jazzyvee

Great to hear all is well. My trim pots are both set to max.

Here is some info from the alembic site on signature electronics it may help you find out what's going on. http://alembic.com/club/messages/16271/16368.html?1320955206

Hi in those basses there are two internal blue trim pots. They adjust the gain from the two pre-amps one for neck and bridge. If you have them both the same then with the pan pot in the middle the bass puts out equall gain for each pickup. However by adjusting them differently you can choose to bias your sound towards either one of the pickups. I have two alembics with that signature electronics package and they do offer a massive amount of tonal variety and it is very obvious. I'd suggest putting in a fresh battery then set both trim pots on max and switch the Q switches on ( usually this is switching towards the floor). Then turn the pan to bridge pickup individually pluck a string and immediately turn the filter for that pickup. You should hear a wah envelope sound as the knob opens and closes. Do the same on the neck pickup. The effect of the switch operates mainly on the attack of the note so you will notice less of an effect If you turn the knobs on a long sustaining note. If you don't get the wah sound then you may have a problem with the electronics or switches.

Yeah he's a great guy he resolved some issues with my bass electronics last week and now it sounds great again.

I've just got back from a trip to East Electronics.I've now got two sets of ACG EQ02 Modules [font=Oxygen][color=#919191](low and high pass for each pickup)[/color][/font] into this bass. I had installed them myself but was having problems with interference and noise. So after taking the bass to a local guitar tech to have it screened and that not resolving the issues, I took it to John and now everything works fine. Its great improvement on the standard Artec electronics and far more versatile as you would expect. Maybe because it's a bolt on bass but it sounds more punchy in this bass than my neck through bass that it was in previously and with that rich deep emphasis i can put on the bottom end from the LP filters I plan to try it out as my primary reggae/dub bass.

Regardless of genre, in all of them there is some music i like and some music that i dislike. That does not make the music good or bad it's just my preference. When there is so much music about and life is too short, why waste it listening to music I am not getting any enjoyment from.

Somehow I always have one less than I want but more than I need.

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I use a 5 string almost exclusively now and when I do covers that I think were played on a four string, I don't use the B - string at all. Somehow it sounds more correct. There are always exceptions like for reggae when I want to come down on a heavier note for effect.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1413752720' post='2581615'] Not really if honest. I can play all I need to, and if something comes along that`s difficult then I`ll practice it until I get it. [/quote] I can play all the stuff I need to play for gigs. The stuff I choose for my own band is far more challenging than anything I get asked to play on gigs for others and usually I have to spend ages practicing it before i can play it. However, I do deliberately try to learn difficult stuff that I don't need for gigs as a way of expanding my technique and confidence on my instrument.

I don't know if these fernandes basses actually have the hum cancelling circuits that the Alembic Series basses have built in or even if the pickups are true single coils or hum cancelling pickups.

We are not all middle aged,but we are all still young at heart so no description breached. :-)

Just got told last night it's been postponed...

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1413569251' post='2579754'] But also, nothing is forever..?? [/quote] True but you can always Return to Forever. :-)

Thanks guys, after a number of young, non-starters, unavailable, not wanting to rehearse etc I have managed to get hold of a really good drummer. She is someone I'd seen at a gig few years ago and got in touch with her via the band leader. So all sorted and rehearsals start next week. Hopefully all works out well. [size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Thread can be closed now Admin[/font][/size]

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[quote name='three' timestamp='1413361075' post='2577397'] The black oblong is a coil - effectively an inactive pickup between the two low impedance pickups. It's there to eliminate hum (it works). You'll see this on most SI and SII instruments, though it can be embedde under a full-face laminate (I believe) [/quote] Yep it can be located anywhere inside the bass. On custom builds some signature basses have them in if they are constructed as "series ready" such that they can be upgraded to series I or II in the future. Others have them in for cosmetic reasons. They do work extremely well.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1413324983' post='2577272'] Bit of a noob to Alembics question here, but what's the function of the black oblong located between the two pickups? I've seen this on some of Stanley Clarke's basses as well. [/quote] Those are usually found on the series I and II basses. They are a hum cancelling pickup. Basically it's just a coil without a magnet. The neck and bridge pickups are single coils and this central pickup, picks up the electrical noise, hum etc. in the surrounding environment and via some internal electronics in the body of the bass, cancels them out. This enables the pickups to produce that clean single coil sound with out noise and interference. On the back of the basses there are a couple of trim pots that you use to calibrate the circuit.

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1413211760' post='2575858'] Maybe you need to stop obsessing about trying to find a perfect solution and simply enjoy playing what you do have access to. [/quote] + 1 I suppose many of us really only need one bass and we could do everything we need to do with it. Thankfully playing bass does not have to be singular.

I knew I'd seen the catalog somewhere on line. [url="http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar-and-amp/fernandes/1980/en_index.html"]http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar-and-amp/fernandes/1980/en_index.html[/url]

I think if you play one single genre of music it would be easier to find a bass that would be everything for you. However if you play a wide spectrum of music it may be necessary to have a selection of basses to give you what you need. That is not to say that one bass can't do it all for everything it depends on what you need tonally and if the bass is able to give you the sound you want for yourself or the sound the music needs.

[font="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"][color="#000000"]Duplicate thread somehow. Please ignore[/color][/font]

This evening I had a gig this evening where we were the second of two bands playing. Anyway about 3/4 of the way through the first band set the bass player walks into the dressing room with our trombone player and sheepishly asks if he can use my bass to finish the set as the jack socket on his bass had stopped working........... My answer was a clear but polite. "No I don't lend out my basses" I did feel sorry for his predicament but I've always had a policy of not allowing anyone to use my instruments, guitar or bass, at gigs or jam sessions. There have been rare occasions where I've let someone I know really well try my bass out at my home or rehearsal but never on a gig. Funnily though a few minutes later we could still hear bass coming from the stage so I guess he managed to fix something somehow and finish the gig. What would your response have been?

nope.

My drummer can't make a gig on 12th December 2014 and I'm having problems sourcing a dep for the gig who is also willing to make the self available for essential rehearsals. I'd be grateful I'f anyone can put me in touch with someone suitable. The music for the gig is Grover Washington jr so it's mellow but with funky grooves in most of the tracks also some reggae feel is required too. The gig is being professionally multiTrack recorded and multi camera video shot as well so we need the show to be really tight musically and visually so I need a drummer who is prepared to learn the arrangements, give some priority to band rehearsals and not rely on busking through the arrangements. The band is Birmingham based most rehearsals will be in the evening but some may be daytime. Pm me please if you can point me to the right drummer. If you can help, that would be fantastic. Jazzyvee