Series 1 Custom from 1980 need help

[alegrass]

Hello, I'm Alessandro from Italy, thanks in advance to anyone who would like to give me advice.
I recently purchased a 1980 Series 1, born fretless and then some enlightened person... decided to add buttons and dots.
Apart from that, its DS-5 and its original cable are missing, I was only able to test it with 2 9v batteries and with the mono jack, and the bridge pickup doesn't seem to work.
I ask anyone who knows the electronics of this instrument whether it could depend on the fact that I only tested it with the batteries and the mono jack or whether the pickup or any part of the electronics could actually be broken. At first glance you don't notice any changes to the electronics and everything seems to be in order.
Many thanks, best regards,
Alexander

[JimmyJ]

Hi Alessandro,

Welcome to the club and congratulations on that fine looking bass!

The Series I instruments originally came with their 1/4" jacks wired in stereo - the neck pickup is "tip" and bridge pickup is "ring".  So if you use a standard mono guitar cable you will only hear the neck pickup.  I suspect that is what's happening here.

For a quick test you could plug in a pair of headphones and see if sound appears in both ears.  It may not be a clean or loud sound because the circuit is not designed to drive that kind of load, but that could confirm the jack is stereo.

A Y-cable would be ideal - stereo plug at the bass and two mono plugs at the amp.  Or that jack can be modified to work as a mono output with the addition of a couple resistors.  We can point you to that info if you want to go that way.

Be aware that battery life is very short - as in hours - so a DS-5 and 5-pin cable would be the best choice if you can get one.

Enjoy that thing!

Jimmy J

[alegrass]

Many Thanks JimmyJ

[alegrass]

...so if I want to try using the bass with batteries and without any modification, a Y cable and an ABY pedal with AorB and AandB function, it should work without any 20k resistors?... can I try without the fear of causing damage to the bass electronics?

PS: I cant find the way to delete this post as I told you in other post in Owners section

[JimmyJ]

Don’t worry about the double post thing you’re doing fine.

A Y-cable would definitely work. I’m not sure about the ABY pedal because you’re not wanting to switch between one or the other. The point is obviously it needs to be a stereo plug at the bass. So if that box somehow works as a “splitter” with a stereo cable from the bass, then you may be onto something. But I don’t think that’s how those pedals are set up.

The reason for the resistors is that you can’t just tie the two channels together without them interacting with each other. A simple resistor summing setup is the simplest way to make it mono.

We hope your bass is working as designed but let us know what you figure out.

Jimmy J

[cozmik_cowboy]

Just in case you don't know, Alessandro, you are getting advice there from one of the best; he is Jimmy Johnson, bassist for Lee Ritenouer, Alan Holdsworth, Steve Gadd, & James Taylor, among others.  He knows his stuff about Alembics, as well as being a superb player and a wonderful human being.

Peter

[matbard]

Jimmy is a legend!

[alegrass]

...I'm new to the Alembic club, I didn't know that JimmyJ was Jimmy Johson...sorry, but I understood him to be a very friendly person and above all who knows what he's talking about. In the meantime, I thank everyone, Jimmy in particular, for the attention and advice given to me so far.
As soon as I get the Y cable I'll keep you updated on the result... my ABY pedal that I use to switch from one bass to another, like most of those pedals, has both the channel A or channel B function, and the channel A and channel B function simultaneously...As soon as I have the chance to try it I will update you and also send some photos of the bass electronics.
Kind regards to everyone.

[JimmyJ]

Easy you guys, you're embarrassing me.  I'm just an old guy who has been playing Alembics for FIFTY years.  (Yikes!)

Alessandro, unless your ABY pedal is very unusual it's still a mono device with one-in and two-out.  So that's not much help for your stereo wired bass.  We're still presuming it's stereo, maybe you could try that headphone test to be sure there is sound in both ears?  Or the Y-cable would really be best.  If you get one of those then sometime you should try running the outputs into two different amps.  You will be amazed by the sound!

Jimmy J

[garyhead]

Greetings Alessandro:  I see you are located in Italy.  Maybe we can hook you up with a fellow Italian club member.  We are (mostly*) a friendly bunch of folks here.  Spending an afternoon with a veteran Alembic owner can unlock so many questions about your bass.  When I got my first Series Bass last summer my local dealer (150 miles away) offered to spend some time with me getting familiar with the layout & settings of my bass.  I plan to take him up on this when the new Alembic pedal ships.  I'll also hit him up on the controls of that beast too.  In the mean time we are still all here to help.
As you can see at the bottom of my post, I also have a 1980 Series instrument.
* was meant as a joke.....Like the town sign that says 1200 folks and one grumpy one.

[jazzyvee]

Greetings to from the UK, and also a 1980 series I, though mine is a short scale. You may be able to find a DS-5 on ebay or reverb as they appear quite often.

[alegrass]

Here I am, first of all thanks to everyone.
JimmyJ you may be an "old guy" as you said @;-)  but you are definitely a phenomenal bass player...
I tried with a Y cable (I remembered having several Y cables at home, very short that I used as inserts in my band's PA) and the ABY pedal, one good news and one bad news: the bass is stereo and both pickups work perfectly, but the pedal cannot make them work simultaneously, with the A or B function I can play one pickup at a time distinctly, but in the AandB position the neck pickup overpowers the bridge one that is barely heard, just like background interference...as JimmiJ predicted.
Anyway the sound, even individual of each pickup, is really bomb, for my taste I definitely prefer it to the Stanley Clarke, very powerful!!
...the cable I currently have, is too short to try with two amplifiers. Now I'll decide whether to go for a long Y cable or a stereo to mono with resistors... of course hearing it sound like this makes me want to buy its DS5 and its cable... I had already looked into it and I think I understood that in Europe there is only one official Alembic importer, in Germany, asking €800 for the DS5 and €150 for the multipolar cable.
I looked for used ones but it seems that in the last two or three years they have put very few on sale, and all 110 volt USA versions.
Anyway for the moment I'm really happy that everything in the bass works as it should and that the sound is really bomb!!!
Thanks

[jazzyvee]

Hi I'm in the UK and have a "spare" DS 5 and series cable and have sent you a private message.

[rv_bass]

Beautiful bass! 😊

[Picure]

Greetings to from the UK, and also a 1980 series I, though mine is a short scale. You may be able to find a DS-5 on ebay or reverb as they appear quite often.

You can also build a DS5 yourself (or have one built for you locally). I remember Mica posted the schematics drawn up by Ron “The Wizard” Wickersham somewhere on these forums.

Welcome to the club! Thats a fantastic bass you have there!