Author Topic: An alembic for me? (Read 777 times)

rastaman · « **on:** December 30, 2008, 08:09:58 PM »

so i live in santa rosa, in fact 10 mins from your factory Alembic. i have always heard of the legends of Alembic, but never had even seen one in person. I found someone who did have one, not a current model and not sure of which one, it was 4 string and i loved it. i didnt know if i loved it enough to get me a custom one.
but then....today....i played a used essence in the music store, it was nice. spalted maple top, excelent condition, not my style, but my tone. i loved it, i couldnt put it down. i want one. i got a quote on the website, but somethings i wanted weren't quoteable on the auto quote.
Options were: 5 strings, 35 scale, cotinuous wood backplate and truss rod cover, mahogany body, transparent gloss 3 color burst, brass hardware, gold tuners, and a 5a quilt top but i want myrtle top instead.
so i play in two reggae bands and love the deep
deep bass tone i need have for reggae. so i need suggestions on woods for the body and top, maybe back and neck laminates for that deep tone. i was also thinking for that 3 color burst to be green yello red. so help if you can

richbass939 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2008, 09:02:00 PM »

Jeremy, welcome to the board and good luck to you in your persuit of an Alembic.
Rich

olieoliver · « **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2008, 06:15:59 AM »

Hi Jeremy and welcome to the board.
I can offer some advice from my Alembics. You didn't mention which Electronics you were looking and that will make a world of difference.
My coc-bolo Sseries 2 has a much deeper tone than my walnut S-2. And both of the S-2 basses have a deeper tone than my Mark King basses that all have maple tops.
My coc-bolo S-2 also has 2 ebony lams and an extra lam of puprle heart (extra for a 4 string).
The only thing is the ebony will probably add some sustain to the notes which is probably not what your looking for in reggae.
The 35 scale is a good idea for the low B. I have a 35 Mark King and the low B on it is awesome. I don't have real long arms so it is not the easiest bass for me to play.

Hope I have been of some help,
OO

tbrannon · « **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2008, 07:20:56 AM »

Jeremy,

Sounds like a trip to the factory is in order- they have a few instruments in the showroom that you could have lay your hands on in order to get a feel for some of the options...

The link below is all about the factory tours.
http://www.alembic.com/family/directions.html

rastaman · « **Reply #4 on:** December 31, 2008, 08:02:12 AM »

I definately dont know which electronics to get.
The essence I played had the MXY56 picckups on it, and they sounded great, but the electronics paired with it didnt have many features to play with. i know this will change alot of the sound that is produced, so expiriences and advice is greatly appreciated. yes yes i must tour the factory, too bad they are closed the first wed of january or i would be there

andbassforall · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2008, 12:02:03 PM »

Mica was very helpful and spoke to me on the phone several times until my order was right for me. A benefit of an alembic customer. Best of luck.

robinc · « **Reply #6 on:** December 31, 2008, 12:13:18 PM »

oh man, I was just messing around with my MK signature deluxe V (picture in my profile) yesterday trying to find a nice dub sound and I remember being pretty satisfied with what I found.

If I remember correctly, I had the pan pot turned towards the neck p/u, the neck low pass pot filter 'down', and the neck Q-switch engaged. This gave me a nice, thick tone that didn't ring overly-long but could still shake the ground (and this was playing through a piece of sh!t amp, mind you!).

My bass is at a friend's house right now where we were rehearsing, so I'll have to check on the controls later to be sure that was what I was doing. I'll get back to you to confirm.

rastaman · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2009, 08:23:42 AM »

so i think those fatboy pickups seem to be the right ones for what i am looking for. but i still dont know which body wood would give me the best low end, myrtle, mahagony, walnut, vermillion, i duno.

jazzyvee · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2009, 08:50:05 AM »

I have a SC Deluxe 4 string with cocobolo top and back and that has an incredibly clear clean righeous dub bass sound.

I've done a couple of gigs where we covered some Bob Marley reggae tracks and it sounds massive.

Whatever bass you get, I would recommend also an SF-2 as that adds yet another dimension of room shaking heavy bass sounds. The great thing about the sound filter is that you get the weight even at low volumes and you can choose the frequency to cause the best dub sound and with the second channel, add a bit of bite so that you can distinguish the notes. One of the things I dislike about hearing many basses live on reggae gigs is the that the top end is rolled off so much that you cannot distinguish clearly the individual notes being played.

It just becomes like a low end burble. With at least the signature and series electronics you can keep the bottom end and just ad a touch if the bridge pickup to give clarity to the notes.

I've also got good dub reggae bass sounds from Elan 4 and Europa 5 but I feel the clearest and heaviest sounds are from the Signature electronics. Not tried a series bass yet.
Jazzyvee

rastaman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 01, 2009, 10:16:08 AM »

so many choices signature elctronics and sf-2, check. thanks for all the helpfull information. still need to figure out the wood and definate shape

(Message edited by rastaman on January 02, 2009)

rastaman · « **Reply #10 on:** February 12, 2009, 06:18:30 PM »

so i went and took the tour this month at the factory and it was very cool seeing all these basses and guitars being made. I had the idea to get continuous wood pickup covers if i can find the right top wood for it. I was wondering though, do the pick ups with wood covers pick up as much as plastic covered ones? or are the plastic ones thinner and more sound vibrations can be picked up?

David Houck · « **Reply #11 on:** February 12, 2009, 06:34:27 PM »

A factory tour! Cool!!

Did you get to talk over your ideas with Mica or Susan?

tbrannon · « **Reply #12 on:** February 12, 2009, 06:36:45 PM »

I doubt they'd ever make any part of an instrument in a way that would compromise the sound. Those wood covered pickups have a pretty thin veneer- and the wood shouldn't interfere with the pickups anymore that plastic.

What kind of top would you be looking at?

rastaman · « **Reply #13 on:** February 12, 2009, 07:15:42 PM »

probably a burl redwood. I saw the coolest redwood top on one of the guitars/basses in finshing/curing room. but i cant seem to find it on hereI didnt think they would but the question came to my mind and had to be asked heh

lbpesq · « **Reply #14 on:** February 13, 2009, 07:23:13 AM »

Jeremy:

The factory tour is fun, isn't it! I have wood-covered pickups on my custom Further Woody. The wood veneers are very thin. I haven't noticed any difference in sound from my other Alembics.

Bill, tgo