89 Elan 4 Str

[wookie]

I creeped a bit and if you have a purple 6 then you need this bass to complete the purple nerple collection!

[a_martin]

Wookie, believe it or not I ordered the 6 string from Alembic in that color(with a narrow neck). I've never regretted it. I love that thing. It is an old friend. However it gets very heavy after a while and sometimes it is nice to just have four strings to bang on

[wookie]

I think purple is an awesome color for an instrument. I've had only 1 but I wish I didn't get rid of it. The way my mind works is you have to make sets with basses. Not neccessarily the same color but my OCD tells me I need 4,5,and6 string versions of a model, but I was thinking if you could have the same color (as in this case) it'd be even better i'd offer my ?lan 5 but it's red and has p j pups. Btw any advice on switching out the Alembic pups for dare I say EMG! I love my ?lan but I've never liked the sound on the B string. I've complained on the FAQ section and I havent played since I posted there and it's still in the shop with 4 strings on it. That's all an aside.... A Martin, you need this bass!

[a_martin]

[a_martin]

Wookie, I've not liked my low b string for many a year and avoided it. Recently I got fed up with it and applied my ocd to it. Originally I thought it was a combination of timbre and frett buzz in the open position that kept me from playing it. After recently spending time over a couple of days fiddling with the adjustments and getting a file out, the buzz disappeared (I still need to be wary of how much force I apply when energzing the string). The timbre was fine once the buzz cleared up. I actually dig the low B now. I feel a little silly not having done it 20 years ago, but maybe I have more patience then when I was young. The other thing I would suggest is looking at your speakers. The low B is below the frequency response of a lot of speakers.  
As for pick ups, I don't have any suggestions. I'm really not in the pickup loop.

[a_martin]

Wookie, I will revise my previous statement. The bass sounded great for several days but after a major temperature drop outside (which probably affected humidty inside) the bass was all a buzz.  
My attempt to then adjust the truss rods led to a snapped truss rod under the DGC strings  
Fortunately I have already contacted Mary at Alembic (who was helpful and sympathetic ). We have game plan and I am  sending my Elan back to its maker to be fixed. Hopefully it will come back even better then before.

[jazzyvee]

Just realised my bass is 25 years old this year and is the oldest alembic I own but not the one I've owned the longest. Still looks and plays superb. How old does an instrument need to be for it to be classed as vintage?

[manticore]

Careful there Jazzy. I remember the first time I showed up to a gig and one of the guys was delighted I brought a vintage ax. It stung a bit when I thought it was new when I bought it!

[jazzyvee]

Fortunately the age of alembics are easy to determine if you have the serial number so I was under no illusions of the age of mine when I got it. Whilst it does not look new, it does not look it's age and certainly has not lost it's singing voice. In fact I was practicing with it last night at home after lowering the action a bit more.
 
(Message edited by jazzyvee on October 23, 2014)

[mario_farufyno]

So the question could be when do we turn vintage?...
 
(Message edited by mario farufyno on October 30, 2014)

[hammer]

Mario raises an interesting question. Of course one would need to keep in mind that vintage, as least as it is typically applied in the English language, typically assumes that one is referring to something of high quality. As in...while one might refer to a vintage Alembic as a guitar or bass that is 20, 25, or 30 years of age, one would probably not refer to a cheap $100 bass as vintage regardless of age.  
 
Question is...would this not also apply to establishing whether a living organism, including a human being, meets the criteria for being vintage.

[jazzyvee]

[moongerm]

Such a cool bass!

[jazzyvee]

It's 32 today and I had a great practice session with it early this morning through my alembic rack to a 1x 12 and 1x18  barefaced cabs. Moving forward I hope I get more opportunities to play it live.

[edwardofhuncote]

Superb instrument. It had slipped my memory yours had come with the 'plus' electronics too.