jazzyvee

Well yesterdays experience was a good one. Whilst a few players came over and tried out two of my basses, the Classico and Stanley Clarke signature, I played only one which was one off the really short headless basses that sounded really good and the strings were not floppy like i expected. Its a bit of a long standing joke with my musician friends that I have never ever really been good at allowing others to play my instruments or playing instruments that are not my own, so i hope my reluctance to try more of your basses yesterday was not taken as a personal slight in any way. After yesterday experience i’m feeling a bit more comfortable in allowing others to play mine. Moving on, there were a lot of nice sounding basses i could hear during the day but I think the bass that stood out for me sound wise was the Enfield. No idea who was playing it or whose they were or what model. My thanks to the organisers for a well run event. Maybe you can branch out into putting gigs on there at some point too. ✔️👍🏿🎶🎵

My Saturday plans have changed so i will pop down and bring a 5 string and a couple of 4 stringers long and short scale. Alembics. Im still not used to others playing my basses so please understand if i look paranoid whilst handing it over. I like to keep all my instruments in pristine condition so No picks please and no clothing or jewellery lanyards etc that may damage the finish.

The only one I have recollection of playing is a vintage medium scale bass in the Stanley Clarke body style. I tried a lot of alembics when I went to their USA alembic gathering in 2012 but no idea what the rest were. Sorry I can't help more.

Anyone got any experience with 5 string using nylon flats? I've never used flats on any of my basses but I want to see what flats do for my reggae sound. I want to try some Labella Deep Talking nylon bass strings https://www.thomann.de/gb/la_bella_black_nylon_760nb.htm However as I'm only trying them out I don't want to mess with cutting a deeper slot in the nut since it is brass. My usual gauge are roundwound 45/65/80/100/130 and they fit great. These labella I'm looking at run from 060 - 070 - 094 - 115 - 135 or .050, .065, .085, .105, .135 so I wonder if they will still fit the nut current slots or will this difference in gauge cause them not to sit comfortably in the nut and maybe the saddle and give me problems. I won't be using them as a general string, only for the bass I use primarily for reggae so it's a bit of experimentation. https://www.thomann.de/gb/la_bella_750n_b_black_nylon_l.htm https://www.thomann.de/gb/la_bella_black_nylon_760nb.htm Any advice gratefully recieved.

Aston and Carlton Barrett Sly & Robbie Stanley Clarke & Lenny White Victor Bailey & Omar Hakim John Pattitucci & Dave Weckl Tony williams & Ron Carter Poogie Bell & Marcus Miller. Phil Lynott & Brian Downey

Me too I love that short scale one. The reason for the pointy tail was because before Alembic made basses themselves they were a repair/modification shop and a lot of their work was repairing broken headstocks on basses because people didn't use stands so the point was to make it difficult to not use a stand. Further reading on the development of the body shapes. http://www.alembic.com/family/history_bodyshapes.html

Yeah that sounds about right.

Really?? when and where was that?

Oops how rude of me. Here is my alembic weapon of choice, that i picked up directly from Mica Wickersham at the alembic factory in California in 2012. Series II Europa.

I would take a fair guess and say that most bass players have never owned or played an alembic bass. Probably most have never seen or heard one live on stage outside the big named pro users like like Stanley Clarke or Jimmy Johnson. A lot of the negative views I have come across regarding alembic be that on line or in person conversations with other bass player are centred on cost and not the sound or playability. Although some find the ergonomics less than suitable like for instance the stanley clarke style basses are neck heavy but that can be compensated for with a good strap and time getting used to the instrument. Personally I don’t gig, rehearse or record with any other bass than an alembic. For me they give me the sounds and the playing experience I want. For some owners they find the sound is not for them and sell them on and that is fine we don’t all have the same tonal requirements. In the past I did swap the electronics in one of my alembics with some ACG filter based electronics but I found whilst they were extremely good I somehow lost the punchy power in the lower mids that the alembic gave and the upper frequencies I found a bit harsh so for the music I was playing it didn’t work out for me. I have since put the alembic guts back in that bass and it suits me better. Over the years I have since tried a number of other high end basses like Fodera, Ritter, Wal and some custom shop fenders which all sound great but I haven’t found anything in them that I feel would make me choose them over my alembic. Of course we know they are not cheap to buy new even the entry level basses but if that is an issue there are used bargains to be had on the usual internet sale sites. One crucial thing to do if buying used amongst other things is to get the serial number and check it out with Alembic, there are a few fakes/copies around especially the Epic basses and also ask for photos of the electronics cavity as some have non alembic innards that the owner may never realise and the cost of getting a new set from Alembic ain’t cheap. When you get them post them on the alembic site www.alembic.com and ask form verification, there are lots of members there who can save you hassle. Contrary to another poster on this thread, I have found them really easy to set up even though it has two truss rods, and have never taken mine to a tech to have a setup done for me. There is some good information on the Alembic website forum.

Chuck Rainey has it nailed. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7TAFWwqeHko

Admittedly I got mine a way back in the mid 2000's when it was much cheaper than now but I can highly recommend a PJB Briefcase if you want to stretch that far price wise or look for a used one. I do use a headphone amp setup too sometimes but much prefer to hear the bass coming to me from the room rather than headphones.

I picked up a dubster 2 last year to add to my rig and used it a few times. I think it's more of a hybrid sub/stand alone bass cab. I've only used it on reggae gigs so far and the first time I used it was with a big Baby II in bridge mode. The gig had only a vocal PA so it certainly delivered a great thick sound. I also used the Dubster on it's own at a large gig with PA support and that gave us a good depth to the bass on stage as the monitors don't really deliver any decent bottom end for a reggae band. The last time I used it was again in with the BB2 but on a separate channel on my power amp and I had it's volume set so I could just begin to feel the weight of bass supporting the BB2 but without it being loud. For most of my use I expect it will be in this mode rather than a weapon to blast the bass.

Nor me...….. I've always wanted more than just one...………………….🙄😎🤣

I play alembic for reggae and ironically the one I use mostly is an all maple neck through Europa with humcancelling pickups. When I first had it I thought it was gonna be too twangy and bright for reggae. It is a twangy bass with lots of prominent mids also the bottom end is healthy end has so much clarity without sounding woolly. I am experimenting with using older strings that were on a previous bass for about a year to get a thicker sound and these have been on the bass now about a year and a half and sounding good for reggae. I may try flats next time it's due a string change. But I think any decently setup bass can be used for reggae. Some of the really old reggae was don't on quite shabby instruments and I think that tone is part of the charm of that era. I did try using my P-style alembic bass for reggae but with LP filter based tone controls fully closed for a more bassy tone I started losing volume on the D and G strings moving up the neck compared to the E and A so I have a bit of tweaking to do with the pickup heights on that bass. It's absolutely fine with more treble in the mix.

Virtually every gig I go to these days the bass player has a tone that sounds like it has scooped mids. I'd just like to know what you guys think the reason is for this? What are the pros and cons of scooping mids in a gig situation? Is it just a current fashion amongst players or bass makers to use that tone or heaven forbid or maybe just that I have a lost the mids in my hearing? 🙂 Cheers

Can someone enlighten me. Is one of the attributes that defines a P bass having a split pickup in the neck position or can it be a standard straight pickup in the same place? I ask that because I saw a bass above similar to what Sting used and that has a straight pickup so I'm curious to know if that is still classed as a P bass?

This one has just been sold.

I too have hard cases for my basses though i use a good quality gig bag mostly and stand the bass up in the front or back foot well with the seatbelt on it to keep it in position. I tend not to put instruments in the boot as that part of modern cars are designed as crumple zones to absorb impact. To the OP wouldnt recommend leaving a bass unattended in a car whether it is in the boot or back seat.

There is no doubt that fender jazz basses are great for reggae if that is the sound you want. if the Jazz bass doesn't do it for you then you will just have to try a number of other brands/models till you find the one that gets you the sound you want. I play reggae in my main band and have never owned a fender bass even though my primary influence "Aston Barrett" is well known for doing so. He also uses non fender basses as well including yamaha's and an Alembic 5 string Elan. I love the bass to be deep but I want to hear the notes not just the wolly heft. Happy hunting. 🙂

I've kept mine.

I've never had problems with volume using mine whether I'm using it in addition to monitors on a big stage with FOH PA or when it's been used in a smaller venue and not using the PA. My only gripe with it is that it is not particularly clean in terms of hiss if you turn either the input gain or the master up. Other than that it's been a good workhorse for me and though I have it serviced fairly regularly it still has the original tubes. ( Don't know if that's a good or bad thing though). I don't ever play with loud guitarists though sometimes the drum monitor speakers are way way too loud but even when I had my mesa boogie 4x10 8 ohm cab I could still hear my bass clearly. Now I use a 4 ohm bt2 and that works great.

A snippet from a set we did a couple of years back covering music by Ernest Ranglin, Monty Alexander and Bob Marley.