three

Apologies for the poor image quality but an opportunity to re-unite twins for a quick shoot (non-identical and parted at 15 months)

Had the chance to play this on Thursday - the twin to my own. Outrageous in every respect. Some staggering custom appointments. I’m firmly on the positive side re: bics

I tend to use the Gallery for anything difficult or important and travel from Manchester for the privilege. First rate - Martin is by far my favourite of the UK builders - his work and John’s are superb

Possibly slightly off-topic but I use passive ATC monitors at home (for programme not bass guitar) and they always sound better when they’ve been running for half an hour. I don’t experience the same with bass through a Berg 210. Back to topic, I always treat new drivers/cabs fairly gently for the first few days (just impulse rather than any understanding of the science) - I blew speakers fairly frequently in the ‘79s and ‘80s. I suspect that contemporary designs - especially at the higher end - are much more robust

The Alembic configurator is fun and one can pay more than twenty times the price for something just as custom and nearly as ugly. Though Alembic struggle to meet these lead-times

Thanks all for the very kind words re: my post above - the WA is extraordinarily impressive - it can certainly do everything that the Noble can and much more besides. It's been a bit of a revelation. The form factor isn't as convenient as the Noble but the review accolades appear to be richly deserved. I think that the WA could make pretty much everything sound good/better

I can strongly recommend the Warm Audio - a superb Pultec clone - it’s displaced the Noble for now

The cab’s a CVA with a B&C coax 8” driver - I think it’s a high-end pro install unit found in clubs and venues. It works beautifully as a full range small bass cab with excellent resolution (a bit like a good studio monitor). I suspect you’re right re the soldering iron - a £50 buffer unit would probably do the job but might not look as pretty. I was alerted to actives/buffers and passive basses by Chris May - I have one of his PJs with an internal Overwater designed East buffer. Beautiful and difficult to return to straight passive after using it. The ASC just appears to give ‘more’ of the character tone of any given passive bass. Not like taking a duvet off the speakers but maybe a chiffon scarf

Apologies, it’s an Alembic Active Super Cable as seen here: https://www.station-musicshop.de/epages/64398533.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/64398533/Products/3694&Locale=en_GB It works! Though I suspect there’s a cheaper way of achieving similar!

hahaha, not sure I'd go that far, though I doubt there'd be much problem in arranging a sale (they really are as lovely as their reputation and price would suggest, and the form factor is brilliant for both stage and studio)

Baby rig in my studio/office - the little ASC-20 gets more use than the Noble (frankly the ASC is an amazing bit of kit but there's probably a much cheaper way of achieving the same - though the ASC's box is lovely)