Author Topic: Alembic Instruments cables? (Read 240 times)

echo008 · « **on:** September 23, 2006, 01:55:22 PM »

I was just wondering if there was a specific brand of cable that Alembic uses to test there guitars/basses in there factory?
I was hoping Mica or Val would chime in here?

As well I was wondering if there was any consideration on Alembics part toward making and selling Alembic Brand instrument cables? I think that would be such a nice thing to see added onto there web store

- Tom

David Houck · « **Reply #1 on:** September 23, 2006, 09:33:08 PM »

Tom; in a recent thread, Mica stated a preference for Belden cable. And Alembic does sell 5-pin cables. They are not inexpensive; and I imagine the reason why is that in addition to being made with high quality jacks and cable, they are probably put together by people who, if they weren't putting together cables, would otherwise be working on Alembic basses, guitars and preamps. It's a small shop with a small staff, and it takes them a while to build the instruments. Imagine how much longer a custom order bass would take if the staff were sitting around making cables a few hours a day. But I'm just guessing; for all I know, Mica may be soldering cable right now with an eye toward putting them up on the site. If you really want an Alembic cable, you might want to call Vall and see if it would be possible to custom order one. My guess is that it would be high quality and that it would not be inexpensive.

jseitang · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2006, 11:17:21 AM »

echo008-ive asked them alembic before, and they said that build basses and preamps take up so much time, they simply dont have the time to build cables. BUT in the old days, alembic did make cables with their basses. they made an alembic supercord, which is the belden cable as dave said. i see you live in NYC, i live in brooklyn. if you want to check it out, let me know. ill be glad to.

echo008 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 24, 2006, 11:50:16 AM »

Hi, Thanks for the offer but I was just wondering what the deal was. was hoping maybe they would offer up a few standard 1/4 instrument cables from time to time bearing the Alembic name, Obviously, they do the 5 pin cables for there series basses but I havent seen a 1/4 in.
anyway
Thanks
- Tom

jseitang · « **Reply #4 on:** September 24, 2006, 01:38:48 PM »

my supercord is a 1/4 instrument cable by the way.

bkbass · « **Reply #5 on:** September 25, 2006, 09:49:26 AM »

jseitang I work in Brooklyn. It would be nice to chew the fat.Contact me. To all, I've recently gone rumaging through a discount cable bin at a local music store and bought a 20' Fishman 1/4 TRS Y cable for twenty bucks brandy new!It's perfect for the stereo 1/4 jack splitting the signal.Fishman still makes the cable at a reasonable list price and it's Belden cable. No fuss,no mess,cheap and easy to replace.

kmh364 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 25, 2006, 10:44:45 AM »

Is that where the PA is hiding you these days, Barry?

bkbass · « **Reply #7 on:** September 26, 2006, 01:02:38 PM »

Yessireee Kev! It's time buddy,call me.How about a blurb about your exoteric audio cables? I look forward to chatting.

hifiguy · « **Reply #8 on:** October 04, 2006, 08:38:45 PM »

On a related note, if you have plenty of money to spend, you might want to investigate high-end audio interconnects. Very pricey and usually handmade, some of the more likely brands would be Cardas Audio and Acoustic Zen. George Cardas and Robert Lee are, respectively, very accommodating about custom applications. definitely Alembic-worthy cable products and made with the same sort of passion and attention to detail.

Price varies, but their top audio interconnects range around $700-1100 per meter pair (extra length is considerably less per foot as no additional terminations, which are Alembic-painstaking with these cables) so you're talking about real money for, say, a 25 foot mono cable. I've played around a lot with interconnects and speaker wire in my avocation as a high-end audio reviewer and can vouch for the sonic improvements made by exotic cable.

Maybe Alembic could investigate a partnership with one of these manufacturers and have them OEM a line of wires.

bob · « **Reply #9 on:** October 04, 2006, 09:47:48 PM »

On a side note, I was wondering about that username... but Paul Bolin I recognize, as someone who started writing for Stereophile some years back. Welcome!

And I happen to think that George Cardas would be a nearly perfect fit for some sort of collaboration with Alembic, interesting concept. I noticed a while back on the Cardas web site a mention of instrument cables, but at the time couldn't find anything further. But this other thread identifies at least one current source.

kmh364 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 05, 2006, 05:23:16 AM »

Welcome Paul!

As a long-time audiophile, music lover, Stereophile reader and guitarist/bassist, I can commiserate, LOL!

Cheers,

Kevin

hifiguy · « **Reply #11 on:** October 05, 2006, 05:35:47 PM »

Thanks guys - yep I'm the Stereophile guy, and five years at The Abso!ute Sound before that. When this idea popped into my head Cardas was my immediate thought. I had to think a while to come up with another cable manufacturer, but Acoustic Zen might also be a possibility.

Someone should clue Mica in about Cardas. It's just not a name that's known outside the perfectionist audio community. A line of Alembic by Cardas Audio signal cables would be successful, I think. I know some folks at Cardas, but I've only spoken with Mica a couple of times when my new bass needed a heat reset of the neck back in '99.

gare · « **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2006, 03:15:53 PM »

I was just catching up on my reading when I came across this thread.
A few months back a friend (elec tech) and I were talking about cables and quality and such. The next day he sent me this article. I found it rather interesting. Some may disagree, but it's entertaining.

http://www.ethanwiner.com/audiophoolery.html

Gare

lbpesq · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2006, 04:57:26 PM »

Gare:

Thanks, very interesting article. I've never heard a significant difference between basic cables and more expensive, non-boutique, ones, like Monster. I use mostly Planet Waves and Monster these days because they do seem to be a little more durable, not necessarily for the sound.

Bill, tgo

bob · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2006, 09:46:29 PM »

Interesting? At my most generous, I might describe the article as mildly amusing - yes, perhaps even somewhat entertaining, but in my personal opinion (as always), not worth more than that.

This is probably not the right forum in which to pursue the discussion, but my personal experience is quite strongly counter to most (if perhaps not quite everything) he concludes.

For our purposes here, despite my adventures in hi-fi, I am not inclined to spend megabucks on cabling a bass rig (okay, even a guitar rig) for live performance. Personally, my threshold of diminishing returns would be just a little beyond Monster, maybe twice as much but not five times.

But in other contexts, I am personally convinced that there is much more going on here than this writer understands, or is sufficiently open-minded to even consider.

By all means, don't get sucked in by hype - either positive or negative. Trust your ears (and if your hearing is questionable, get a second opinion), then pay what it's worth to you.
-Bob