Alembic sounding pickups?

Clarkus Miller · #1 03-16-2009, 01:35 PM

Alembic humbuckers sound AMAZING. I can't even describe that fat chunky sound. Can anyone think of pickups that sound like that that don't cost oh... 900 dollars...

Thanks in advance.

Mike Shevlin · #2 03-16-2009, 01:42 PM

I don't think even Alembic pickups in a different body would sound like Alembic.

evilgus · #3 03-20-2009, 02:55 AM

Do you particularly mean the FatBoy pickups, like on the Excel, or the MXY pickups? I had a '95 Warwick Thumb bass (neck thru) with Seymour Duncan Basslines (probably ASB-II model) and the overall sound was fairly similar to an Alembic with MXYs. I've also owned an Excel with Fatboy pickup and that was similar but chunkier, as you said.

Cheers,

EG

SGD Lutherie · #4 03-20-2009, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarkus Miller

Alembic humbuckers sound AMAZING. I can't even describe that fat chunky sound. Can anyone think of pickups that sound like that that don't cost oh... 900 dollars...

They aren't exactly humbuckers, they are stacked single coils. They really needn't be so expensive as there's not much to them. But they are Alembic.

thrill74 · #5 03-21-2009, 04:58 AM

Q-Tuner?

AlembicPlayer · #6 03-21-2009, 06:45 AM

the pickups in a Alembic Series I or II bass are single coils with a dummy hum cancel pickup and a filter based pre. I have "Alembic Activators" in my P bass and Jazz bass, they sound fantastic and are like the second cousin to the series sound. Nice, but not Series bass by a long shot.

SGD Lutherie · #7 03-21-2009, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlembicPlayer

the pickups in a Alembic Series I or II bass are single coils with a dummy hum cancel pickup and a filter based pre. I have "Alembic Activators" in my P bass and Jazz bass, they sound fantastic and are like the second cousin to the series sound. Nice, but not Series bass by a long shot.

I had a few Alembic pickups to look at, two Jazz Activators, and two AXY pickups. I was surprised that they read around 7K to 8K. I was expecting low impedance pickups. They were very low output without the preamp though, probably due to the stacked arrangement.

I know the Series I has the "humx" dummy coil, but doesn't the Series II have the stacked AXY pickups?

My old active low Z pickups were supposed to sound like Alembics. I'll be reintroducing those as stacked single coils soon.