| Author | Message | ||
| markthemuscleshark
New Username: markthemuscleshark Post Number: 1 Registered: 4-2011 |
I am a complete noob when it comes to Alembic.I have never touched, seen, or played an Alembic. I have heard many basses and heard a couple of guitars. I have been fascinated with Alembic instruments ever since I saw a couple of early Alembics in a guitar book lying around my dad's house. I think they are very beautiful, extremely well crafted, and they have versatile electronics. Now, all I can think of is Alembic instruments, specifically guitars. My main rig is a simple 40 watt Egnater combo and a Charvel San Dimas. I am looking to add an Alembic to my arsenal. I have decided that I don't want anything fancy (by Alembic's standards, of course) So I have decided on a California Special. First of all, I play just about every genre of music. I mean EVERYTHING. I cannot stress this enough, I play jazz-rock, classic rock, Hendrix, thrash metal, jazz standards, progressive, djent, blues, latin, you name it. I have heard numerous things about Alembic's Activators. I aim for a very warm sound. When I play clean, I use a jazzy warm tone most of the time. When I use drive, I go for a smooth, legato sound like Allan Holdsworth (my idol). Even when I play metal, I don't like a super harsh sound. Think early Metallica, not that I like them, but I would compare their sound to my "metal" tone. Would a California Special, with the stock Activators, with a Kahler bridge, be able to pull off the sounds I am looking for, or am I looking at the wrong brand altogether? I want to know, since Alembics aren't the cheapest guitars around, and buying one would be a major investment for me. How much would a used California Special with a Kahler go for? I don't mind dings or extra holes, they add a certain je ne sais quoi, I just want an Alembic. | ||
| hb3
Senior Member Username: hb3 Post Number: 589 Registered: 2-2005 |
I don't necessary have the answer, but I'd definitely suggest you play one first. | ||
| crobbins
Senior Member Username: crobbins Post Number: 848 Registered: 6-2004 |
A "Skylark" may not be a bad choice either. Although there is no whammy bar..It is setup kinda like a Gibson with humbucker style pickups. Maple top, mahogany body...But, with the quality, and craftmanship of an Alembic... (Message edited by CRobbins on April 17, 2011) | ||
| pace
Senior Member Username: pace Post Number: 705 Registered: 4-2004 |
Welcome to the board, Mark! Although activators come in many different shapes, they are all pretty much of the same hum-canceling construction. The default pickups on most California Specials is S-S-H with a 5 way switch, volume, and filter.... I think that a lot of guitarists used to passive or even EMG electronics are taken aback that the "humbucker" in the bridge doesn't contrast to "single coils" in the way that they're used to. The phase cancellation or comb filtering isn't there~ and that Activator "humbucker" is just as wide open as the single-coils. The only exception is that the "humbucker" has a slightly wider aperture. So with that said, any pre conceived notions about how an Alembic might sound just by the shape of the pickups should be thrown out. From there, the next game changer is how the pickups react to each other. The typical 5-way switch on a Strat takes advantage of a reverse-wound-reverse-polarity middle pickup, also perhaps a coil tap in position 4... This isn't the case on a California Special. You're basically selecting an individual pup or summing neck/mid or mid/bridge. In my opinion, an Activator package with on/off pup toggles is a little more versatile. Some of the latest designs (Further/Tribute/Sylark) make use of a three way off/on/bright toggle for each pup! If you find a two pickup model in your quest, having a vol/vol or vol/pan configuration can go a long way in tweaking your tone too! And the last thing to consider is the number of filters on the guitar. The Further/Tribute/Skylark models have a filter for each pickup.... this is very useful in dialing in different tones and EQ curves. Definitely try to check one out and get an idea as to how these electronics behave. They may or may not be your thing! | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 1666 Registered: 9-2002 |
I second Pace's Welcome ! We ALL came here as 'noobs'. I remember I first saw a very early catalog in the late '70's, and was floored by that image of a Series bass. I often think this 'itch' is further aggravated by the fact these things are almost legends or whispered images since we rarely get a chance to play one. I walked into a music store in Nashville and found my first hanging on the wall as a consignment piece, and everything changed from then on. They do, of course, make fabulous guitars. I don't play guitar but am quite taken by the Darlings. Since you live in Cali, I'm sure someone here will chime in, maybe you can meet up and go from there. If you're anywhere in NorCal, I'd urge you to go to the source: Visit Santa Rosa, meet the Wickershams, and see the axes in the flesh. This is a small community of fanatics. The Wickershams have set a tone of welcome and customer service you will find nowhere else. I can not recommend the axes and the people highly enough, I don't have the words to express my fondness and appreciation for them that reflects the depth of how I truly feel about them, nor can I ever repay how good they have been to me. And anyone else here will tell you the same thing. Susan, Mica, and Mary have treated me like long lost family, and we've yet to meet face to face, though I hope to go some day. Good to have you here, and best of luck on finding your Alembic ! j o e y | ||
| markthemuscleshark
New Username: markthemuscleshark Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2011 |
Jeez, I REALLY wish I could visit Santa Rosa, becaue I live in California, but I live all the way in Orange County, so I'm hundreds of miles away. Driving here would not only be a hassle, I have a schedule from HELL, you might call me a workaholic, I barely have time to play guitar anymore. Maybe next time I visit family in Alameda, I'll drive a bit more and see what Alembic is all about. | ||
| ajdover
Senior Member Username: ajdover Post Number: 943 Registered: 11-2003 |
Mark - visit them. You will not be disappointed. I did so in 2006, and it was well worth it. Alan | ||
| serialnumber12
Senior Member Username: serialnumber12 Post Number: 877 Registered: 12-2004 |
Back in 1983 my alembic guit working so i took it to alembic & Ron opened it up fixed it & didnt charge me a Damm Dime! | ||
| terryc
Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1553 Registered: 11-2004 |
Mark..welcome to our world, I would definitely make the effort to go to Santa Rosa, I did and I live in the UK! I too have never played an Alembic guitar but to me Alembic is all about the basses, they are truly the best in the world. | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 4830 Registered: 7-2004 |
Mark: Welcome to the club. I live in Alameda and have several Alembic guitars, both Series and non-Series, and a home studio. If you're in town visiting your parents and want to shoot over and take a few for a test spin, let me know. And once you're here, the hour drive up to Alembic is well worth the effort. Bill, the guitar one | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 963 Registered: 3-2004 |
They are beautiful instruments. One thing to keep in mind, is that the impedance of the electronics is different from that of a passive guitar. If you are getting your overdrive and distortion straight from your amp, you should be all set. If you use any number of pedals for this purpose, you're going to want to have them along to try out with the guitars as well. It can sometimes make a big impact (especially with germanium fuzzes). I know a number of people have worked around it, but it was a sticking point for me. Best of luck. | ||
| briant
Senior Member Username: briant Post Number: 559 Registered: 12-2004 |
Have any of you who own an Alembic guitar tried using a volume pedal with a 250K pot to try and simulate/fool the tempermental pedals into thinking the instrument is passive? | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 964 Registered: 3-2004 |
Yep, and I also tried adjusting the internal trim pots to bring the levels down to roughly that of a passive guitar. No dice, at least for me. I once saw an effect box that claimed it could transmute low impedance to high impedance (for lack of a better term), but if I recall correctly the company went out of business shortly thereafter. | ||
| crobbins
Senior Member Username: crobbins Post Number: 850 Registered: 6-2004 |
All of my Boss pedals seem to work just fine with my Tribute. I run all the pedals through the fx loop on my Boogie amp, and plug the guitar straight in. Works great, no noise, or pops at all.. | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 965 Registered: 3-2004 |
I suspect that they do. My DOD pedals worked fine with my Skylark and my Orion. My collection of boutique effects (which to be fair, are optimized for traditional passive electronics). . . shot craps. I'm also willing to bet that you rely on the Boogey for distortion primarily (which is where I thought things were lacking most). I don't consider myself a gear snob (if it works, then use it), but running a super fidelity guitar through a $60 dollar pedal is a bit of a blasphemy to me, and those effects seem to be very accommodating (but not particularly unique in their sound). I'd still like to own another Alembic some day with a two pick-up Vol/Pan/Filter setup, but I would also like a middle passive pick up to get the sound I like. | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 1674 Registered: 9-2002 |
THIS is why I only use wrenches around a bass, and not a soldering iron: What does the impedance have to do with output, vis-a-vis driving the front end of an amp to distortion, etc.? J o e y | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 966 Registered: 3-2004 |
Some pedals interact almost as though they were part of the circuitry of the guitar itself. Take for example the stratoblaster (or the active cords that Alembic was selling recently). It doesn't just boost the signal, it actually improves the spectrum of the frequency response. My Zvex Fuzz Factory will self oscillate in several settings, producing squeals and tones reminiscent of analog synth. I can actually change the pitch of these squeals by turning the volume and tone controls on my (passive) guitar. If you place anything that acts as a buffer between this pedal and guitar (such as the aforementioned stratoblaster, or Alembic active electronics), you lose this effect and end up with a flat fizz-less tone (keep this in mind if you are Muse fan, although I have to admit I'm not). You'll experience the same effect with Colorsound One Knob Fuzzes, Tonebenders, Fuzz Faces, and other simple old-school circuits. I'll admit that I don't know the technical specifics of why this happens. I do know that pedals like the Tube King which rely solely on the level of the signal, and which are driven by tubes, do not display this effect. Boss and similar Distortion pedals also don't display this characteristic. It must be related to how the guitar interacts with the bias of the transistors of these circuits, versus the plate voltages of tubes, or circuits which have been designed to emulate tubes. I've been trying for some time to wrap my head around how impedance differs from resistance, but I have yet to understand it. Paging David Fung. . . Dr. Fung? (Message edited by hydrargyrum on April 21, 2011) | ||
| terryc
Senior Member Username: terryc Post Number: 1555 Registered: 11-2004 |
I ain't an expert but what I know from my teenage years when I did amateur electronics is that the germanium fuzz units are clipping amplifiers..that is how they work, they take the low output signal from the guitar and jump it up until it clips, if you look at a circuit diagram of a Vox/Coloursound Tonebender you see that the two transistors are connected. Now feeding a relatively high output signal from an active guitar such as an Alembic this will be 'double clipped' if you get my drift and produce too much fuzz. I guess the moderner pedals have built in buffers to stop this happening, sort of like the two choice of inputs on bass amps - passive & active, the active input puts a 5 - 15 dB pad on the signal. So I think that is why these old units don't work with Alembic guitars but I guess David Fung has the proper explanation | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 967 Registered: 3-2004 |
Terry, What you describe is exactly what I've experienced. I've produced exactly the same sound from passive guitars that had a signal that was too hot for these devices. Looking around a bit, I found that Impedance is analogous to Resistance. The difference is that Resistance refers to DC whereas Impedance is AC. As we all know, a guitar string produces an AC current (it vibrates one way then the other in the magnetic field of the pickup). Low impedance circuits have lower current, and therefore have to be boosted to a higher gain level (hence the "double clipping"), whereas High impedance have sufficient current by themselves in traditional applications. The trade off is in frequency response across the spectrum (low impedance have better response). It's all becoming clear/coming back to me now. (Message edited by hydrargyrum on April 21, 2011) | ||
| mario_farufyno
Senior Member Username: mario_farufyno Post Number: 654 Registered: 9-2008 |
2 cents... Impedance is the summ of all resistances in a circuit, as capacitive reactance from a Capacitor and inductive reactance from a Inductor can change overall resistance. As they change according to frequency, you may call it AC, but in fact audio gears are just fed in AC but works with modulated DC internally (changes Voltage but not Direction). A PU can be seen equaly as a resistor and some sort of inductor (and the Tone Pots are variable resistors associated with Capacitors as well). So there is a constant changing charges being summed in a way we call them Impedance (to make clear it is different from ordinary resistance). | ||
| sonicus
Senior Member Username: sonicus Post Number: 1778 Registered: 5-2009 |
1 cent here as well... short version______ Resistance or "R" as a DC concept where as Impedance involves reactance which varies with frequency as a result of inductance and capacitance. Impedance or "Z" where as there is AC or fluctuating DC , the Sum of resistive and reactive ,variable with frequency . (Message edited by sonicus on April 21, 2011) | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 972 Registered: 3-2004 |
From Wiki: * The magnitude of the complex impedance is the ratio of the voltage amplitude to the current amplitude. * The phase of the complex impedance is the phase shift by which the current is ahead of the voltage. It's becoming less and less clear.  | ||
| sonicus
Senior Member Username: sonicus Post Number: 1779 Registered: 5-2009 |
Interesting articles; http://www.teamrocs.com/technical/pages/resistance_impedance.htm http://www.esu.edu/physics/cohen/phys132/chapter10. http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae517.cfm | ||
| crobbins
Senior Member Username: crobbins Post Number: 851 Registered: 6-2004 |
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| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 1679 Registered: 9-2002 |
My many thanks to you all for trying to explain this to my not-electronically-adept self. Now, where's those feeler guages . . . . J o e y | ||
| mario_farufyno
Senior Member Username: mario_farufyno Post Number: 657 Registered: 9-2008 |
It looks price is the "must" on this Tone Suck. Last night our drummer came complimenting me for the "vintage tone" and asked me what did I did (he really doesn't likes Alembic's open tone). I've had to explain him that my strings are older than 3 months now... (Message edited by Mario Farufyno on April 23, 2011) | ||
| mike1762
Senior Member Username: mike1762 Post Number: 803 Registered: 1-2008 |
That's pretty funny Mario. When I started playing with my current band I could tell that they REALLY didn't know what to think of the crystal clear tones coming from my bass. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 10141 Registered: 5-2002 |
My one cents. At the gathering last week there were at least four guitar players playing Alembics up on the stage (may have been more but four's all I can recall at the moment) and all of them had great tone. At least one of them was using his pedal board through someone else's rig, but still sounded great. | ||
| hydrargyrum
Senior Member Username: hydrargyrum Post Number: 973 Registered: 3-2004 |
My last comment in this regard would be that I still think it is best to try things through your own rig if possible, so there aren't any surprises. And now, I'm out of change. | ||
| lidon2001
Senior Member Username: lidon2001 Post Number: 458 Registered: 4-2005 |
Some line art I've been working on:  | ||
| markthemuscleshark
New Username: markthemuscleshark Post Number: 4 Registered: 4-2011 |
Aside from you guys and your germanium fuzz pedals and whatnot, how much for a used California Special? | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 4846 Registered: 7-2004 |
They don't come up often, but when they do something in the $1800-2500 range is what I'd expect. Bill, tgo |
