Running old Alembic Series 1 on battery power?

[Green Knight]

I'm really sorry to keep pestering the hive mind with this stuff, but here goes: anyone know what cable i need to connect older Alembic Series 1 basses—a Fernandes copy, in my humble case—to my amp using battery power, no box? Is it a five-pin female to 1/4 male? I do have the box, but the step-down converter is big and adds some noise to the proceedings. I do have a stereo to mono patch cord, and I use it to connect box to amp, but when I use it to hook the bass up directly to the amplifier, nothing. Do I need a special cord? Would a Boss LS-2 and a Y cable send the sum of the two pickups into my amp?

Thanks for considering my query!

 

[Green Knight]

Oh I see … I gotta get that cable from Bayou specifically bc it has 20k resistors spliced in, or I can get my own stereo to mono cable modded with said resistors, or I gotta get the bass itself wired in mono or switchable btw m/s …. It took a few days to click in

 

[600 Ohms]

Alembic Series basses always came with a 5-pin XLR and a regular 1/4" jack. The preamp should be 18V and you should be able to add the jack in the bass like any active bass, and wire it in the cavity.

 

[Green Knight]

Alembic Series basses always came with a 5-pin XLR and a regular 1/4" jack. The preamp should be 18V and you should be able to add the jack in the bass like any active bass, and wire it in the cavity.

Do you mean XLR male connector into the bass and mono 1/4 male on other end into amp? If so, is there another version of this cord I could use?

 

[adje]

The Fernandes electronics might fry with an official Alembic psu, which puts out double the voltage (+18V/-18V) what the Fernandes psu does. The Bayou cable is by all accounts an excellent product, but there may well be more budget-friendly options. Adding a stereo/mono switch is an excellent idea if you want to keep all your options open, but changing out the stereo jack for a mono jack (with appropriate wiring) is probably more practical.

 

[adje]

Do you mean XLR male connector into the bass and mono 1/4 male on other end into amp? If so, is there another version of this cord I could use?

If Fernandes followed the Alembic set-up, then you can either use the 5-pin with the psu, or the jack with the batteries.

 

[600 Ohms]

I'm going off what my old Alembic Series I had: both an XLR and a 1/4". I can't for the life of me imagine how the hell a Fernandes fits into this mix.

 

[Green Knight]

This one does too.

 

[Green Knight]

The Fernandes electronics might fry with an official Alembic psu, which puts out double the voltage (+18V/-18V) what the Fernandes psu does. The Bayou cable is by all accounts an excellent product, but there may well be more budget-friendly options. Adding a stereo/mono switch is an excellent idea if you want to keep all your options open, but changing out the stereo jack for a mono jack (with appropriate wiring) is probably more practical.

So once you change the jack to mono, is the power supply no longer an option?

 

[600 Ohms]

Jacks are typically stereo so the other contact breaks the normal to the battery when you unplug.

 

[600 Ohms]

When you say "power supply" what are you talking about? The Alembic psu box?

 

[Green Knight]

The Fernandes electronics might fry with an official Alembic psu, which puts out double the voltage (+18V/-18V) what the Fernandes psu does. The Bayou cable is by all accounts an excellent product, but there may well be more budget-friendly options. Adding a stereo/mono switch is an excellent idea if you want to keep all your options open, but changing out the stereo jack for a mono jack (with appropriate wiring) is probably more practical.

I have the Fernandes PSU but it requires a voltage converter to use in North American sockets, which I bought, but I've found the voltage converter adds a little bit of noise. I have a rare gig in July and want to bring this bass but not the voltage converter, which is bigger than I thought it would be, or power supply. I would prefer to run it on batteries. I'll probably get it wired mono, but getting my cable modded locally might be less invasive.

 

[Green Knight]

When you say "power supply" what are you talking about? The Alembic psu box?

The cloned Alembic PSU box Fernandes issued with their FAB-70 and -80, FPM-100, and MHB-110. Looks just like the Alembic one. 5-pins/ bass+treble inputs.

 

[rickdog]

Here's a schematic for the Alembic DS-5. It's pretty simple. It will clarify the pinout of the 5-pin connector and how to convert to mono 1/4".

Simplest would be to make a cable with a stereo 1/4" on one end and 20K (or so) mixing resistors, and a mono 1/4" at the other end. Super simple, just remember to keep the special cable in your case, along with a pack of 9V batteries and any tools necessary to change the batteries in the bass.

Alternatively, you could make a "battery DS-5" with a pair of 9V batteries instead of the transformer, rectifier and capacitors. You could probably make it easier to change batteries that way.

If you use a pedalboard with a good power supply (like a Cioks) that has isolated power outputs, you could make a box to put on the pedalboard that is powered from two separate supply outputs.

 

[FC Bass]

I have a "battery DS-5" (made by Alembic) that I use when I go wireless. It uses four 9V batteries and has "mono" and "stereo" 1/4 outputs (switched, if you use one it's mono)
The 1/4 on my bass is wired mono, I'm pretty sure that's standard for Alembic now.
Biggest benefit of the battery DS-5 = more battery power and lights up the side leds

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

Skip down a few posts... there's a 'Ferbic' schematic here at post #3. Maybe some more help. Link Removed

 

[Green Knight]

Here's a schematic for the Alembic DS-5. It's pretty simple. It will clarify the pinout of the 5-pin connector and how to convert to mono 1/4".

Simplest would be to make a cable with a stereo 1/4" on one end and 20K (or so) mixing resistors, and a mono 1/4" at the other end. Super simple, just remember to keep the special cable in your case, along with a pack of 9V batteries and any tools necessary to change the batteries in the bass.

Alternatively, you could make a "battery DS-5" with a pair of 9V batteries instead of the transformer, rectifier and capacitors. You could probably make it easier to change batteries that way.

If you use a pedalboard with a good power supply (like a Cioks) that has isolated power outputs, you could make a box to put on the pedalboard that is powered from two separate supply outputs.

Thinking I'll go with the cable!

 

[crgny]

I have a "battery DS-5" (made by Alembic) that I use when I go wireless. It uses four 9V batteries and has "mono" and "stereo" 1/4 outputs (switched, if you use one it's mono)
The 1/4 on my bass is wired mono, I'm pretty sure that's standard for Alembic now.
Biggest benefit of the battery DS-5 = more battery power and lights up the side leds

View attachment 7253251
View attachment 7253254

I realize this is an ancient thread, but I am hopeful you still have your battery pack for the Alembic and would be willing to take some close-up pics of the circuitry - with and without the batteries installed. I am gathering the parts to duplicate the battery pack but need to see what the back side of the switching jacks, the 5-pin connection, and the series-parallel battery connections look like. The schematic posted in the thread does not provide a clear description for substituting the 120v connection with the batteries.

Also, an up close pic of the resistors would be helpful, as the banding color code will confirm if they are indeed 20k 1/4 watt.

Feel free to contact me directly crgny1 at gmail dot com

Thanks!


Chris

 

[bucephylus]

I realize this is an ancient thread, but I am hopeful you still have your battery pack for the Alembic and would be willing to take some close-up pics of the circuitry - with and without the batteries installed. I am gathering the parts to duplicate the battery pack but need to see what the back side of the switching jacks, the 5-pin connection, and the series-parallel battery connections look like. The schematic posted in the thread does not provide a clear description for substituting the 120v connection with the batteries.

Also, an up close pic of the resistors would be helpful, as the banding color code will confirm if they are indeed 20k 1/4 watt.

Feel free to contact me directly crgny1 at gmail dot com

Thanks!


Chris

I have recently made a couple of Series I boxes for use as a "battery" / wireless belt clip, and for use on a CIOKS powered pedal board to replace the "Blue Box." I initially reported these efforts here:

Post in thread 'Alembic Club at Talk Bass'

Apr 18, 2025

I've been busy completing what morphed into two projects related to my Alembic Series I bass. That instrument has seen little gig time lately, due to three aspects: 1) I do sound check at many of one of my gigs, which requires wireless connection; 2) the whole Blue Box thing is just relatively fussy to set up with everything else; and I've been trying to streamline my setup / teardown; and 3) my cover work generally does just fine with Fender basses.

Still, recent gear from CIOKS created some interesting possibilities.

First up was wireless:

I completed this project box, which contains...

• bucephylus

• 

More recently, I built a rev 1 for the board interface, which switches the +/- 15VDC supply with a stomp switch.

For all of these boxes, I used 1/4W 15kohm resistors, which work perfectly. Let me know if you need pictures of the color code.

BTW, rechargeable 9V batteries don't work, unless you use 2+2 of them in series; the voltage is too low. And, the 9V alkaline cells are good for maybe 1 1/2 to 2 sets; which is going to go through a lot of batteries if you use the box on a regular basis. FWIW

 

[crgny]

I have recently made a couple of Series I boxes for use as a "battery" / wireless belt clip, and for use on a CIOKS powered pedal board to replace the "Blue Box." I initially reported these efforts here:

Post in thread 'Alembic Club at Talk Bass'

Apr 18, 2025

I've been busy completing what morphed into two projects related to my Alembic Series I bass. That instrument has seen little gig time lately, due to three aspects: 1) I do sound check at many of one of my gigs, which requires wireless connection; 2) the whole Blue Box thing is just relatively fussy to set up with everything else; and I've been trying to streamline my setup / teardown; and 3) my cover work generally does just fine with Fender basses.

Still, recent gear from CIOKS created some interesting possibilities.

First up was wireless:

I completed this project box, which contains...

• bucephylus

• 

More recently, I built a rev 1 for the board interface, which switches the +/- 15VDC supply with a stomp switch.

View attachment 7424240

For all of these boxes, I used 1/4W 15kohm resistors, which work perfectly. Let me know if you need pictures of the color code.

BTW, rechargeable 9V batteries don't work, unless you use 2+2 of them in series; the voltage is too low. And, the 9V alkaline cells are good for maybe 1 1/2 to 2 sets; which is going to go through a lot of batteries if you use the box on a regular basis. FWIW

Yes, pics of the color code would be great. Also, I believe the batteries are wired series parallel, but having a close up pic of the battery wiring - and the wiring on the back of the 1/4" jacks - would be extremely helpful.

I truly appreciate you going out of your way to help me with this project! I am going to build 2 of the boxes so I have a spare.

Chris