Alembic Action Height

[indigo]

Hello everyone,
 
I have a real quick (and hopefully easy) question.  I have read elsewhere that the action on an Alembic is medium-high due to a flat fingerboard.  Is this true or did this individual not know what they were taking about.  I like my action pretty low.
 
Thanks for any responses.  I appreciate your expertise.
 
Troy

[edwin]

My experience is that Alembic can get as low as you want. A flat fingerboard (I think you are talking about radius here) doesn't affect action. It does affect string bending, though. Proper relief helps with getting low action and having a dual trussrod really can make this happen.
 
Edwin

[darkstar01]

Hey Troy,
 
My personal experience with the action on my alembics has been that they are the best playing basses I own. They do, however, tend to need frequent adjustment (I live in South Carolina, though, where it's about 100% humidity year round). If you keep your alembic set up properly, though, it'll play just as well if not better than any bass around.  If you don't want to take the time to adjust, it can get kind of medium-high.
 
Just my two cents. I'm sure the others can add a few bucks :]
 
Austin

[s_wood]

Edwin is dead on.  Alembics are capable of insanely low action.  The radius of the fingerboard has nothing to do with action height, low or high.  A properly set up Alembic will be capable of whatever  
action is perfect for you, low or high.

[indigo]

Wow...that was quick.  Thanks guys!  Living here in Las Vegas we don't have much humidity to worry about.  :-)  I do know that when I took my Dean (hey...don't laugh...I have an Alembic on order) to Nebraska a couple of weeks ago the neck flattened out like a pancake.  Fortunately I took it along for practice only but that did teach me a lesson....always carry your tools.
 
So, since I have an Alembic on order I guess I need to order a back up as well...right?  :-)
 
By the way...awesome bass Austin!
 
Thanks again.

[senmen]

..and how did John speak about his Alembics:
 I love my strings beeing behind the frets.....  
I have to agree to all the posts before.
I run my Spyders very low and everything is possible but the basses still stay playable.
 
Oliver (Spyderman)

[jorge_s]

When I received my Series II in 2002 the action was so low that it could have been played just by thinking about it.

[kungfusheriff]

....always carry your tools.
Yes sir--I still carry a 1/4 wrench around with me, even though mine doesn't have a truss rod. Hey, you never know.
Tell us about your bass?

[dfung60]

With all due respect, I don't think the original poster's mention of flat fingerboard is in reference to fingerboard radius.  I think this comment was related to *relief*.
 
If you pluck the strings so the vibration of the strings is exactly in a plane parallel to the fingerboard, then the instrument shouldn't buzz even if there is no relief in the fingerboard.  The problem is that you can't pluck the strings like that - there's a component of motion which is perpendicular to the fingerboard.  If that perpendicular element causes the vibrating string to touch a fret anywhere on the neck, you'll get fret buzz.  
 
You fix this problem on a properly set up instrument by creating a little bow in the neck so the distance between strings and frets at the 12th fret or so is greater than it would be at a lower or higher fret.  This bow is the relief.  Now the string can vibrate up-and-down a little before causing a fret buzz.  If the instrument and relief is set up properly, that tiny bit of extra space keeps the string from vibrating.  If you dial in more relief, you can hit the strings harder and harder without buzz, but at a certain point, you're not reducing buzz anymore but you're raising the string heights in the middle as well and making the instrument harder to play.
 
The good thing is that Alembic does a great job in the finishing proces of the neck and frets and will undertake adjustments and mods if you're interested.

[indigo]

Yes sir--I still carry a 1/4 wrench around with me, even though mine doesn't have a truss rod. Hey, you never know.  
Tell us about your bass?
 
About a month ago I order a bass very similar to the East Meets West in the custom archive.  The only changes I made were to add abalone inlays and nearest neighbor backplates.  Needless to say...I'm quite anxious for September/October to arrive.  :-)
 
Also, thank you to everyone who so quickly responded to my question.  It is a real pleasure to be in a forum with not only bass experts but polite people as well.
 
Troy

[s_wood]

Good call by David!  The advice given to Indigo sure makes more sense if we hear it in terms of neck relief as opposed to fingerboard radius.  
 
Here's a great thread in the archives about how to get your action as low as one could possibly want it!  http://club.alembic.com/Images/393/2237.html