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Alembic GAS!
- Thread starter mark beem
- Start date
Actually I don't live there, but the woman who does live there is Italian (obvious) and I just HAD to photograph my basses there!
I'm suspect I understand why, but I'm still surprised they would say "no" to anything; I always got the impression Alembic had the resources and tenacity to figure out how to do whatever a customer wanted and make it work.
Mostly true....unless it was evident that the result would more than likely irritate the customer (ie-ridiculous neck dive on a small bodied long scale).
I think they also have a "no bolt-on" policy.
A while back, I had a long talk with Wickersham's daughter, I think she was (Susan?), very down-to-earth and helpful. All I wanted to know about was the SOUND, not anything else (for sure there's much to GAS over, but I just wanted the sound). And she said besides the wide-aperture lo-Z pickups, it's all about the filters, and furthermore, she said it didn't matter whether the filters were built into the bass or outboard, and the superfilter preamp would flat do what I wanted.
Well if sound's your thing, and it's mine for sure, then there are any number of threads about filters, for example just look at what Flux Jetson is playing around with, and there are many more besides we can learn from.
So what you get in an Alembic bass is a great boutique bass (the carving on Casady's bass was an extra that got thrown in that he wasn't expecting), but the main message is its 2 pickups with a separate channel for each and the built-in filters (being built in was a convenience thing for Casady and Lesh), and this "stereo" wiring plus wide-aperture pickups (like the ones SGD is constantly improving) is what the company was apparently founded to explore.
I just read some complaints that they wouldn't do this or that. Now don't let the pricing fool you, like many another custom builder, they have a line of production basses, and they have their flat-out customs. And like many another custom builder, the production basses are priced lower than the all-out customs, and naturally you can't get them any which way you want, because there's cost savings built into the fact that they're not all-out customs.
I am fairly sure they will do many things you want at the all-out custom pricing, but it's unreasonable to ask them to do so at production prices, even if those production prices are on a par with other builders' all-out custom prices. And BTW, I have the distinct feeling that being a family business, and being careful of their global reputation, they're not going to put their logo on a bass that in their view reflects bad thinking.
Well if sound's your thing, and it's mine for sure, then there are any number of threads about filters, for example just look at what Flux Jetson is playing around with, and there are many more besides we can learn from.
So what you get in an Alembic bass is a great boutique bass (the carving on Casady's bass was an extra that got thrown in that he wasn't expecting), but the main message is its 2 pickups with a separate channel for each and the built-in filters (being built in was a convenience thing for Casady and Lesh), and this "stereo" wiring plus wide-aperture pickups (like the ones SGD is constantly improving) is what the company was apparently founded to explore.
I just read some complaints that they wouldn't do this or that. Now don't let the pricing fool you, like many another custom builder, they have a line of production basses, and they have their flat-out customs. And like many another custom builder, the production basses are priced lower than the all-out customs, and naturally you can't get them any which way you want, because there's cost savings built into the fact that they're not all-out customs.
I am fairly sure they will do many things you want at the all-out custom pricing, but it's unreasonable to ask them to do so at production prices, even if those production prices are on a par with other builders' all-out custom prices. And BTW, I have the distinct feeling that being a family business, and being careful of their global reputation, they're not going to put their logo on a bass that in their view reflects bad thinking.
Susan is her mother, who started Alembic with her husband Ron and Rick Turner. You're thinking of Mica, who runs Alembic today. Lovely woman and, as you noted, an incredible resource.
It WAS Mica! That's the name! Yeah, she's dead honest, knows what works and doesn't, zero bull.
Songs recorded with Alembics:
- Car Wash - Rose Royce (Series I)
- Aeroplane - RHCP (Epic or Essence)
- A lot of late '70s early '80s Isley Brothers (Series I)
- A lot of early - mid '80s Kool & The Gang (Series I)
- Almost anything recorded by Stanley Clarke.....keep in mind he uses tenor tuning (ADGC) and lots of processing (Series I with Master Volume)
- Strawberry Letter 23 - Brothers Johnson (Series I)
- That's all I got for now
Also, almost eveything done by The Dixie Dregs up to and including Industry Standard was done on a Series bass.
Like this:
Actually Aeroplane is the only song on that album (One Hot Minute) where Flea used a Stingray... He used an Epic on the rest of the album.
Here is my '82 short scale Series Two with a graphite neck.
Stanley received a similar bass in 1977.
His "Black Beauty" was the second graphite neck Alembic produced.
Stanley received a similar bass in 1977.
His "Black Beauty" was the second graphite neck Alembic produced.
