Knowing what you know now.....

[malthumb]

I ordered my 5-string Mark King Dlx / Series II in 1999, received it in June 2000 and have been thrilled with it ever since.  Even so, there are a few things I would change if ordering new.
 
1) Balance K Heart Omega with contours instead of large Standard Point
2) I ordered it with Amber LEDs.  This time around I would either go with Blue or stay with Amber, but I would have red at the 12 & 24
3) Beveled Omega headstock with inlaid logo
4) Stereo / Mono switch
 
That's it!

[5a_quilt_top]

Re: basses - I'd change nothing, no regrets. Each one has more than met / exceeded all my expectations
 
So, knowing what I know about them, I've decided to push the envelope a little further with a guitar.
 
This will be a real leap of faith for me as I've never owned a guitar with active electronics. All my 6-string companions are traditionally-styled passive instruments loaded with either humbuckers, single coils or P-90's.

[jazzyvee]

Hi David, i took a leap of faith with my Orion guitar in 2005 which again was a bargain NOS purchase. I knew nothing about alembic guitars and up to that point I only had passive guitars  and used the strats for most my gigs and touring. I did take the orion on the road with me on a number of tours and it proved to be fantastic purchase. The only difficulty I had, which is pretty well documented on the forum somewhere was finding an overdrive/distortion pedal that would work successfully with it. I gave  up in the end but last year I bought a radial tonebone classic pedal which has a valve in and it works much better than a solid state pedal. But I'm not doing much on guitar these days.  
 
Jazzyvee

[5a_quilt_top]

Jazzy -
 
Thanks for the tip. I was wondering about the OD pedal thing.
 
I'll be getting a stage Further and it has a built-in FX loop, so that might alter its interaction with ODs and other FX.
 
The other thing I was considering would be to use the guitar's active electronics to overdrive the amp - ie: set the amp slightly dirty so that it cleans up with the guitar volume low, has some drive with the guitar volume set 2/3 up and creates mayhem with the volume full up.
 
If that works, it would negate the need for a pedal to achieve OD.

[jazzyvee]

Yeah that works too I have a fender twin but the reason I needed a pedal was that when I was on tour I couldn't be guaranteed the guitar amp I wanted (fender Twin), and more often than not i got a roland JC120 which is a great clean amp but no good for overdriving it.  
 
Jazzyvee

[5a_quilt_top]

JC120 = super clean & huge headroom. That coupled with an Alembic guitar = hyper clean.
 
I can see why you were having difficulty with OD.
 
I'm thinking about using the Further to beat up on some low-powered tube amps (Vox AC-15, Mojave Coyote 12 watt, Fender Princeton).
 
Also, I have a solid state Henrikson Jazz Amp 112ER that's clean and warm - sounds like a clean tube amp - that I'm hoping will deliver some clear, articulate andt fat jazz tones.

[lbpesq]

I am very happy with how the Pigtronix Aria Disnortion plays with Alembic electronics.
 
Bill, tgo

[5a_quilt_top]

Cool - thanks for the tip, Bill.
 
I'll have to check that out. Got to have a fat lead tone.

[lbpesq]

I also love their Philospher's Tone compressor.  It replaced an Analogman modified MXR Dynacomp on my pedal rack.
 
Bill, tgo