Identifying this bass sound in other basses.

[Bubba7]

Hi all! One of my favorite bassists ever is Zach Smith (A.K.A, Armistead Burwell Smith IV) and while diving deep on the internet about how to recreate his sound, I was led to multiple dead-end's. This is due to the fact that the bands Zach has been in, are small and/or not too well known by the public, so not many people are too interested in looking into his sound LOL. Anyway while in my search about him, he said in a G.K. interview that he uses an Alembic Stanley Clarke Signature bass. Upon looking at multiple online stores and numerous music retailers, Alembic Stanley Clarke's are CRAZY expensive! However my question today is, can anyone please help me in finding a bass or bass pickup(s) that are affordable that have the similar sound to the Alembic Stanley Clarke Signature?

(Alembic uses their own pickups called the "AXY4" if that helps anyone).

Alembic website that explains the pickups that are the ideal sound: Link Removed

Below is a video of Zach playing in one of his bands called Pinback. Like I said, If anyone can find a bass or bass pickup(s) that are affordable that has the similar sound to his specific Alembic bass, then I'd be very appreciative if anyone could help me!

(Please comment if you need more reference videos)!

Pinback live performance:

I also posted this same question to Reddit, however people just said "Short-scale, humbucker bass", and didn't really give full answers. Upon searching that, you usually find Music Man's or some other bass with that funky Music Man sound and that funky Music Man sound IS NOT what I'm looking for. If anyone finds a bass please let me know what the builder/company and model is with an Amazon/Reverb (etc) link(s). Thank you so much!

(Note: if someone finds a bass or bass pickups that are close to my preferences but not very cheap, please still send them my way regardless as I'll appreciate any suggestions! Thank you!)

 

[bholder]

Too much bold, dude!

 

[Need Gigs]

Check out ACG: AC Guitars | The home of ACG
They use a low pass filter-based preamp, similar to the Alembic design.

 

[MattZilla]

Zach playing either a EBMM StingRay HH, a Bongo HH, a Dingwall, a G&L L2000, a Wal, a Warwick Streamer, or a Peavey Cirrus would probably sound not drastically different from Zach playing his Alembic.

A used EBMM HH bass or Peavey Cirrus with light gauge strings would be as close as you’re going to get for less than $5K.

 

[droo46]

I did a cover of Barnes ages ago on an ATK with flats. It's in the ballpark, but with some eq changes, you could probably get pretty close.

 

[jazzyvee]

I have used Acg, low pass filters in one of my basses and they are really good. But for alembics it is the whole package of electronics and pickups that gives that sound. One option you may want to check out is an alembic SF-2 Superfilter rack unit. Since it is a filter based unit it gives you the toneshaping of a top end series bass but with extra features, high, band and low pass filters plus it gives you control down to about 40hz if you have speakers that can take it. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]