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Alembic Weirdness

bassbenj

bassbenj

Aug 11, 2009
9,658
3,800
#1
Well, here's a weird one! I haven't played my Fretless 6 string Alembic for maybe a year. And recently (it being winter and all) it's been sitting in a room that is quite cold (but not freezing).

So I haul it out and practice a bit. And Lo and behold there is like a MAJOR and I mean like next to NO sustain at D on the G string! Whoa! I've NEVER observed this before, EVER! I fool around and try this and that and that major dead spot is definitely there in spades.

Then just for fun since I have this gigantic pair of scissors laying there I jam them under the strings on the headstock to add some mass. And BINGO, dead spot is totally GONE! I take them out and it's back. But I noticed that when it came back it's not quite as bad as it was originally.

I know Alembics have some flaky construction details from time to time (handmade and all that you know!) but this dead spot is hideous. But then I start fooling with the nut and working the string in there for a better fit. And the more I work with the nut, the more the dead spot disappears. So today I try the bass and believe it or not the dead spot is now GONE!

Now that is truly weird. I just can't believe a simple nut adjustment could do this. And what kind of weird construction did Alembic do that might cause this kind of thing in the first place. I've never heard of dead spots coming and going like this!
Of course I have heard of the mass on the headstock thing changing them which is where I got the scissors idea, but still...
 
#5
mikezimmerman said:
Is the bass getting warmed up as you're working with it, perhaps? Or maybe the issue was with the nut itself--does your Alembic have the adjustable brass nut that you can raise or lower with the two Allen screws?

Mike
Click to expand...

Yes it does. Although I didn't mess with the height as it seems correct. You're right that it might be a temperature thing, though I can't imagine dead spots coming and going with temperature but I suppose anything is possible. Anyway it's been warmed up in another room for a couple of days now.

And yes, I am wondering if new strings might do something. The strings do look sort of blotchy and dark in spots on the outside and I am wondering if a new set might return things to normal. Guess I'll have to order a set. It has GHS Brite flats on it now and I'm thinking of getting D'Addario half rounds.

And since I was working on it I noticed the blend pot was noisy. I took it apart to poof it and I had forgotten that Alembic uses those compact sealed plastic circuit board mount pots. It was a bear getting the cleaner into that pot, but I did and now it's no longer noisy.
 
#7
This has nothing to do with your dead spot, which sounds suspiciously like a bad string, but you may have just ruined the scratchy pot.

Alembic uses sealed, self cleaning pots. If they get scratchy, rotate the knob through it's full range, back and forth, 100 times. If the pot is healthy that should fix the problem. If not the pot should be replaced
 

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