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Non ADA Gear => Basses => Topic started by: tomy on April 18, 2016, 05:24:16 AM

Title: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on April 18, 2016, 05:24:16 AM
hi guys,
Here is a pic of my 1981 alembic bass serie II, wood work is incredible and I don't know if you can see, but there is red leds on the edge of the neck, of course it's an active bass and it goes with the little blue box at the bottom of the pix, you can also set it in stereo mode (1 PU per side) that's why at alembic forum they appreciate B500b, because this amp is stereo. I use it this way, stereo out : neck PU to first MB1, bridge PU to second MB1. MB1a to left in amp, MB1b to right right in amp. amp out A to 1x15 cab ada bassline, amp out B to 2x10 cab ada bassline.

It is a very specific way to set up gear. I would NOT recommend that to someone who's looking for a good standard bass tone : onboard preamp looks like a 747 dashboard (get lost sometime)

If I can recommend a "Bob's your uncle bass" for you Richard, it would be ;
-normal scale (easy to find strings)
-passive("F@@€€K ! I forgot to replace battery, and it was dead last time !")
-Good classic bass (precision/Jazz Bass... ) because easy to find replacing part (PU, fretless neck if you want to try...) In a lot of diferents brands Seymour Duncan, Bartolini, EMG, Di marzio.............................................etc

And it's just easy to set up in active

Jazz Bass has real thin neck, while precision's is thicker

If you're afraid with string tension, you take lighter strings ; easier to play and when you got Lou Ferrigno's hand, get bigger !

Check squire, as you're happy with your strat, you won't regret a squire Jazz Bass :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rabidgerry on April 18, 2016, 06:09:12 AM
the bassist in the band I play in has a Squier jaguar bass.  It's good quality but I f**king loath the shape of the thing.

He never plays it since I told him it sucked hahahaha

He using a Peavey Zodiac and a Rockinbetter 4001.  Both good basses.

This has led to a bass discussion, perhaps this can be transferred to a new thread moderators?
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rabidgerry on April 18, 2016, 11:20:49 AM
That's a gorgeous bass Tomy, really like it.

Guy's use this thread to talk about basses, more in relation to Richard looking for a new one.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on April 19, 2016, 01:48:08 AM
I do have a soft spot for Alembics, I played a few way back when, they were always very nice. Unfortunately quite expensive; but exceptional instruments.

Hey Tomy, I like Jazz necks, the bass I built years ago was a Maton EB4 (also very nice bass) body shape with Jazz neck dimensions and IIRC 33" scale. Very nice to play. So the B500b isn't quite the same as stereo, it has 2 separate channels but they have different output power, so as you run it, one channel for the top end and one for the bottom end, perfect for bass.

Hey RG, Yeah I'm not thrilled with the look of the Jaguars either, but they are quite good for the money. Up side is generally our bass players musicman sub lives at my place  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on April 19, 2016, 04:21:41 AM
the bassist in the band I play in has a Squier jaguar bass.  It's good quality but I f**king loath the shape of the thing.

He never plays it since I told him it sucked hahahaha


I really wonder why  ;D

How sweet you are !
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rabidgerry on April 19, 2016, 07:54:49 AM
now that's just my opinion but the shape is god awful, he played it live once I think  I told him to sell it lol

Tomy gonna PM you about a bass I need to sell.  Inherited it by accident lol  5 string (which is the devils work in my opinion  :lol:)  will PM you
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on April 27, 2016, 03:41:39 AM
Nice bass p*rn  >:D

I've got two MB-1's too, but I split them for the live and studio rigs not for neck & bridge pickup  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on May 09, 2016, 05:16:08 PM
hey Peter,  Sorry ; I missed your thread, but anyway thank you. I hope we will meet on talking bass and MB1 :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on May 10, 2016, 12:01:25 AM
hey Peter,  Sorry ; I missed your thread, but anyway thank you. I hope we will meet on talking bass and MB1 :thumb-up:
:thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on May 25, 2016, 06:18:34 AM
Well I found the bass I want, now how to afford the $12k  :facepalm: (http://www.basscentral.com/blowupsALEMBICSCBROWN4498.shtml)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on May 25, 2016, 01:22:51 PM
12k  :o
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on May 25, 2016, 04:13:44 PM
Hey Richard,

    That is a nice looking bass guitar, pretty standard for Alembic. What would make it worth 12K? Did it belong to John Entwistle?

    Harley :???:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on May 26, 2016, 02:07:36 AM
Hey Harley, the retail price is (in AUD) $19013, the site price (they call adjusted retail) $15192 and their sale price is $11378. And as Alembics go it's a cheap(er) one. Check the USD price of some of the more exotic ones (http://www.basscentral.com/alembicbass/stanley.shtml).  Alembics are very expensive  :facepalm: but very nice instruments. I recall a story where they said Alembic put all the wood for each guitar in a cupboard (or some such) for a year so all the bits of wood could get to know one another..  Makes some sense I spose if you want to build the best instrument you can.. I assume it would be climate controlled ??  The 2nd hand ones are a bit cheaper but they are still very expensive

That said, a Gibson LP can easily cost that sort of money (depending..).

I suspect if it had belonged to John Entwistle it would be worth alot more that 12k LoL
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 09, 2016, 01:22:33 AM
Now,  you understand why I only have one !

Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 10, 2016, 08:20:21 AM
Hey Tomy, absolutely understand. So after some credit card juggling to get the 0% interest where I could, it's on its way to me  :whoohoo!: Now I just have to pay it off.. :facepalm:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 10, 2016, 09:42:59 AM
Wauw that looks killer, I always loved those Alembic bass guitars. They just breathe quality.

So R are you going to trade guitar playing to bass playing?
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 10, 2016, 02:40:32 PM
Hey Richard, don't forget to register your bass on alembic website with your name and serial  if someone burglarize your axe, it can help !!! :dunno:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 10, 2016, 03:05:06 PM
Fortunately for me, I can get by with a P-Bass  :P

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 11, 2016, 12:56:36 AM
Hey Harley, I did think of doing that. But I wanted a short scale, and while looking... I fell in love with this particular one  :facepalm: tragic., I really like that the though neck body GT stripe is much less ostentatious due the mahogany and also how the grains of the flamed walnut meld with the murtyl so the transitions between wood colours isn't so stark.

Hey MJMP, yeah I've always wanted an Alembic, beautiful instruments.  This is the only model that comes oiled not lacquered standard (is a $400 option for other models).  Not planning to trade guitar playing for bass  >:D but I do plan to get better at bass and I need something to play through my MB1s.

Hey Tomy, I'd thought about that, very good idea  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 11, 2016, 01:45:57 AM
I wish you Joy and happiness with your bass for a while, but... you Never know ! ;)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on June 12, 2016, 01:24:08 AM
but I do plan to get better at bass and I need something to play through my MB1s.

 :metal: :banana-guitar: :metal:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 12, 2016, 02:26:22 AM
So Peter ,as a bass player, what is your opinion on alembic bass guitars?
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on June 12, 2016, 11:12:10 PM
So Peter ,as a bass player, what is your opinion on alembic bass guitars?
Amazing instruments, and in the hands of, say, a Jimmy Johnson they truly shine their quality  :thumb-up:

Not the type of sound I'm personally going after though (I'm a humbucker guy) and certainly way to pricey for my wallet.
 O0
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 13, 2016, 01:42:48 AM
Ok ,what PU's does Alembic uses, do they make their own? I always thought they used bartolini PU's
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on June 13, 2016, 10:46:32 PM
Ok ,what PU's does Alembic uses, do they make their own? I always thought they used bartolini PU's

I don't know who makes them, but they're Alembic specials.
Always single coil in sound, the humbucking principle they use is with a dummy coil (so without magnets).
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 14, 2016, 01:48:03 AM
Ok didn't know that. Interesting.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 14, 2016, 05:53:03 AM

Always single coil in sound, the humbucking principle they use is with a dummy coil (so without magnets).

   Are you sure there is no magnet? I thought dummy coils were a similar pickup coil, but in a remote location, that was just added in with the live pickup to produce the hum cancelling effect.

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 14, 2016, 06:34:11 AM
Haven't looked into dummy coils much but they wouldn't necessarily need a magnet as you aren't trying to pick up the strings, just and RF and 50hz (60hz) hum and combine it out of phase with the other coil.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 14, 2016, 09:56:18 AM
Mmmm R has a point here.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 14, 2016, 02:00:19 PM
No, this is true, you aren't picking up strings with it but you are wiring the pickup coils in series, North to South+South to North to get the hum cancellation.

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Peter H. Boer on June 14, 2016, 11:21:14 PM
Indeed that's the point of the dummy coil. Picking up hum in 180dgr phase, while not picking up string movement due to the lack of magnets.
This way you get humbucking silence but single coil sound.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 15, 2016, 05:37:17 AM
http://www.frettech.com/frettech/dummy/index.html is a decent explanation on how to make one. So you can wire it series or parallel.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 15, 2016, 10:37:59 AM
Nice article !  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 16, 2016, 07:06:00 AM
Seemed to explain it pretty well  :thumb-up:

Well bass arrived today  :whoohoo!: , very nice but needs to be played in. Also it falls away to the left (machine head end) like an SG does as it has the strap mount on the back of the neck and also leans forward at the top (again because of the mount point) .  While I knew it used that style strap mount, I didn't expect it to be unbalanced :-(. My Anderson (being one of his first made) was also like this when I bought it, so I moved the strap mount to the upper horn (same as a strat), much better, and he adopted that in his later instruments. (quandary, do I drill a hole in it and relocate the strap mount to the upper horn...) So haven't plugged it in yet, just letting it get acclimatised, it's freezing here and its come from Florida (where it's hot no doubt). As it warms up I'll set it up, they have it set low (as I asked for that) but I can squeeze a bit more out of it.
Neck is beautiful, as is the workmanship.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 16, 2016, 07:11:53 AM
Congrats Richard,

   Now...go play yer guitar!!! :banana-guitar:

           :postpics:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 16, 2016, 07:46:47 AM
Thanks Harley, pics earlier in this thread BTW :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 16, 2016, 04:12:35 PM
Yes, I saw those, but is that the actual bass guitar you got?

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 17, 2016, 02:21:43 AM
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL  RICK ! :whoohoo!:  ;D  ;) :)   :))   :banana-dance: :banana-rock:  :metal:  :homer:

Am I wrong or it is Stanley's tenor signature model ?

Does your wife like your new bass ? ;D
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 17, 2016, 08:50:28 AM
Yes, I saw those, but is that the actual bass guitar you got?
Hey Harley, that it is my friend, the one and only (no 2 Alembics are the same).  As I said to the guys at bass central (great guys to do business with BTW), I want that one and only that one.

Hey Tomy,  :whoohoo!: . I don't know about the signature tenor model.  This one is the brown series variation of the stanley clark model (that they designed for him years ago), and the electrics are based on the series 1 ?? I'm still finding stuff out. It has FatBoy PUs (allegedly a bit more bottom end, good for a short scale (30.75")) and "small" body.  The neck is even thinner (nut width) than SCs original apparently.

Well my ex wife (hasn't seen it in the flesh yet) but is supportive, actually, I wouldn't have the Anderson if she hadn't been my partner back then.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 17, 2016, 08:58:39 AM
So gave it 24 hours to acclimatise, cold and dry air here.  Set it up tonight (~1/4 turn on each truss rod) and got the neck relief nice and low. Then dropped the action a fair bit.. wow, nice guitar to set up, came up really well.  Then finally plugged it in (ADA MB1  > desk > studio monitors), love the sound(s), and now lots of experimenting to do...
Only complaint is it falls away to the left (neck heavy), Mica at Alembic has been making some suggestions to help, apparently SC models are neck heavy.  So will maybe try a 4" wide strap with suede which should help. I played it at rehearsal tonight (I'm usually the lead guitarist LoL), loved it, so nice to play and sounds so great.  Although my fingers are very sore, but they will adapt. It's a very responsive instrument, which really suits my stage of playing, captures all the nuances in both left and right hand.  I need to get some Mullard long plates for the MB1, I recon they will go well with this bass.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 17, 2016, 11:06:31 AM
Hey Rick,

Some bass players never get it  with the falling neck. it is really usual with alembic. Some other don't like the shoRt upper horn too (they feel being backyard to the neck). So even they love the tone, they don't fit with this kind of bass. anyway I'm sure you won't regret !

Mine is a serie 2 with 7 pots on, the pots config is :

-1xPU selector (neck, both, bridge, none)
-2x Volume (neck bridge)
-2x low pass filter (neck, bridge)
-2x CVQ(neck, bridge)

Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MikeB on June 17, 2016, 05:49:20 PM
So, i was at the unveiling of this bass. I'll preface my remarks by stating that i did counsel Richard pretty strongly against making this purchase. But, it's done so let's get on with admiring the damn thing. First impressions are that it is beautiful and really nicely put together. Felt really easy to play, although i don't have a lot of experience with basses. Richard then plugged it into his mb1 and flicked through a couple of factory presets. 30 seconds later and he was producing some really sweet bass tones. What a great combination. I look forward to hearing what he can get once he's more familiar with the instrument and the amp (and stops playing the bass like a guitar player).
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 18, 2016, 04:14:56 AM
I bought a 3.5 " wide strap today. It has suede back which helps a bit with the balance.

Hey Tomy, electrics (supposed to be similar to series one ?):
-1xPU selector (neck, both, bridge, none) The "both" position is very loud compared to either PU on their own, unlike a guitar
-2x Volume (neck bridge)
-2x low pass filter (neck, bridge)
-2x Q switch (neck, bridge)
Mono/Stereo output switch (RTS)
LEDs on/off switch (which are purple with amber 12th and 24th fret)
Can't say I'm a fan of the filters yet but it's early days.  For now I have them full open.

Can you post some of your Alembic MB1 patches for me to try, and also any others, seems Peter is the only one who's posted any MB1 patches to the MB1 patches child board.

Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 18, 2016, 02:59:42 PM
Hey rick, Since i 've redone my whole setup, I erased all the presets. I haven't made for alembic yet. I made some for factor kubicki, ken smith, Yamaha attitude... not really more. It take me a while to create new presets. But, no doubt i'll share as soon as I have some. :thumb-up:

how many battery do you have inside your bass ? Will you use The stereo outs ?
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 19, 2016, 04:08:21 AM
Hey Tomy, no worries.  I found preset 14 sounds quite good so far but I haven't fiddled with it yet.

So I cracked open the battery cover, it's got 3 x 9v Durocells in it. Wouldn't mind getting circuit diagram of it.

Not sure if/when I'll use the stereo outs, from what I've read so far you get one PU on each channel.  So if I wanted to do totally independent things to each PU, I could.  I could give each PU it's own MB1, and or mixer channel (then eq/FX). First I need to play more like a bass player and less like a lead guitarist  :metal: .
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 19, 2016, 08:22:28 AM
Hey Richard,

   If I might offer some bass guitar influences to listen to that might help you get into the bass guitar mind-set:

     Uriah Heep, (Gary Thain) Demons and Wizards, The Magician's Birthday
     Pat Travers Band, (Mars Cowling) Heat In The Street, Go For What You Know
     Marvin Gaye, (James Jameson) Heard it Through The Grapevine
     Gladys Knight, (James Jameson) Heard It Through The Grapevine
     Stu Hamm, (Stu Hamm) Radio Free Albumuth

    That's my short list that should get you on the right track :thumb-up:

     Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 19, 2016, 01:49:23 PM
@ Rick, 3 batteries ; seems like Alembic aren't good to preserve the planet :facepalm: .IIRC 1 battery is dedicated to the led, Am I wrong ? actually 4 of my basses run in stereo mode :  my alembic, Yamaha attitude, precision custom bass and Rickenbacker 4001. A lot of my heroes use to play stereo ; Billy Sheehan, cliff Burton, John Paul jones etc... it's a good way to set up a bass in rock or metal situation ; clean tone with 1 PU, light disto with the other PU for example.

Lots of people think Alembic are jazz, funk or fusion instruments (because of Stanley) but most likely it started  in the late 60's in San Francisco with band like Jefferson Airplane,  or greatful dead. So those basses were made to ROCK THE WORLD :metal: (Jack Casady, what a legend !!!) and beside the active preamp the other innovation was stereo.

@ hey Harley, James Jamerson another legend (Marvin GAYE's album "what's going on" is on my top 20). Stuart Hamm,  good choice ! i guess you're nostalgic for the late 80's/early 90's ... I do love that period, So many good bass/guitar player had appeared. Stu hamm was one of those who dare  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 19, 2016, 04:06:27 PM
Hey Tomy,

    The reason I referred to Jamerson twice is because I find it simply amazing that we are looking at the same song, in the same recording studio, but on a different day, with a different singer, and the bass is a completely different personality, even though it's still the same bass player! How many bass players can switch up like that? It's brilliant!

   My musical influences go back much farther than the 80's. In the 60's, the smaller groups were just beginning to discover and flex their creative muscles by pulling away from the big band sound and sounding just as good with a smaller group of musicians. By the 70's, the sounds were pumping a lot more power into the smaller groups, which were getting much more creative. I find that the early 70's especially, had much more original sounding bands showing up, which defined the future of heavy rock music. In the late 70's though, the record companies stepped in and began bastardizing the bands who were appearing at the time, by trying to make them sound more like the already successful bands before them. This was something I hated about the music industry which still persists to this day. You can listen to the Scorpions from their earliest recordings to their latest, and hear how the record companies made them change their sound from year to year as an example of what I'm talking about.

   Don't get me wrong. I love the musicianship of the 80's as it really raised the bar for guitar and bass players in terms of playing better and pushing the limits of guitar playing in all respects, but as far as the popularity, it was restricted to the Top 40 AOR that got the most publicity and commercial success. As far as the 90's, I'm not really a big fan of most of it. Ever since Nirvana came out, I used to tell people that's when pop music got pissed off. The Seattle Sound??? That makes me laugh. I'm definitely not a fan of grunge. When I'm asked who I think was the original Seattle Sound, I always reply: Jimi Hendrix. That usually ends that topic :lol:

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 19, 2016, 05:35:26 PM
Hey Harley,couldn't agree with you more  :whoohoo!:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 20, 2016, 06:46:02 AM
Hey Harley, Gary Thain is a fav of mine, I picked up Uriah heap live a while ago (have it on vinal but no turntable for now). July Morning is probably my fav song.

Stu Ham (I met, saw when he toured with Joe Satriani years ago, I was the driver/runner and got to drive them around (Johnathon Moover on Drums, he had to take an emergency trip to the dentist before the gig (ow) Also billy sheen I like too, I have the transcript to Lean Into It (Mr Big) with bass parts (and Guitar). And then there's the guy who played with Peter Gabriel (Peter know of him, just forgot his name) on his live DVD (Secret World), great concert BTW.

Also Slade Alive has some great bass, hey the list goes on...

Hey Tomy, I found it has 4 x 9v batteries, 3 in the battery cavity and one in the control cavity which I opened last night to check the trim pots, of which there are 4.  2 attached to the filters (probably the PU vols), one in the middle ?? and a small one which is hard to see, it may be LED brightness ?  I joined the Alembic forum and asked the question.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 20, 2016, 01:16:00 PM
@Rick...Tony levin ?

@Harley , I was not talking about influences... Just saying it was cool being 25 years younger :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 20, 2016, 03:29:29 PM
Well Tomy,

    I WAS making references to influences on the bass guitar in regards to Richard's comment about playing the bass more like a bass player, and less like a lead guitar player. It can be tricky trying to comp your own bass lines if you aren't thinking about it in the right frame of mind. That's the whole thing about bass guitar, it's about feeling a groove and setting the mood.

    This is one of the reasons I cited Gary Thain at the top of the list. We all know what he did with Uriah Heep, but take a listen to what he was doing before Uriah Heep, when he was with the Keef Hartley Band. It was more blues based music, but you can still hear Thain pumping the bass in his own style underneath everything else. For a guitar player who wants to lay down some good bass guitar tracks to his compositions without sounding like a guitar player playing the bass, this would be a good place to start.
     I spent a few of my early years going back and forth between bass and lead guitar because I was undecided which I enjoyed playing more. The bass is such a cool instrument, and if it has a good sound, with the right player driving the whole thing, then your music becomes magical.

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 21, 2016, 01:24:10 AM
Again I agree 100% with Harley  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 21, 2016, 04:11:25 AM
Hey Tomy, Tony Levin it is  :thumb-up: , "picked it like a nose!" as we say here sometimes (depending on present company LoL).

I've got some Gary Thain (from UH) running around my head for a while now, that's kind of how I'd like to play I think, and quite doable I recon.  Hav't heard of Keef Hartley Band before.
Hey Harley, just listening to Overdog, I get what you're saying, he's awesome... great band

The few times I've played bass I love getting in and setting the groove  :metal:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 21, 2016, 04:40:04 AM
Hey Harley, the Keef Hartley Band are awesome, great album on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHRbEP65R1I), really takes me back, and wow Thain can play bass  :whoohoo!:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 21, 2016, 05:02:56 AM
Yep some great bass playing going on. Love it!
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 21, 2016, 05:16:09 AM
Hey Rick, tonight my alembic is out for gig... lets see if it still got the fire >:D
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 21, 2016, 07:40:18 AM
Hey Tomy, cool, have lots of fun  :thumb-up: , and you'll need a MB1 patch (or 2) for it ??
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: Harley Hexxe on June 21, 2016, 04:00:12 PM
Hey Richard,

    Glad you liked what you were hearing there :thumb-up:
    I'm kind of surprised you weren't aware of Keef Hartley Band. I would have thought being a fan of Thain, that you would have known about it already. There are a lot of points in their songs that remind me of early Chicago. Very progressive and daring. I love that style of music.
   You can definitely hear the roots of Thain's style that he expanded upon later when he joined the Heep. I miss the creativity of that period in music history.

    Harley 8)
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: tomy on June 21, 2016, 07:26:24 PM
Hey Tomy, cool, have lots of fun  :thumb-up: , and you'll need a MB1 patch (or 2) for it ??

Nope, on stage with this band I use my  gallien krueger 700rb-II/210 combo, its shape hallows me to use it as monitor. When gig is bigger then i use my ada stack.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 22, 2016, 02:39:30 AM
Hey Tomy, Nice amps those GKs  :thumb-up: , portable but powerful  >:D

Hey Harley, I really like that stuff too, I'd forgotten how much until last night, and, as you say, you can really hear the roots of his playing.  First I heard was Heeps live album, friday night in birmingham LoL (I was probably 14 or so), but in Australia back then, only some stuff came here (it's still much the same but now there's the Interweb)  :amaze:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 24, 2016, 09:16:40 AM
So finally got to have a decent play of it tonight.  And Mike has his MDRT  >:D .  It's just beautiful to play and just the sound I wanted from a bass.
Hey Tomy, here's my first Alembic MB1 patch: It's just factory preset 14 - tube in 9, cont 0, OD Cln, Master 8.5, Mid -12 @ 380hz, Hi -6 (everything else is flat/off).
Bass is both PUs, vols around 3/4 ish and both Q switches on but filters off (up full). MB1 full range out into desk, add a little lite delay and reverb.

After Mike left I did some practice on my right hand technique.  Using 3 fingers and thumb, also some slapping, seems if I just relax and don't think about it it works, when I focus on it, not so well  :facepalm: .  Anyway early days but really enjoying it  :whoohoo!:
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 24, 2016, 09:18:16 AM
So how do like the Alembic/MB-1 combo Rn ?
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 24, 2016, 08:58:14 PM
Hey MJMP, awesome comes to mind  >:D . I need to flick through the other MB1 presets and try some of the ones Peter posted.  So far I just started at #1 got to #14 and liked it (it's a very simple patch) so have been using that.  The combination of Alembic and MB1 is just superb (and I haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do).  I haven't set up a live rig yet. I'll maybe do that today sometime.  Probably either B200s or TS100 bridged into my EV 3 way TL.  I had the TL's 15" driver re-coned not that long ago (expensive.. $400 but postage didn't help, it's a very heavy speaker).  Anyway that should sound pretty good. I've also got a pair of unused Altec 15's but they need a cabinet.
The MB1 I'm using has JJs in it (the other has the Marshall branded Chinese tubes).  I'll pick up a few pairs of Mullard Long Plates when I can afford it and see (hear) how they go. I also need to buy some racks (2RU, 4RU  :dunno: )  I like the new SKB Roto racks but they only come shallow or deep (so 27.48cm or 44.7).  The shallow isn't deep enough and the deep is too deep.  The older style ATA SKBs are perfect 40.48... My live MP2 rig is in a 8RU ATA SKB.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: MarshallJMP on June 25, 2016, 08:00:19 AM
Well it's easy to put them in with a sysex dump.
Title: Re: Alembic basses
Post by: rnolan on June 25, 2016, 09:10:45 AM
I set up a live rig today and went through all the MB1 presets (quick flick through). I found #14, 23, 40 and 48 were good straight up. Lots of other sounds but nothing that grabbed me yet.  #48s a great patch for Pearl Jam - Jeremy so I had lots of fun with that.  I used the TS100 bridged into the EV, plenty of grunt for home  >:D . I fed it from a subgroup off the desk so it was easy to set up as MB1 was plugged into the desk already.