I am so glad I brought this topic back to life. It's good to see that people still revere the mighty F-1X!
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The Alembic F-1X Megathread
- Thread starter Michael Vee
- Start date
Still have my F-1X, but it basically sits in a rack in my home studio and rarely gets used. I have to admit that I consider selling it from time to time and I'm currently in the midst of a huge campaign to purge a bunch of unused gear out of my house, but if it goes at all it'll be the last thing to go and I'll probably do it with a tear in my eye.
It just doesn't make sense to haul it out when I really love the sound that I get out of my Genzler Magellan 800 and pair of AudioKinesis Hathor 1203 cabs. It's one carry into the venue, and I can park three blocks away and walk in if parking is an issue.
It just doesn't make sense to haul it out when I really love the sound that I get out of my Genzler Magellan 800 and pair of AudioKinesis Hathor 1203 cabs. It's one carry into the venue, and I can park three blocks away and walk in if parking is an issue.
I just could not get a good sound out of my Magellan 800...always had a burr to the notes.
Fixed by running a preamp into the Magellan power section...Demeter or Alembic...
Have you tried running your F1X into the Magellan power?
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I ran it through my Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 years ago, haven't done so with the Magellan 800.
I haven't heard anything I would refer to as a "burr" - I'm playing a passive PBass with flats and just using the clean channel and hitting the preamp hard. It's cleaner than I particularly like in an amp, but it has a nice push and seems to come off nicely on the live recordings I've heard. The dirty channel on the Magellan is nice as well and gets me closer to the tone I generally like for my P, but for whatever reason I think the clean channel just comes through better in the live mix.
Ironically, I really don't care for the sound of my P through the Alembic pre as much as I do with more mid-heavy basses like my Stingray and Jazz and most of my gigs these days are with the P, so I've never really considered seeing what it would sound like through the effects return of the Genzler.
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edwinhurwitz
Supporting Member
I've been using a Magellan MG350 and I don't hear anything like that. It's super clean and FOH engineers love it. A different sound from the Alembic pres for sure, but definitely good, clean tone. I wonder if yours had an issue.
I kept telling Jeff ,as he sold it direct to me.. but he never offered to exchange it....Shame as I never got to experience the wonders you guys do....
But I am very happy with my Mesa Subway amps....Yay Mesa
Oh man ...Try it...for fun....Could be a game changer as I know that power amp in the Magellan is spectacular
My friend Darren (Shrigg on TB) was a beta tester for the early Hathor cabs, which is how got turned onto them. He has what I think is a 1533, a 15 with two 3” horns. I’ve gigged with it a couple of times and they sound fantastic, but the pair of 1203 cabs definitely work better for my situation.
Might happen at some point for fun, but there’s no way I’m hauling heavy gear out for gigs again. I really love the sound of my PBass plugged directly into my rig with a 10’ cable so much that I rarely even bring pedals out anymore unless I really need them.
I feel at this point that most of my tone chasing is happening directly at the bass, just working on attack/fingering/plucking positions/pick work/etc, that I don’t want to be needlessly futzing around with gear.
The F-2B still gets used all the time whether practicing, recording, or playing live.
Damn this is an old thread!
Anyone using the F-1X as part of an ampless rig?
I just got one recently off Reverb and gave it it's first go live.... FOH loved it, but I wasn't the biggest fan of it through my in-ears.
My signal chain was
Active Lakland Bass > Empress Compressor (very light compression) > F-1X > Mixing Board
I'm thinking about adding something else between the F-1X and mixer to give it some more flavor.... would love to hear anyone else who runs this in an ampless rig.
Anyone using the F-1X as part of an ampless rig?
I just got one recently off Reverb and gave it it's first go live.... FOH loved it, but I wasn't the biggest fan of it through my in-ears.
My signal chain was
Active Lakland Bass > Empress Compressor (very light compression) > F-1X > Mixing Board
I'm thinking about adding something else between the F-1X and mixer to give it some more flavor.... would love to hear anyone else who runs this in an ampless rig.
I am surprised you are not happy with the sound...I believe it really warms and fattens the sound.
However, I have not used in ears going straight to the mixing desk....So what do I know??!!
Stevorino, I've never used in ear but tried compression into the F1-X and I think is sounds better without. Perhaps a speaker sim? If I was to use a digital sim I might seek out a BagEnd IR if they exist. Otherwise an analog filter might do the trick. Read up on the SF-2 to get an idea of filtering options.
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edwinhurwitz
Supporting Member
I had one for a while, but I never had issues with IEMs. Always sounded great.
For more flavor, though, I prefer the F-2B. Or the Sarno Music Solutions CTP. The gain in an F-1X comes from chips, not the tube. The tube is for the buffer and FX loop.
To clarify:
“The F-1X gives you a unity-gain impedance matching amplifier to feed guitar-level effects units. The effects return goes thru the tube gain stage and then to the tone controls. The signal from the tone controls is amplified and sent to the full-range output jack on the rear panel.”
Alembic Preamps — Will Gunn Guitars
www.willgunnguitars.com
So, the 12AX7 in the F1X is very much in the preamplification stage. It is not just driving the output. The purpose of that designs is to keep the signal for the any effects pedals within the input limitations of the pedals, and then set the tube gain for the result into the actual preamp. Hope that is clear. The F1X does not have a SS preamp gain stage.
The F2B adds the 2nd tube to drive the output signal. The Demeter amps have both designs as well. Those with SS output are just a bit “cleaner;” but, all share the same tube preamp “warmth.”
Great info...Thank youTo clarify:
“The F-1X gives you a unity-gain impedance matching amplifier to feed guitar-level effects units. The effects return goes thru the tube gain stage and then to the tone controls. The signal from the tone controls is amplified and sent to the full-range output jack on the rear panel.”
Alembic Preamps — Will Gunn Guitars
So, the 12AX7 in the F1X is very much in the preamplification stage. It is not just driving the output. The purpose of that designs is to keep the signal for the any effects pedals within the input limitations of the pedals, and then set the tube gain for the result into the actual preamp. Hope that is clear. The F1X does not have a SS preamp gain stage.
The F2B adds the 2nd tube to drive the output signal. The Demeter amps have both designs as well. Those with SS output are just a bit “cleaner;” but, all share the same tube preamp “warmth.”
Here is some more info I garnered earlier
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doctec, Nov 27, 2008I've used the Fender/Alembic/BBE tone stack for a long time as a player and also used it (and variations of it) in several designs that I've done. When you look at the actual circuit, the interactions make more sense -- to me anyway
There are really two separate sections in the circuit. The first section involves the BASS and MID pots, two caps and a fixed resistor. When the BASS control is at 0, the MID control is essentially a level control for all frequencies for this section of the circuit. When the BASS control is turned up, more low frequencies are *added* to the output of this section, increasing the overall level.
The second section consists of the TREBLE pot and a cap. One side of the cap connects directly to the input of the tone stack. The value of this cap is such that only high frequencies will pass through it. The TREBLE pot provides the final output from the tone stack and is connected such that at one extreme setting (10) it passes *mostly* the output from the treble cap and at the other extreme setting (0) it passes *mostly* the output from the BASS/MID section.
Now here's the observation I haven't seen anyone else make...
The TREBLE knob is actually a *blend* control between the output of BASS/MID section and the output of the treble cap !
So when you turn up the TREBLE, you're actually *reducing* the level that's coming from the BASS/MID section at the same time you're *increasing* the amount of signal coming from the treble cap.
Realizing this made it easier for me to think about how the knobs work. For example, if you want to add more highs and keep the lows and mids the same, you need to not only turn up the TREBLE knob, but also turn up the BASS and MID knob to compensate. I've seen descriptions of this circuit that say the BASS and TREBLE controls are "boost only" and the MID control is "cut only", but that's somewhat misleading. I tend to think of the MID control as a "direct" level, the BASS as a low-frequency boost and the TREBLE knob as a "blend" control as described above.
Hope this is helpful and not too confusing
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iSteen, StayLow and MrSidecar like this.
markorbit
Apr 16, 2004
In my view the tone stack is a low pass network and a high pass network in parallel. The low pass is slightly modified to become a shelving network by the addition of the mid control such that as frequency increases, a maximum amount of attenuation is reached and this point is controled by the mid control. The Treble control is not a blend control per se but as it is turned up the bass does reduce slightly by about 2dB. If it was truly a blend control, the Bass and Mid controls would have no affect when the Treble control is all the way up.
A neat (and free) program that graphically demonstrates what many common tone controls do can be found here:TSC
turning up the TREBLE knob adds highs *and* reduces lows
This is true. If both the BASS and TREBLE controls are at or near '0', the frequency response if fairly flat and MID knob acts like a gain control.
start at all "0", turn up the mids to about 5-7 (it now gets obvious that this is a kind of "direct" level as opposed to a midrange-boost, as this will not honk or sound telephone-isa the way mid-only boost EQs will), add bass according to taste/needs (basically to "fatten" the direct sound), tweak maybe the treble a notch. Then, if necessary, give some more bass/mids.
