| Author | Message | ||
| blazer
Intermediate Member Username: blazer Post Number: 141 Registered: 12-2003 |
 This is a cool looking bass and the inspiration behind my newest guitar project. But what's the background of that bass, when was it made and of what materials was it made? Mica, could you please shed some light on this? | ||
| pace
Advanced Member Username: pace Post Number: 315 Registered: 4-2004 |
I'll take one of the same..... Only fretless, with the pup up closer to the neck. Seriously, I was thinking of something along these lines, but with the old small standard shape... | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 4383 Registered: 6-2000 |
Without a serial number, about all I can tell you is that it looks like Bubinga. I don't remember this bass. | ||
| room037
Intermediate Member Username: room037 Post Number: 157 Registered: 9-2003 |
I saw SG shape Alembic bass in Japan. It had the serial number with "C". Eiji | ||
| rami
Senior Member Username: rami Post Number: 643 Registered: 6-2002 |
Now that's just too cool! | ||
| fish
Junior Username: fish Post Number: 46 Registered: 6-2006 |
I want one too!!!!!!!!  | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 988 Registered: 10-2003 |
That is simply awesome! | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 1196 Registered: 11-2003 |
I don't think I've seen fret markers like that on an Alembic prior to this photo. | ||
| tbrannon
Advanced Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 352 Registered: 11-2004 |
I must be the only one who doesn't like it.... To each his own. =) | ||
| olieoliver
Senior Member Username: olieoliver Post Number: 1236 Registered: 2-2006 |
Not the only one Toby. | ||
| 2400wattman
Advanced Member Username: 2400wattman Post Number: 324 Registered: 11-2005 |
Thrice for me. Never liked the shape, never will-especially for bass. Sorry Jack Bruce, killer player but bad tone. | ||
| jseitang
Advanced Member Username: jseitang Post Number: 204 Registered: 6-2002 |
hey didnt phil lesh play one before had the starfire? i love it. | ||
| crobbins
Junior Username: crobbins Post Number: 44 Registered: 6-2004 |
Yes he did.  | ||
| hieronymous
Intermediate Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 149 Registered: 1-2005 |
The names for the Gibson basses are EB-0 for the single-pup version and EB-3 for the two-pup. The shape of the Alembic pictured above looks a little different to me. I've got a Gibson Melody Maker myself:  | ||
| crobbins
Junior Username: crobbins Post Number: 45 Registered: 6-2004 |
EB3  | ||
| tbrannon
Advanced Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 356 Registered: 11-2004 |
I've never had any problem with the EBO/EB3 body style from Gibson- in fact, I kind of like it. But the picture that Blazer posted just looks 'off' to me. I can't tell you why I don't like it and why it looks off, but it looks like something I'd whip up if you left me in a workshop for half a day (self-depreciating humour mode <on>). | ||
| crobbins
Junior Username: crobbins Post Number: 46 Registered: 6-2004 |
Yeah, it looks kinds stretched-out in the waist. | ||
| lidon2001
Advanced Member Username: lidon2001 Post Number: 297 Registered: 4-2005 |
The body looks like it is shaped properly, IMHO. Alembic pictured above attaches at the 20th/21st fret. Gibson at about the 17th. I like it alot. These "unique" shapes just never seem to stop showing up. (Message edited by lidon2001 on April 09, 2007) | ||
| hieronymous
Intermediate Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 150 Registered: 1-2005 |
We need more pics of the Alembic one! | ||
| cozmik_cowboy
Intermediate Member Username: cozmik_cowboy Post Number: 128 Registered: 10-2006 |
Some of my favorite bassists spent at least some time on EB0s & EB3s, and I've always loved the body shape, but they sound like farting into a pillow. I really like the idea of that shape with actual tone. Peter | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 2116 Registered: 9-2003 |
I picked-up an EB-3 with non-OEM HSC for around $250 in the early '80's for my brother. Looks like the one Craig shows above, dark brown translucent color, but that one was in better shape and had the chrome p/u covers and brown knobs. I traded an A/C repair job on an early '70's Buick for the set-up on the thing (set-neck needed straightening a few times). Peter's description of it's tone is certainly appropos...how muddy it was depended on the position of the Vari-tone selector. Unfortunately, none of them was good. The medium scale never felt right to me, and string selection was always limited. The both of us got more use out of his first bass, a 34" scale Aria Pro (don't remember the model) with a single fat p/u...nice tone and action...with a maple neck/rosewood FB and a red satin-finish real wood double-cut body...well under $200 with HSC brand-new at the time. Aparently, my Bro got $1200 for the EB-3 on EBAY a few years back, and he says the neck was all wacked-out again. I love Phil and Jack, but I don't love EB's, unfortunately. Cheers, Kevin (Message edited by kmh364 on April 10, 2007) | ||
| edwin
Advanced Member Username: edwin Post Number: 226 Registered: 5-2002 |
Let's not forget that Phil's EB bass was by no means stock. The good folks at Alembic had preamped it, added Guild/Hagstrom Bisonic pickups (similar to today's Dark Star pickups) and added a much better bridge tailpiece setup. I have an EB3 with Dark Stars and it is considerably better sounding to my ears. No fart pillow tone at all. Some people really like the mudbucker, but I'm not one of them. Edwin PS Isn't it odd how the EB0 has one pickup and the EB3 has two? Why not just call them the EB1 and EB2? The EB2 has one pickup and the EB2D has two. Very weird. | ||
| hieronymous
Intermediate Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 151 Registered: 1-2005 |
I guess I'm the only fan of the sound of the infamous mudbucker? Those pickups are said to have something like 12,000 windings, and they put out hellacious bass and sub-bass frequencies - and not much else! But in my own experience, I have found that they push overdrive and distortion pedals differently than regular pickups, and in turn, distortion/overdrive adds upper frequencies that weren't originally there. A marriage made in heaven! IMHO anyway, it looks like a lot of ya don't love the mudd (farting sound - how rude! JK - Jeff Berlin and Frank Zappa said the same thing about Jack Bruce's sound)... Here's a track I made with drums from GarageBand, almost all the rest is the Gibson Melody Maker I posted a pic of above. (The bass under the octave solo is a Fender Japan Mustang Bass RI) over there  | ||
| bigideas
Intermediate Member Username: bigideas Post Number: 115 Registered: 1-2004 |
As a point of interest, the EB1 is a little violin shaped bass that came out before the EB0, and the EB2 was a 335 style semi-hollow body. Production of the EB2 also started before the EB0. | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 1197 Registered: 11-2003 |
Another point of interest, Jack now plays an EB1 while Warwick's $9k "Cream Reunion" EB3 looking bass sat on the RAH stage untouched. | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 1166 Registered: 9-2002 |
With all due repsect to those of you who LIKE these things . . . . I'm with 2400w and KmH, these things are irrevocably linked with that God-Deliver-Me-From-Ever-Sounding-Like-That tone in my mind, I could NEVER warm up to one. I think those 'Devil Horns' cutaways are no accident . . . J o e y | ||
| hieronymous
Intermediate Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 154 Registered: 1-2005 |
Am I evil? yes I am... | ||
| 2400wattman
Advanced Member Username: 2400wattman Post Number: 331 Registered: 11-2005 |
Sam, I read in an interview that Jack had claimed that the bass was'nt up to snuff. Those are my words not his, but that was what he was alluding to. Kind of like it still was'nt finished. | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 1199 Registered: 11-2003 |
Adam, I guess you're referring to the Warwick? I think I may have heard that also but can't remember where. It sounds familiar. | ||
| 2400wattman
Advanced Member Username: 2400wattman Post Number: 332 Registered: 11-2005 |
Yes I am referring to the Warwick. Maybe Jack did not like the clunky necks Warwick has been producing now. | ||
| 2400wattman
Advanced Member Username: 2400wattman Post Number: 333 Registered: 11-2005 |
Here it is Bass Player Dec. 2005 Jack was asked about his gear and Warwicks in particular and stated"Also I had suggested to Warwick that they make a special bass-a nod toward my old EB3- to celebrate this special event. We have'nt gotten it quite right yet,but the prototype was onstage and can be seen on the DVD." | ||
| pauldo
Junior Username: pauldo Post Number: 15 Registered: 6-2006 |
Anyone know what Jack used (bass and effects) on the title track to Apostrophe? Muddy the way it should be, , , with a little grit. :-) | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 1200 Registered: 11-2003 |
Considering the time frame it was probably his EB3. He went to fretless in 1976. I don't know of any effects but he did have a diode installed in the Gibson to get the same distorted tone that he got with the Marshall 100s cranked up to 11. | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 990 Registered: 10-2003 |
I touched (but didn't actually have a chance to play) Jack's Warwick EB3 clone (yes, the same bass that was at RAH) at the Indy NAMM show in 2005. The neck struck me as fat, if memory serves. Other than that, it looked pretty cool. YMMV... John | ||
| rami
Senior Member Username: rami Post Number: 644 Registered: 6-2002 |
Anybody remember the Gibson SG-Z? It was produced from '99 to 2001. It has a 34" scale neck with TB pickups. It's my only Gibson Bass. I actually like it's sound - NOTHING like the EB3. It's a shame that whenever Gibson make a decent Bass, they discontinue it after only a few years of production.  Unfotunately, Gibson doesn't care as much about Bassists as they do guitarists - as their lineup reflects. (Message edited by rami on April 12, 2007) | ||
| crobbins
Junior Username: crobbins Post Number: 49 Registered: 6-2004 |
Nice bass rami...... |
