My 200th post! While it deserved 200 lines, I have tried my best...
As promised, I enclose a photo with the controls and some personnel comments;
I am glad I chose to have the third pickup fitted, and although the pickups are close together, it's amazing how different it sounds when playing with the pan and two volumes. Because the neck pickup is a Fatboy and the middle one is an AXY, it's not easy to say how big that difference would be if I used two AXYs instead, I'd like to find out soon or later.
The other strange thing is that on this bass I quite like the Fatboy in the neck, for various reason is sounds better and is less boomy than on the first project (the Red Arialembic LG MK1), although I can say that the MK2 is much heavier, so that can explain it a little bit.
Having the third pickups also doubles up as a luxury thumb rest, my thumb rest around this spot quite a lot, although I sometimes move closer to the neck, and on some occasion closer to the bridge.
I hope everyone who is reading and watching can understand my explanation of the controls on the picture.
I really like the sound a lot, it's very versatile and this slightly extended amount of control suits me very well. Also want to mention that I am so happy with the sound, that I have a little funny problem; too many settings sound good, so good that I don't need to tweak much, and get sucked in for hours, until I fall asleep, and then I realize and say to myself: I can't believe it, I haven't played with any of the settings, it sounded so good that I was extremely satisfied and didn't feel the need to touch anything... This will change of course, I'll be tweaking that monster...
I haven't played with the stereo/reverse option yet, but this is going to be an other powerful feature that I'll be checking post recording for further processing.
Now, the thing(s) I really need/want, is some Mid control (boost + cut) option, I can get close to the Aria SB sound using a parametric EQ (DSP plugin).
I really hope that somehow I will be able to insert a couple of peak/notch parametric filters, as well as keeping the Low pass and Q-switch of course.
The great thing about the Alembic PUs and electronics, is that apparently you get a flat response out of it, and that is VERY flexible for shaping the sound with external Filters/EQs...
My last word, if Ron came up with a NEW Peak/Notch parametric Filter, that could simply be inserted in the harness, you could cover any bass sound out there, really, I mean it, Jazz, Precision, SB, Ricky and so on...
I insist again, I have been playing with external EQ DSP on the computer, and to be realistic, I only used one band (I'll play with two bands soon), and I nearly sh*t myself because of what sound I could get, so I imagined how flexible an powerful it could be with an Alembic equivalent fitted. In my experience and ears, what differentiate bass guitar sounds mostly, its the Mid range response, boost(s), or cut(s) at various frequency, playing with a Parametric EQ demonstrates this easily. Of course, some basses sound trebly, some sound thin, some boomy or bassy... nut in general, I found that the Mid/low-mid section is the one that differentiate most of the sought after + big historical bass sound, and probably why no one is happy with one single bass...
Let's hope that soon or later, Ron will update/tweak the low pass filter and Q-switch and design a Peak/Notch Filter version that could simply work in conjunction with a Q-switch that at could at least boost/cut and flat/0 the selected frequency, then for people with money, they would get a knob instead of a switch/preset...
How many of you agree with this? Maybe we could all get together and pay Alembic to design something like that, to financially help them for the development.
If 100 of us contribute $20/30 for example, that would make $2000/3000 to help them, and so on... it is possible I think.
One last word, if something like this happened, you'd be so astonished by the sound shaping possibility, that without being rude, be prepared to through away all your other basses
Thanks for reading + watching (you, peeper... ) lol
PS: If I haven't convinced Ron or Mica with my post, I will put some clips together, demonstrating how big a difference it could/would make with at least one Peak/Notch parametric filter per PU. Preset (Q-switch) version would be good, but CVQ (boost/cut) type would be Nirvana!
Sorry, re-edited because many mistakes, after reading again...
(Message edited by LG71 on November 05, 2006)
