focus when you plug in the Alembic.  There have been very few gigs where I could use the Fender all the way through.  If the music is varied, and other than blues or classic rock, the Fender just won't hang.  If you have to sound more contemporary, or have a slap solo, the Fender does not have the clarity to pull it off, or at least, not in a way that is pleasing to my ears or the audience's.  Using the Alembic will give you all the tones you want, from vintage Fender to just about anything else, while still maintaining clarity in the mix.  On top of that, you still get the pure Alembic tone which is something no other bass can match. 

As to "finding the nuances", you can save yourself frustration by understanding how the Q system in an Alembic works.  Once you recognize it works more like the dials on an EQ unit, you will be able to choose your boosted or cut frequencies easily, and thus make sense of how to achieve the tone you are looking for.  For me, I find that leaving everything all the way up with the Q switches off is a great tone.  If I need the sound to cut through a bit more due to odd acoustics in a particular venue, I will turn the Q switches on so I get more of a single coil sound.  For my fretless Alembics, I will use mostly the bridge pickup, and turn on the Q switch with the tone knob about 2/3 down to boost the low mids.  That gives a great Jaco tone.

[rv_bass]

Interesting that you keep the volume and filter knobs on your bass wide open.  I keep things cut a bit on the bass, q middle position neck and q off bridge, and then adjust the F-2B to boost treble a little and cut bass and mids.  Here are my standard settings, or at least my starting point…

[sonofa_lembic]

Rob, on my Series basses, I will often have one Q on high pass and another on low, and while I do like to have the option of tuning up the volume on the bass, I usually will just do so at my preamp which is always close by.  My setting description previously is more based on the instrument I use most often which has a Signature circuit. 
One other thing I would like to add was made clear on my gig yesterday.  I think it is also a big part of why people who are new to an Alembic may jump to conclusions too readily about the sound of the basses being trebly and less fat than other basses they have used.  I took an old Fodera Imperial Elite to my gig yesterday, and on stage, the sound was forceful and relatively clear.  An ideal tone when you are listening to it three feet from your speakers.  The drummer was enjoying the tone and commented that he thought it competed well with my Alembic.  I was thinking everything was hunky dory until people in the audience were unusually quiet during and after my solos.  Then in the middle of a set, a musician in the audience came up to the stage, and told the drummer that he needed to hold back so that the audience could hear the bassist.  I spoke with him on our break, and he said it was hard to hear the bass, and during my solos, all of the clarity and nuance of my playing was completely lost.  This was a slap solo mind you, so it was not like I was holding anything back.  This never happens when I play an Alembic, and frankly, I am tired of so many of my boutique bass collection not measuring up when I am doing everything I can to make things sound good.  I was in the board and PA, I had my F1X preamp with a 2800 watt power amp, and 12" speaker cabs I have used for years which have always sounded great.  I thought I had covered all the bases to achieve great tone on stage as well as out in the audience.  Nope.  Once again, it is clear that there are a ton of basses that sound great from three feet away, but I am finding out time and time again that the Alembic is the only bass which works for all situations. 

[lbpesq]

Rob, on my Series basses, I will often have one Q on high pass and another on low, and while I do like to have the option of tuning up the volume on the bass, I usually will just do so at my preamp which is always close by. 

Are you referring to an SF-2 or do you have your bass modded with an on-board SF-2?   I’ve never heard of a Series instrument with high/low pass selectable filters.

Bill, tgo

[sonofa_lembic]

I don't currently own a Series II with the continuously variable Q's.  I am talking about Q switches on my Series I or Signature basses. 

[lbpesq]

Q switches don't change the filters from low pass to high pass.  They add a boost at the cut-off frequency selected with the filter.  A three-way Q switch provides a choice of 0-6-9 db boost.   You would need an SF-2 to change the filters between high and low pass. (You can also choose band pass with the SF-2).  Series II instruments replace the 3-way Q with a continuously variable Q, but similarly cannot change from low pass to high pass.

Bill, tgo.