I put one in the bridge position of an Epiphone EB-0.The combo of the Alumatone and Mudbucker at the neck gives some very usable tones.My luthier who installed it was impressed.
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Lace Alumitone Bass Bars
- Thread starter Diddywah
- Start date
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
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- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Bringing the bling today!
I pulled the EMGs out of this bass and dropped in a pair of BassBars that have been in my parts stash for the last few years. They sound as good as I remember, although the real test will be at our next rehearsal. Dropped almost a half a pound too, which is a welcome improvement for an almost-ten-pound bass!
I pulled the EMGs out of this bass and dropped in a pair of BassBars that have been in my parts stash for the last few years. They sound as good as I remember, although the real test will be at our next rehearsal. Dropped almost a half a pound too, which is a welcome improvement for an almost-ten-pound bass!
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,719
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
And here are some quick and dirty soundclips. Forgive the clams please!
Signal chain is as clean as can be - bass into interface into Logic, no effects at all.
First the Rick-shaped five-string. This is a cherry body with a maple/walnut/cherry bolt-on neck, 33" scale, with NPS roundwounds (forget the brand) that are not old. The bass has a three-band EMG preamp on board, which was left flat, so no tone coloration, but the pickups do benefit from the buffering. Sections are:
And now the Ibanez Artcore. This is an ASB140, which is a 335 shape with a center block and a three-piece set neck, full 34" scale. Strings are vintage DR NPS rounds (Sunbeams maybe?). This bass is passive, with a 500Kohm volume and a ToneStyler, which was in the full-up position, so no effect. Since there is only one pickup, the demo is just a picked section followed by a fingerstyle section.
Ibanez Artcore demo
(Yes, this Artcore is a surprisingly bright instrument, especially for a semi-hollowbody...)
Hopefully this gives an unbiased presentation of how these Alumitones sound.
Signal chain is as clean as can be - bass into interface into Logic, no effects at all.
First the Rick-shaped five-string. This is a cherry body with a maple/walnut/cherry bolt-on neck, 33" scale, with NPS roundwounds (forget the brand) that are not old. The bass has a three-band EMG preamp on board, which was left flat, so no tone coloration, but the pickups do benefit from the buffering. Sections are:
- Bridge picked
- Both picked
- Neck picked
- Bridge fingerstyle
- Both fingerstyle
- Neck fingerstyle
And now the Ibanez Artcore. This is an ASB140, which is a 335 shape with a center block and a three-piece set neck, full 34" scale. Strings are vintage DR NPS rounds (Sunbeams maybe?). This bass is passive, with a 500Kohm volume and a ToneStyler, which was in the full-up position, so no effect. Since there is only one pickup, the demo is just a picked section followed by a fingerstyle section.
Ibanez Artcore demo
(Yes, this Artcore is a surprisingly bright instrument, especially for a semi-hollowbody...)
Hopefully this gives an unbiased presentation of how these Alumitones sound.
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Thanks for doing those. I think a pair of the 5 string bars may be on order soon.
It's very helpful to hear clips unadulterated by distortion etc like many YT demo clips are.
The second Bass Bar arrived yesterday, so now it's installed in the bridge position. Sounds good, and definitely a better match than having one stock and one Lace. But I still prefer the neck pickup only sound for the band this bass serves. Oddly (?) when neck pickup only is selected, output is higher than with both pickups selected. Is that normal?
How dramatic is the difference in output between neck-only and neck+bridge? I would expect both pickups full-on to scoop the mids, which could certainly reduce perceived overall output.
Yes, that could be the case. It's not dramatic, just noticeable. If I switch to bridge only from both, it's less noticable.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,719
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Yep, there is an unavoidable decrease in mids when two pickups are active. This is due to phase cancellations because of the two pickups sensing the strings at two different points along their length. It’s a great tone for certain things, but definitely not others!
It is also impedance drop from both pickups in parallel. Our ears perceive the impedance drop as a mids drop.
pickups last night at a local jam. Plugged in to the provided amp and WOW are these pickups hot! The gain set by the previous bassist, playing a Fender jazz, had to be dialed back a quarter turn at least...
I installed Lace Alumitone Bass Bar 3.5 pickups in one of my home-made fretless 4-strings recently and just played my first jazz gig with them. I love them! Clean, deep, articulate, high-output sound. They sounded much clearer and more expressive than the repurposed Ibanez humbuckers I had in there before.
I wasn't crazy with the looks, however. This bass requires the pickups to be about a 1/4 inch above the body and it looked strange to be able to see into the pickup cavity, even after I painted the cavity black. I carved some pickups rings out of zebrawood to match the body (see below) and like the look much better now.
I liked the sound so much that I put a set in my home-made 5-string fretted bass, as well. I originally built it with Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups in custom purpleheart cases, but the output was low and I wasn't enthused with the tone. The 3.5 Alumitones fit the 5-string fine (4.0 are recommended for 5-string), but I had to make purpleheart pickup rings for these, too, since they were smaller than the original pickups. The fretted bass sounds great as well, so I'm happy.
I wasn't crazy with the looks, however. This bass requires the pickups to be about a 1/4 inch above the body and it looked strange to be able to see into the pickup cavity, even after I painted the cavity black. I carved some pickups rings out of zebrawood to match the body (see below) and like the look much better now.
I liked the sound so much that I put a set in my home-made 5-string fretted bass, as well. I originally built it with Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups in custom purpleheart cases, but the output was low and I wasn't enthused with the tone. The 3.5 Alumitones fit the 5-string fine (4.0 are recommended for 5-string), but I had to make purpleheart pickup rings for these, too, since they were smaller than the original pickups. The fretted bass sounds great as well, so I'm happy.
Would love to hear the Alumitones in a Jazz context, if you have any recordings. Most soundclips floating around are rock or metal.
I don't have any recordings yet, but might be doing some soon.
I know what you mean about the soundclips. When researching the Alumitones, I was put off at first because it seemed like all the soundclips were metal players. No offense to them or that genre, but I play mostly jazz and reggae on gigs. The Alumitones sounded great with TI Jazz Flats into a Markbass LMIII. They really brought out the woody character of the fretless and the clear highs were easily tamed by rolling back the tone, if needed. I also noticed the slight reduction in weight. Those things weigh almost nothing!
At least they weren’t 99% wanky slap, then
(not that jazz or reggae or really most genres of music are, but “wanky slap” is the “genre” of most bass demos 
)
I am looking for some string recommendations for my NS Design WAV4 with it's Alumibar 3.5 pickup, which I now call my NS Design WAV411--a WAV4 with 1 pickup and 1 control (volume only). (See pic below). It is a headless bass which obviously used to belong to Luke Skywalker. It now has TI Jazz Flats on it, which aren't bad. Please specifically list your favorite strings that you use with your Alumitone pickup and what you like about their sound. It'll be a big help to me. Thanks!!
Dunlop SS 30-130, but not the superbright. Clean and clear, gives me a good palette to be able to tweak.
Both basses sound killer.As I posted I installed one in the bridge position along with the mudbucker that came with my Epiphone EB style. That said I think the alumitone in your neck spot brings out that great tone you're getting.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
- 1
- 31,719
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
