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Alemboid

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Everything posted by Alemboid

  1. Alemboid
    [quote name='haimesy' post='184798' date='Apr 24 2008, 07:57 PM']I have the same progress & its the best bass i have ever had fretless or fretted[different woods. and lined, wasnt brave enough].Good luck selling[/quote] Cheers haimesy, and thanks for the kind words! B
  2. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='184710' date='Apr 24 2008, 06:03 PM']Ohmmwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah... [/quote] No, no. I can't [i]sustain [/i] all the punning. I do promise that my humous won't carry e-bow-la though....
  3. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='184618' date='Apr 24 2008, 04:17 PM']...you're not turning into a Zon Buddhist by any chance?[/quote] Aargh! Yes, mine'll be one with everything... Squeezing some poor innocent baby chick peas as we speak.
  4. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='184595' date='Apr 24 2008, 04:02 PM']Have you got any hummous instead? I don't like the taste of houmous.[/quote] Hummous is certainly more tuneful, although I can never understand the lyrics. I've definitely got humus in the back garden though...
  5. Alemboid
    [quote name='overwater#1' post='184580' date='Apr 24 2008, 03:51 PM']Can I pay in installments for the next, um say, 20 years??? [/quote] Cheers Matt! It is a beaut and to be honest I have a lingering guilty feeling even thinking about selling it as it's so good and the Overwater guys are so very good too. But recent badness involving the aforementioned bit of graphite-y fretlessness and a challenging new dalliance with an NS/Stick mean that something's got to give. As to installments, hmm 20 yrs @ an APR of... let me see. Have you sold your soul yet? (mine went on the big Alembic a few years back) B
  6. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='184567' date='Apr 24 2008, 03:24 PM']Are you insane?[/quote] Well: 1. Quite probably, yes ; 2. You saw what the garage/studio was like last time; 3. Wait 'til you try the new Zon; 4. I'm trying 'serial monogamy' with the fretlesses, or that's my story at the moment... Fancy some houmous?
  7. Alemboid
    And I should add that copious quantities of humous or hummus or houmus will be laid on for any visitors, now this has been 'outed' as the Basschat snack of choice.
  8. Alemboid
    Following a very naughty wallet opening session involving a siren call from a fretless Zon 6, whose image may grace the porn section soon (if you ask nicely ), my otherwise beloved fretless six string Overwater Progress III needs to be gently shown the door, preferably while I’m under anesthetic or equivalent as I’ve been very much in love with this bass in the four years I’ve had it. So here goes: It’s a Progress III Deluxe fretless 6, finished in May ’03. It has the distinction of having been Laurence of Overwater’s personal bass, before, as I understand it, he went over largely to double bass. The bass is 35” scale with the usual maple/purpleheart through neck, walnut body wings and a particularly nice English flame olive ash top. The fingerboard is a particularly thick piece of ebony, unlined except for the rather decorative ‘helper’ dots between the C and G strings. Hardware’s all black, including Hipshot Ultralite aluminium tuners. Usual OW electronics with the East made bass/mid/treble circuit with locking jack + balanced XLR outputs. The condition is generally very good or better: there’s virtually no wear on the fingerboard and absolutely no playing issues; there a couple of very minor dinks around the side of the body (really trivial) and one little crunch at the base of the headstock (ugh, don’t ask...) which you can see in the photos. There’s a little bit of lacquer checking (if that’s the word) happening on the back of the neck around the veloute. Funnily enough my OW guitar has done this too. I mention all this just to be pedantically complete, as the bass really is in great nick. It’s currently got almost new Status groundwound/halfwound strings on it, which I’m not totally in love with to be honest, but they do at least feel quite smooth without being completely flatwound dead. Although TI Jazz flats do sound great on this bass... The bass plays wonderfully well, as you might hope, and has a big, open, quite clean tone to it. Just to ensure that the cliché quotient is kept up, I am of course obliged to tell you that it has ‘tons of mwahh’. Well it really does! The figure I have in my head is something around £1000. Feel free to make an offer approaching this. Offers not involving small body parts or mouse clavicles will be particularly welcome . I’m not really into trades at the moment as I have more than all the basses an Alemboid could ask for, but I’m weak and suggestible when trades are offered, so you never know. Oh, I should mention, it comes with a Hiscox hard case. I’m near Oxford and you’re welcome to come and have a look at it, or even have a look at the bass if you’d rather. Will post under duress, but would rather not. Cheers all, B. [attachment=8118:OWfr2.jpg] [attachment=8120:OWbackend1.jpg] [attachment=8127:OWfr5.jpg] [attachment=8122:OWboard1.jpg] [attachment=8119:OWback1.jpg] [attachment=8123:OWhead1.jpg] [attachment=8124:OWheadrear1.jpg] [attachment=8121:OWcontrols1.jpg] [attachment=8125:OWfullfr.jpg]
  9. Alemboid
    A quick PM....
  10. Alemboid
    And just to add further to the confusion (and Modulus anoraksia), there are at least three types of construction the Mod necks have: this earliest chopped strand "Polane" finished sort; an intermediate weave which looks very similar to Status necks and the current, challengingly named, 'thousand ladies dancing" type. There's a school of thought that the earliest ones, which were very overbuilt, sound the best. Having had this one and some later Moduli, I would probably go along with that.... <anorak now off and hidden>. B [quote name='bassaussie' post='174035' date='Apr 10 2008, 05:32 PM']I didn't know that, I thought it was a bit later. I also didn't know the part about the Modulus/Alembic logo - I've never seen one before!! Thanks for the picture, that's great. Other than that, the logo looks pretty similar to what I had (at least from memory). Thanks for the info![/quote]
  11. Alemboid
    The early Fender-like Bassstar graphite necks go back even earlier in fact, dating from the late 70s onwards. Here's mine (1979-ish, neck number 53): [attachment=7456:bassstar_head.jpg] Just to add to the confusion, at this early stage they were sold as "Modulus/Alembic" in a licensing arrangement Geoff Gould had with Alembic. Although these Bassstar necks had nothing to do with Alembic as such, the period overlaps with the short time Modulus made graphite through necks for Alembic series instruments. Cue a pic from CrazyKiwi....? B
  12. Alemboid
    How much for the GK3-B please? I could use another one as part of my spring "try to love my V-Bass" effort. (PMd too) B
  13. Alemboid
    [quote name='Zonnick' post='96623' date='Nov 30 2007, 12:45 PM']Arrrggghh...the pain! This is not an easy sale... N[/quote] Don't do it! The inevitability of some sort of Zon relationship was sealed when I discovered that an old friend of mine lives only a mile away from Zon HQ in Redwood City, CA. I rather badly want a fretless twin to keep it company now B
  14. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='96580' date='Nov 30 2007, 11:39 AM']Blimey thats almost the same spec as Alemboid's Zon 6![/quote] So it is! Just so it doesn't feel lonely, here's a pic of mine (a Sonus Custom 6) [attachment=3847:zon.jpg] Great price - had it been a fretless I'd be gnawing someone's arms off at this point... B
  15. Alemboid
    "Redneck" - irony in the US isn't as dead as I thought Marky L: Sounds like it would have been good if you'd won that bass. I regret that I've never 'met' another one... B
  16. Alemboid
    [quote name='Marky L' post='81251' date='Oct 30 2007, 01:58 PM']Oh bloody hell, that was it I'm sure!! Did it sell to some one in the Oxford area or were you from there? Yup, I fancied having a 4001 for a long time and when I discovered the Blackstar then it was THE obvious choice. I'm still pi**ed that I missed it. Thanks for posting the pics too M.[/quote] Ah, funny you should remember the bass after all this time. I'm from around Oxford, the guy I sold it to was from Essex/Herts or somewhere around there (we met up on the M25 services...). I think he then re-sold it a while later, again on ebay. I only know this because the second highest bidder from my original listing emailed me to say that the chap had re-used (ie nicked) my photos for his listing Knew I had the pics somewhere in the vault of previous basses. There have been so many. It was a good bass, and rare, just not for me as it turns out. B.
  17. Alemboid
    I had one of these very basses a few years ago. Essentially they were just a limited run of a basic 4003, mine had the certificate proclaiming it to be one of only 199 made, or some such number. They made a white one too if I remember rightly. Apart from its undoubtedly considerable blackness and small dot markers, it was just another 4003. This was the only Rick I've had - after lusting after since I was very young, I discovered their complete unsuitability for my playing style Great with a pick though. Sold it in 2002 on ebay for eight hundred and something... Perhaps this was the one you remember? B [attachment=3154:rick_blackstar1.jpg] [attachment=3155:rick_blackstar2.jpg] [attachment=3156:rick_blackstar3.jpg]
  18. Alemboid
    Looks like the bass unit from something like a Celestion Ditton 15 hifi speaker. Probably mid 70s-ish. What's its diameter? If 12" or thereabouts probably from a Ditton 66. Potentially nice sound but very limited power handling for bass! B
  19. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='19047' date='Jun 17 2007, 07:11 AM']he would demonstrate its resiliance by literally tossing it into a corner of the room[/quote] It's funny you should say that. Many moons ago, when the Steinbergers first appeared, I went to try one at whichever big music shop was in Camden (London Rock Shop?). I don't know whether Steinberger had made it a requirement of any demo that the bass be rigourously abused, but after putting new strings on it to demonstrate how quick and easy that was, the guy there started using it as a sledge hammer on what I'm fairly sure was a bare concrete floor. I think the idea was to show that it didn't go out of tune very easily. Having ritually attempted its sacrifice, I was handed the bass to play. I didn't buy it. I did get one a few years later though. It makes one wonder just how many XL2s out there are demo basses which may have gone through the same treatment. B
  20. Alemboid
    [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='18740' date='Jun 16 2007, 11:02 AM']Ben, sounds to me like we're in agreement! [/quote] What, are you saying I didn't read your post properly?! You might be right
  21. Alemboid
    [quote name='tempo' post='18064' date='Jun 15 2007, 10:07 AM']Cheers Alex & Alemboid! informative as always. I was thinking of a 700-1000w power amp to drive it, as i am well aware that deep bass needs real power. Most of the pa amps (mackie etc) have sub (30hertz) filters, so would employ that. Another question(s) though, I already have a Hartke 2.5XL cab, would this work ok with the B2, or is its higher efficiency going to nullify the benefits of the Acme? Can the B2 handle small/med gigs w/o pa support (my band has just vox & guitar in the pa). Cheers Pete.[/quote] Tonally I've got no idea what the Hartke would would sound like in combination with the Acme. If you're ever down in the general direction of Oxford you'd be welcome to try it out with an Acme or two. If you were using a stereo PA amp, much as I do, you could easily drive one cab with each channel and adjust the gain to compensate for the efficiency difference. Two B2s will cope very well with medium sized gigs and no PA reinforcement. Whether one will very much depends on drummer volume. The drummer I currently play with has a monster kit which he thrashes as if it's some sort of catharsis for him. One B2 is marginal with him, but if your drummer is more 'sensitive' (possible oxymoron) you'd probably get away with it. B
  22. Alemboid
    I think the problem with hickory, or any other wood exhibiting fast and slow growth patterns (including ash, oak) when used in the 'precise' bits of an instrument, is the relatively poor dimensional stabilty. While the alternating open and closed grain provides great resilience, hence the use of hickory or ash in things like drum sticks and hammers, it also tends to flexibility and dimensional change in relation to temperature and humidity. Not ideal for a neck really. It's not by accident that maple, for instance, with its close grain and consistent density, is a safer choice. Graphite's pretty wonderful too. CK: not sure about the graphite neck/low density wood thing. My ancient Modulus/Alembic Bassstar (the one in my avatar) has the most absurdly heavy walnut (or possibly koa) body and has the thickest tone imaginable. It's too heavy to play for very long without a team of support staff though. B
  23. Alemboid
    Not much to add to Alex's response. I was very lucky to get both my B2s in the UK so can't really comment on any import issues you might have but the delivery cost to the UK is surprisingly reasonable ($20US over the US delivery charge). Even with a worst case duty+VAT+handling charge a B2 should be about £350-ish, which is very fair indeed for what you're getting. Huge power amps are ubiquitous and fairly cheap these days (usual plug for the Yam P7000s here) so the sensitivity question is not terribly relevant any more. A recent gig had the sound guy scratching his head as the venue's half-decent PA with large-ish subs was incapable of approaching the sound of my two B2s. Bass extension & mid/high quality were obviously better from the Acmes and volume/SPL comparable. B.
  24. Alemboid
    [quote name='thumbo' post='15094' date='Jun 10 2007, 02:55 PM']Oh my! He's got more bass gear than the average bass shop.[/quote] He seems to be a one man support system for the entire amp/cab/custom bass industry. It's fair to assume he's scraping by in his day job as a lawyer. B
  25. Alemboid
    I was sitting in the garage thinking "god, there's far too much stuff in here", when I found this link: [url="http://www.bowlusblog.blogspot.com/"]http://www.bowlusblog.blogspot.com/[/url] Rather puts things into perspective, don't you think? B
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