1997 Essence 6

[palembic]

Hi Marlon,
welcome to the club.
Dave will be in in a moment but I think he is modering somewhere.
 
1. Be carefull with the pots. The topcap can be lifted off with your fingernail or a sharp edge. The inbus screw is inside and must be loose before taking off the knob. Than you can tighten the pot itself. Do this with the backplate of the electronics open so you can check that the pot and electronics never touch the sides of the cavity.
2. The fact that the frets are sticking out meqns that the guitar fretboard was never taken care for. You have to oil the freatboard at least 2 times a year. In fact I do it with every change of the season so 4 times. Brothers here in the club have a good laugh with me that until now I oiled the fingerboard of Bonnie with a good Extra Virgine olive oil. I can tell: it really feeds the fretboard. Of course I agree that Guitarhoney or Lemonoil (look for the lemon essential oils in healthstores, NOT the oils with lemon perfume). The frets are coming loose becquse the fretboard is too dry. I have NO idea if starting oiling now will reverse that process.
3. Did you checked the batteries and moer inportant inside the bass the small blue screws on the elctronic printplates of each pot??
4. Thre are good cases available. I once had a case with the funny name Just in case. It fitted my guitar well (not an Alembic but as valuable to me those days). People who make custom (flight)cases for amps will be happy to do you a proposal.
 
Oh yes ...did I mentioned pictures???
N??d??n.
 
Paul the bad one

[keith_h]

1.) The knobs use a collet to attach to the pots.
    you access the collet by carefully removing    
    the center cap on knobs. The collet can be  
    tightened or loosend with a standard  
    screwdriver.
2.)I have just gone through this with both of my  
   basses and is even covered in the owners  
   information. Both of my basses recently moved  
   from very humid Florida to North Carolina. The
   furnace has lowered my humidity and caused  
   some shrinkage on the fingerboard. The result
   is fret ends sticking out.
   The fix is to file the ends down. Mica can  
   provide instructions or you can take it to
   your service person and have them do it.
   According to the owners information this  
   should only have to be done once.  
3.)I noticed this with my Orion also (Essence  
   electronics). I actually like it as I don't  
   have to change the volume when I switch to  
   my passive basses. If there is a way to adjust  
   the output I would be interested in learning  
   how to do it.  
4.)As Paul said you should be able to get a quote  
   from any of the companies that manufacture
   flight cases. My Brown Bass has a traditional
   hard shell case made by G&G here in the states.
   It is form fitting and seems to be well built.
   I suspect they could make a form fitting case
   for your bass also.  
 
Keith

[David Houck]

On point 3, remove the control cavity plate on the back of the bass.  Look for a little blue cube with a white dial.  There is a slot in the dial for a screw driver.  Turn the dial clockwise to increase the output gain.

[David Houck]

Hi Keith, welcome to the group!

[midnight_sun]

Hi to all who responded to my inquiries. Thanks. I appreciate the wise advices. I've never really been interested in the details of all my previous basses except for how they sound but this one makes me hungry for information. I'll get the pics posted this weekend.

[effclef]

To any moderator: would the extended upper horn now be a possible option on the Essence or would it still be a custom shape? In other words, have the forms been saved and available for use?
 
EffClef

[mica]

We never throw out a template. If you order a 6-string Essence, you'll get the 6-string horn length. You would need to specify if you wanted it on a 5-string though.

[roberto]

Hi Dave!
Im  ordering a custom Essence and n the middle of construction and I realy need some infos regarding body shape.I remember this Essence so I hope you wll be kind enough to spare some time and gve some measurements.Heres what I need:
Could you please tell me the 24th fretwidth and the total body width of this ESSENCE.
And please tell me ,does it balance well sitting down as well as standing position?
Thank you very much Dave.
Best regards.
robert

[David Houck]

I think it balances very nicely.  It has the Comfort taper neck, which is standard on an Essence, so the width at the 24th fret is 3.56.  Of course you can order it with the Classic taper or a custom taper.  The width of the body at its widest point in the area of the controls is about 13.

[roberto]

Yhank you very much for your kindness
Best regards.
robert

[oddmetersam]

Dave, I just had to go back and look at your basses.  This one is especially mesmerizing and is probably my favorite Essence out of all of them in the forum.  The elongated horn and the forward moving grain of the walnut front are very compelling.  You should post this in the sexiest Alembic thread!  
 
Best holiday wishes to you!
-Sam

[sonicus]

Very nice.

[mario_farufyno]

I dream about having a 6 string Essence... Thanks dave for sharing this Pics (now I know I'm gonna have one of these someday!).

[David Houck]

Thanks guys; it is a beautiful top.

[keith_h]

The picture background looks familiar. :-) It is some nice walnut. I also noticed my first post is here. Hard to believe that 5 years has flown by so quickly.  
 
Keith
 
(Message edited by keith_h on January 02, 2010)