| Author | Message | ||
| lg71
Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 98 Registered: 3-2006 |
Dave, I saw you have an amazing bass with three pickups... How does it sound to you, are you happy you did it, what combination you use most? Experts, I am thinking of doing something similar on my Arialembic, it's already fitted with two Fatboys, and I have an extra MXY which I would like to fit in between, but it is very tight, do you think that the magnets would be a problem if they are too close? I have three low pass filters and three Q-switches + a stereo jack and the four way pickup selector, do you think that one 9V battery would be enough to power that setup? Would I need three 20K resistors to join them for mono summing? Anyone, any advice, pros and cons... BTW, I was originally planing to upgrade my SB900 with the Alembic harness instead, BUT I might have to sell it for financial reason, so, I would rather leave it with original specs, and use my Alembic spares for the red Arialembic... Thanks for help, LG | ||
| lothartu
Intermediate Member Username: lothartu Post Number: 182 Registered: 8-2003 |
I know that Dave has a Series I bass so if that's the one you're thinking of then it's not exactly 3 pickups. It's a standard series setup which is 1 bridge pickup, 1 neck pickup, and 1 dummy hum cancelling "pickup" in the middle. The one in the middle is like a pickup with no pole pieces. It's function is to cancel out any hum that may be picked up by either of the other two "real" pickups. The dummy pickup has no volume/tone/filter or anything like that. It's function is to prevent any hum from existing in the signals from the other 2 "real" pickups. -Jim (Message edited by lothartu on September 26, 2006) | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 102 Registered: 3-2006 |
Jim, I know that buddy, I am not talking a Series bass, if you check Dave's profile you will see what I mean, it's a bass with three pickups. | ||
| fc_spoiler
Advanced Member Username: fc_spoiler Post Number: 360 Registered: 5-2006 |
Dave Houck's Essence | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 106 Registered: 3-2006 |
Dave where are you, you are WANTED!!! | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 3619 Registered: 6-2000 |
It's a busy time of year for Dave's real job. I'm sure he'll pop in again soon to answer your questions, probably over the weekend. | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 107 Registered: 3-2006 |
Cool, what does it do then? (I am curious + interested) | ||
| lothartu
Intermediate Member Username: lothartu Post Number: 183 Registered: 8-2003 |
Ah ok LG, I hadn't seen that one of Dave's. That's a pretty snazzy bass. Ok, my curiosity is up now too. - Jim (Message edited by lothartu on September 28, 2006) | ||
| jacko
Senior Member Username: jacko Post Number: 843 Registered: 10-2002 |
oops double post. Graeme (Message edited by jacko on September 29, 2006) | ||
| jacko
Senior Member Username: jacko Post Number: 844 Registered: 10-2002 |
Have you guys never noticed the similarity between Dave and Father Christmas? No wonder he's busy this time of year. Alot of orders to fill ;-) Graeme p.s. If you're reading this Dave, I'd like a nice shiny series 2 balance K in 5A maple. | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 109 Registered: 3-2006 |
- Jim, I saw the picture of your bass, it looks really nice my friend. We still don't know what Dave is up to thought? Dave, you are wanted, all over the 52 states! Graeme, in fact I didn't want to say it... but, Dave told me that he was going to send you the bass you ordered. | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 1669 Registered: 7-2004 |
52 states? Bill, tgo | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 110 Registered: 3-2006 |
53 in fact! | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 770 Registered: 2-2006 |
50 states. The others are either US territories (St John, St Thomas, St Croix) or a commonwealth (i.e. Puerto Rico) of the US. | ||
| 57basstra
Senior Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 408 Registered: 4-2005 |
Dave, I'll have a double neck series bass/guitar..thanks...oh, 5A maple front and back..thanks some more! | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 111 Registered: 3-2006 |
Ok. sorry, I got mixed up with Studio 54! LOL 57basstra, Dave said he can only get you one made of Basswood  | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 4461 Registered: 5-2002 |
Thanks Mica! Sorry guys, I'm a bit behind. That Essence was my first Alembic. I bought it used. A previous owner installed the middle pickup. It was not a professional installation; someone routed a pickup cavity and screwed it in there, then they unplugged the neck pickup and plugged in the new middle pickup. That was it. This was my main bass for a long time. Although I liked the combination of the middle and bridge pickups, I unplugged the middle pickup and plugged the neck pickup back in. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally picked up a Spoiler as a replacement and sent my Essence to Santa Rosa. Alembic reinstalled the middle pickup properly. And in addition to a three way Q switch, they installed a pickup selector switch. I also got a satin feel neck, aluminum side position markers, and brass sustain block and had the frets crowned. While waiting for the Essence, I picked up the S1 that Jim mentioned above and that became my main bass. Thus I haven't used the Essence much plugged in. It has been my main practice bass (unplugged) just because it is so much fun to play; I love the neck. But I dont' plug it in to my main rig, because it would require a substantial re-Eq of everything; my rig is setup for my S1. I do really like the addition of the Q switch, and I find that on this bass I seem to prefer the switch in the off position, although on my S1 the bridge Q is always on high. Because it's all Maple, this bass was a bit aggressive to begin with. Adding the sustain block makes it more so. What (comparatively)little I've experimented with it suggests that the pickup combinations and Q choices are all variations on the aggression theme. So far it appears that my favorite pickup combo is middle and bridge. And I've noticed that I'm making more use of the Pan control than I used to. But again, I haven't EQ'd my rig to match the bass. If I were running this bass through my F-1X and SF-2, I could probably tone down the aggressiveness, warm up the low end and smooth out the high end and make much better uses of the all the available tone combinations. So, the changes made a wonderful bass much more flexible. But with the S1 getting all the work, the Essence isn't getting the attention that it deserves. | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 114 Registered: 3-2006 |
Hello Dave, Thanks so much for the long post and precise answers, much appreciated. I see that you like the middle and bridge pickup, so do I, I mean on my Arias, the one with the single middle pickups are my favorite, and I never use the neck pickups on its own on the other one. I have a great idea, I have never seen it before. I'd be nice to have RAIL system below the pickup(s), so you could position your pickup(s) exactly where you want... from virtually touching the neck to touching the bridge, I guess it could be easy to do, but it would require a very wide routing from the neck to the bridge, and it wouldn't look that great, but I am sure there could be ways of making it look nice. I think that if I had a Series 1, I'd probably would play the non series like you said. So, I understand what your saying. I too, would like one and only one bass that would give me a huge range of sound and control, with the right neck, frets and body shape... | ||
| adriaan
Senior Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 1072 Registered: 6-2002 |
You're not the first to think of movable pickups - and you're not in bad company either. Alembic #1 had them, with rails and all. They probably didn't provide quite as many useful variations as you would think beforehand, otherwise I'm sure you could still order them today. | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 118 Registered: 3-2006 |
Interesting, any links with pictures? | ||
| adriaan
Senior Member Username: adriaan Post Number: 1074 Registered: 6-2002 |
Jack Cassidy and Alembic #1 | ||
| lg71
Intermediate Member Username: lg71 Post Number: 121 Registered: 3-2006 |
Thanks Adriaan, Oh! That bass looks like a spaceship man! Amazing... I see the nice vintage processors in the back as well, priceless. | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 779 Registered: 2-2006 |
I see cosmetics were not of great concern back then. It's weird you can see Alembic all over this bass then again...it's the same only different. | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 1679 Registered: 7-2004 |
I believe Bob Weir had an Ibanez prototype with movable pickups on plastic rails at one time. Bill, tgo | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 780 Registered: 2-2006 |
We had a Gibson at my high school, (lab band) with a single sliding pickup. I didn't like it at all. |
