MPU Brown bass

[Matt Liebenau]

I already used wow so how about dang!

 

[MPU]

I already used wow so how about dang!

I’m ok with that as well.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Just a quick note/reminder regarding the Starbond conversation:
Anyone planning on buying from Starbond, head over to YouTube and find a woodworker who has a discount code first. There's hundreds of them who have a 10% or 15% coupon code posted in their video descriptions. If you don't find one, look for some of the more popular woodturners, they also have discount codes.
I never buy my Starbond through Amazon, because I can use a discount code from a YouTuber and buy direct from Starbond. You are helping out the YouTuber and getting a price break.

 

[MPU]

I did some fine tuning. I machined the tailpiece a bit to a kind of wedge. Strings go straighter to bridge than before.

I waxed the headstock and logo. Abalone inlay looks like it’s fluorescent. MOP cloud has nice wavy looks.

 

[MPU]

Out of curiosity I asked Alembic the price for two Alembic pickups. I don't know what they are made of but no way I'm going to pay $400 and $500 (plus taxes and customs and shipping) for two pickups. I can make a whole bass for a price of a pair of pickups!

 

[Flying B]

That logo looks insane.

Out of interest, why did you decide not to inlay the logo into the headstock, since it's clearly within your ability to do so?

 

[Mickey666]

Dude, just.... damn.

 

[MPU]

That logo looks insane.

Out of interest, why did you decide not to inlay the logo into the headstock, since it's clearly within your ability to do so?

Because most Alembics have logo embossed, not inlaid. I like the way the logo looks, like a piece of jewellery.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I actually looked at the Alembic pups too, and came to the same conclusion. Nice, but not $500 Nice.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Because most Alembics have logo embossed, not inlaid. I like the way the logo looks, like a piece of jewellery.

I like the logo sitting out on the surface like that. Anybody can do inlays. But, to be mounted like that, the metal work and pearl-fitting has to be very precisely done, or it will look sloppy. Your logo looks very precise, even up close.

I've mentioned it before; I've worked on several early Alembics and seen them up close. Your level of craftsmanship on this bass equals or exceeds theirs.

 

[MPU]

While Alembic picups are out of question because of the price I decided to make some pickups myself. First thing to do is covers. I could have made a silicone mold of the MECs I have or try to remove the cast pickups from covers. I thought ebony covers would look the best on a woody looking bass like this. I bought two acoustic guitar bridge blanks and a headplate veneer and after numerous sawings, sandings, gluings an routing the covers are almost ready. Top roundover and mounting holes left to do. I’m planning to make stacked pickups with dummy coil sitting on top of the magnetic coil. Next I have to make bobbin plates. Luckily mrs is going out with her workmates on Friday and that’s when I’m planning to concentrate on making bobbins and perhaps winding.

 

[MPU]

Here’s what’s my imagination of hum cancelling single coil aperture pickup bobbin is. One coil has ceramic magnet core, the other has acrylic core. I’m winding the coils opposite direction and joining them finish of one to start of the other.

I sanded a roundover to the covers. I may sand a bit larger radius roundover, we’ll see.

 

[Basvarken]

Very impressive build Marko! I love every detail of it.

 

[MPU]

Some progress. I got the ”fat” version wound. I found very little info about Alembic pickups so it’s all guessing and going with what I’ve found out myself about making pickups. I found out that Alembic Activator pickups are around 8kOhms. That gives 4kOhm per coil and around 5000 rounds over this size bobbin. Makes sense so I wound 5000 rounds per coil. With ”held over strings”-testing it sounds strong so after potting and wrapping in copper foil I’m going to hot melt glue it in the cover and test before casting it in epoxy.

I got the ”non-fat”- version bobbin made. I need to make the dummy coil bobbin before winding this one. It has about 2/3 of the magnet compared to the ”fat” version. Again, just guessing if that’s even close what Alembic does. Alembic Fat boy has double the aperture of the standard version. My ”fat” has 10mm aperture, ”standard” has 5mm.

I measured and drilled the pickup mounting holes. I didn’t make any recess for the height adjustment screws, only for the height locking screws.

 

[ardgedee]

I'm surprised nobody's reverse-engineered Alembic's pickups. There are plenty of people who are willing to drop a grand on an esoteric pedal just to take it apart and figure it out (the Klon was kind of infamous for potting most of the circuit board; folks were buying pedals just to figure out how to remove that on the way to figuring out the pedal itself).

 

[MPU]

If I just got a dead Alembic AXY or MXY…

 

[Crawforde]

I like it. It pops out enough to be cool and looks like it belongs there.

 

[MPU]

I got the ”standard” coil wound as well. Here you can see the difference between narrow and wide aperture coils. Bobbin width is the same.
I also oiled the covers. I’m trying to test the pickups tomorrow.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Wow, those look great!

 

[Reedt2000]

Next you'll have to build some Wal multi-coil pickups