jazzyvee

I have an alembic bass and have no desire to have anything else. For me I like the tone, playability, sound quality and the enjoyment I get from playing it.. I can't say whether they are better than any other high end or other regular basses as I have not played many other basses and have not owned any and played them long enough to compare. I get any sound from it that I desire and need and that is what a bass is for. Whenever I gig I get more compliments regarding the sound of my bass than my playing of it. So for what I need in a bass this alembic does it for me. Who knows I could get a decent sound from a far cheaper bass but I doubt that I would get the variety of tonal possibilities from another bass. That said I woulh like an alembic series bass but thats financially out of my scope so instead i decided to change the electronics in my bass to some acg/east filter circuits which gave me a high and low pass filter for each pickup and that sounds phenomenal whilst still having an alembic tone. So I guess if bought another bass that had a great feel and playing experience I could get a high end sound using act/east setup which would be far cheaper.. Jazzyvee

I'd go for Lozbass's Stanley Clark style Series II Alembic. Jazzyvee

I've never been to one of these before so maybe you can enlighten me about what goes on or what is the purpose of the event. Is it a jam session or an opportunity for bass players to try each others gear? Buy sell stuff. What's it all about? Jazzyvee

Stanley Clarke seems to do this as a matter of course. He users a small fender combo. Check out his rig rundown and the discussion on this aspect of his rig happens around 2:33. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRe4_7wTec"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRe4_7wTec[/url] Jazzyvee

[quote name='tomlyne' post='1327127' date='Aug 4 2011, 03:11 PM']Hello, I would be interested to hear from anyone with an Alembic 5 string in Scotland who may be interested in selling or trading. I know there are basses in the south and I am just trying to find something a bit closer to Edinburgh. Thanks Tom Lyne[/quote] If you don't manage to find one that suits you, I can highly recommend you check out ACG/East Electronics. In fact I swapped out my Alembic electronics and replaced them with some of their filter circuits and it still sounds like an alembic. Both John East and Alan Cringran are members of the form. Here are two clips with the circuits in. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGjbcQHQAxY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGjbcQHQAxY[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC74ry1wom4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC74ry1wom4[/url] Jazzyvee

I share with you an exchange I had with Marcus on my Myspace page a while back. May 30, 2010 NotstrictlyJazz says I'm curious as to your view on basses. I know you are well known for using Fenders ( heavily customised) and Fodera basses. But I would like to know if you feel there is an upper limit above which you feel there is no benefit sonically to a bass guitar and that a buyer is merely paying increasing cost for things that do not make the bass a better instrument in terms of it sound, playability, versatility and its reliability as a musical instrument? All the best with your musical projects. Delano Marcus Miller says Hey Delano, I do think there's a point where you are paying for exotic materials that don't really improve the sound yes. Most of the high end basses are created to enable the bass to sound more clearly like an extended range guitar. If that's not your goal, you can save a lot of money by buying an old school bass. M

Ashdown amps and cabs are a big disappointment. I've been using them recently in the rehearsal studio's and they just sound lifeless and wooly. Trace Elliot stuff. It seems that whatever you plug into them comes out sounding the same. Whenever I've gigged and a trace elliot amp has been on the back line to use. I can never get my sound from them. Turning the controls on my bass doesn't seem to have much affect on the sound that comes out of the amp The sound only seems to chang markedly from the controls on the amp. Not for me at all. jazzyvee

Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy by Return to Forever. Jazzyvee

I'm watching a few double basses on ebay at the moment and hopefully will get one of them. I have no experience with them at all and am looking for one to learn on. But my question is can anyone tell me if it will fit into my car. I have no idea of the length of a double bass but my car is a 2004, 7 Series BMW. The Standard Wheelbase model not the Long Wheelbase version. Thanks Jazzyvee

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1217529' date='May 2 2011, 01:49 PM']I'm going over to holland in a few weeks and have got to the point where I need to sort this out so I have a few questions. I've had flightcase warehouse suggested to me, they seem like solid cases, but they're pretty expensive at £150, I used to have a Rockcase flightcase that I always considered reliable (though I never actually used it on a plane). The only real difference as far as I can tell is that Flightcase Warehouse cases come with the blank foam insert so you can cut it to fit, but it'd be no problem to get some foam and do that with the rockcase anyway. So what is the reason that the FCW one is almost double the price? Would the Rockcase one do the same job? I can't really justify the extra £70ish if it's going to be aesthetics or something, but if there was actually a strong reason, I'd happily spend it to protect my bass. If someone could outline the specific details, that's be very helpful. Thanks [/quote] I have toured extensively abroad and FCW was recommended to me by another musician. I called them and ordered cases for all the guitars I was taking on the road and have never had a problem with them. They are very sturdy and well made. The only thing I found strange about their design is that they put more padding in the lid than the bottom where the guitar/bass sits which would mean that the bass would be less protected if something was dropped on an upside down case or it fell onto something pointed. The last time I had a bass case made ( 2yrs ago), I got them to add a thicker sheet of padding into the bottom ( 20mm). The other thing is the standard leather strap handle is not very comfortable for carrying a heavy bass in a heavy case so a better choice would be. one of these, that I had fitted to my case. [url="http://www.flightcasehardware.co.uk/part-no-3428-technolook-strap-handle-p-59.html"]http://www.flightcasehardware.co.uk/part-n...andle-p-59.html[/url] One word of warning if you travel to the with a flight case usa. If your case is locked, they will break off the lock hasp or the hinges. I've experienced both. The first time the guitar was put into the broken into flight case and put into a thick polythene bag so when it arrived back in the uk the case had come apart and the guitar was untethered in the bag resulting in damage to the bodywork and neck of the guitar. Compensation or acceptance of liability.... No chance. !!! Jazzyvee

If you have an Iphone there is a wonderful Real book application called IReal Book. I've downloaded it and used it on a number of gigs and you can change the key too. Every song fits on one screen. Much better if you have an Ipad though. [url="http://irealbook.net/"]http://irealbook.net/[/url] Jazzyvee

It varies with me depending on what I'm playing. On a 5 string I discovered a while back that my thumb rests on the top of the B-string and little finger rests lightly on the underside of the E-string and they all move out of the way naturally when those strings need plucking. Jazzyvee

Aston "family Man' Barrett of the Wailers band plays with his thumb on the neck and actually plays over the end of the fretboard and this gives him a wonderful warm and powerful sound to his reggae bass lines. Jazzyvee

[quote name='fatback' post='1048477' date='Dec 5 2010, 05:49 PM']Anyone actually had an RCD trip? I've never used one, but i'm starting to think I should.[/quote] I've used one that I got from B&Q since the late 1990's when I started doing lots of outdoor gigs with a calypso band and i have never had one trip on me. I have twice had electric shocks on stage but fortunately they were in the USA where the voltage is much lower than our 240v and it was just a mere sting. But still came as a "shock" :-) Jazzvee

The Marcus Miller Version of What is Hip? from his Free Album. Here is my clip on you tube. The video clip was recorded on a mobile phone so quality isn't that great. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf2b2IVfEiM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf2b2IVfEiM[/url] Jazzyvee

[quote name='alexclaber' post='346781' date='Dec 5 2008, 08:46 PM']Indeed we were! I'd really recommend anyone looking to use an ACG preamp on their bass to consider Q-Tuner pickups. The Q-Tuners have a much higher resonant peak than any other passive pickups so you can then use the ACG filters to simulate the sound of any pickup you want without having to fight the sound inherent to most pickups. Another approach would be to use a low impedance low output pickup like Alembic ones which have a similarly high resonant peak but need a suitable high impedance buffer and then voltage gain to drive an amp (which the ACG can probably do) but the Q-Tuners achieve that response whilst also being powerful enough to run totally passive (due to some kind of Dutch black magic in them - or possibly air coils and neodymium magnets...) Alex[/quote] I've recently had the ACG filters added to one of Alembic basses that originally had one filter circuit. The ACG has really livened up the bass sound and it sounds more flexible tonally than before. However I do find it quite difficult to add warmth to the sound. But maybe that will come with more experience of the way that tone is produced by these filter circuits. The great thing is it still sounds like an alembic. Jazzyvee

[quote name='obbm' post='791093' date='Mar 30 2010, 07:53 PM']Sounds to me like a placebo effect. I spent a good part of my 40 working years designing, building and comissioning TV and radio studios, edit suits and TV outside broadcast units. The only equipment we ever put in them for the AC power was an automatic voltage regulator, good earth leakage warning and completely separate technical earth. The latter being the most important. Never any fancy power condioners and never a problem. If the broadcasters don't need one then you certainly don't need one with a bass ampplaying at the local pub. If you think you can hear a difference then you must be one of the tiny minority who apparently have "golden ears". You certainly won't hear any differnec in a gig situation doing battle with a drummer and two Marshall stacks. The UK mains is one of the best in the world. The US mains is a joke which is why they need them. Power conditioners in the UK are a waste of money. If you want a rack power distributor then get one of those. They are a fraction of the price of a Power Conditioner.[/quote] Hi there, can I tap into your experience here. I recently did a corporate gig in a big marquee and plugged in my bass rack system and go loads of high frequency sizzle through the rig even before connecting my lead and bass to it. Now there were loads of christmas lighting in the venue, the dj had motorised lighting systems, fans and chemical fog machines etc and the back of the stage area was covered in little led starlights which flash on and off. My presumption was that the interference was coming from this array of electrical stuff plugged into the same supply to the marquee. Is there anything you could recommend for eliminating this kind of noise from my system in situations like this? Thanks Jazzyvee

[quote name='jazzyvee' post='1017733' date='Nov 9 2010, 04:05 PM']I'm going over to see John tomorrow to have some of his filter circuits installed in my Alembic Bass. Jazzyvee[/quote] Well what can I say, i'm smiling all over the place. I went over to see John East today to get him to install some of his circuits into my Alembic Europa 5 bass. Got home and put some new strings on it and plugged into my Mesa boogie Rig. I am absolutely astounded by how wonderful this bass sounds. Before the change the alembic circuits always sounded fantastic but I always felt it needed one filter circuit for each pickup as I do on my signature alembic basses. Now with the upgrade to ACG/East electronics I have a low pass and high pass filter for each pickup. I have had a play with it for about an hour and the sounds I am now experiencing from the bass are nothing short of incredible and a far wider spectrum that before. I couldn't say with any degree of honesty that the quality of the sound is any better than alembic but it certainly offers more scope and at a incredibly more affordable price. I've never played or knowingly heard a series II bass so I can only imagine that the sound is very similar to what I have now especially as it's in an Alembic bass. I had a good chat with John about the filter circuits and he said that the idea was to encompass the whole spectrum between the low end of the Wal 70Hz and that of the alembic which goes from 350Hz-6KHz then by adding the high pass filter we can get access to higher crisper frequencies. I was considering ordering a new Series II bass recently and decided to try these filters out first to see what was available to me at a lower cost outlay. Money well spent. It's been given the audio equivalent of a dose of strong mentho-lyptus...!!!! Jazzyvee

I'm going over to see John tomorrow to have some of his filter circuits installed in my Alembic Bass. Jazzyvee

[quote name='lozbass' post='1000765' date='Oct 26 2010, 08:10 AM']Hi Jazzyvee, Thanks for the kind comments...acquiring the Alembic was just the start of a habit that is now quite out of hand...I'll try to get a photograph up later. The small bodied short-scale is just perfect for me (apart from the fact it simply doesn't balance on a strap) and I now play little else.[/quote] Well if you decide it's not perfect for you anymore, please give me a shout as it may just be perfect for me. :-) Jazzyvee

[quote name='Wally' post='998445' date='Oct 23 2010, 08:29 PM']I started as a punk player with a pick. Older age has brought a mellowing and now I'm back playing I've taken to playing with fingers for the warmer sound. However I play with my thumb for the downstroke and first two fingers for the ups like a finger playing guitarist does. I beleive that this is not regarded as good technique for bass but I don't know why and wonder and ask what the downside for this is. Its been a very natural way to swap a pick for fingers. My thanks in advance.[/quote] I'm a guitarist and have been moonlighting on bass for a while now and although I mainly use the first two fingers, I find that I use a technique very similar to yours when I want to palm mute the strings to get a specific type of sound out of my bass. I agree with the others, if the sound you get works for you then it's ok. I wouldn't know what the downside is though I suspect that like many other ways of plucking the string it's different strokes for different folks. Jazzyvee

[quote name='lozbass' post='494651' date='May 21 2009, 08:49 PM']I've been promising this for a long time - so...a little late evening sun in Manchester and here we go (the sun does little for my photography skills). It's an Alembic Series II custom - built around the small standard body shape. This is just around 2 years old - I've had it for about a year. Obviously, the photographs can't do it justice - it has a few unusual options - front and side blue LEDs (lasers in the front of the board), and extra laminates in the body (its cocobolo, maple, purpleheart, maple, vermillion core, maple, purpleheart, maple, cocobolo). Strangely, it has extra LEDs in the first position (a nice touch). The guy that commissioned this is an extraordinary aesthete with fabulous taste (IMO) - a really nice guy too. Update: a few more photographs with some close-ups for detail - thanks to all for the comments[/quote] Wow that is an incredible bass. Congratulations..... Jazzyve

[quote name='Chris2112' post='963651' date='Sep 21 2010, 07:03 PM']Sadly it's a bit far off the beaten track for me, but I will keep my eye on it in future! Do they seem to sell their stock fairly quickly or does it tend to sit around for a while? Bass Central in the US has seemingly had certain Alembic models for ages that just dont' sell despite looking amazing![/quote] I think the reason the basses stay unsold for a long while is because many people think they are far too expensive and so leave them alone.