Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

NBD - Alembic Content


hiram.k.hackenbacker

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, RedVee said:

Didn't John file his frets down to the board on his Spyder so that he could get super low action, or was that his Buzzard?. Anyway if you are looking to sell it any time soon let me know, though I think that would be another long shot!

I have no idea, but given John’s style of playing, I’m not sure whether that’s right. My one is very low anyway. It could probably do with just a hair off the tension it has at the moment.

I don’t have any plans to sell. It’s been on my bucket list for some time 😀

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Dear God, no.

There’s a Status Buzzard II in the Gallery that used to belong to John and it’s got Maxima Golds on. I don’t know if it has been set up since he had it, but the action is about the same as mine. I believe someone on the Alembic Club (and poss here?) had one of his Buzzard 1s and said the same. I know that Rob Green said that he set John’s basses up and John took one look and said “they’ll go much lower than that!”, but every time my mate sent his old Status off to a Rob it came back with what we considered an almost unplayable high action, which we then had to drop several mm, so I don’t think that story means that much.

I’ve read and watched quite a few interviews with John and I’ve never heard him say anything about filing his frets to the board. I’d be interested to know where that came from. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I'm really fond of my Series 1.  Really wish it was a 5 string but the only one I'm aware of with the same spec as mine is Jimmy Haslips.  His sounds phenomenal.

 

Er, that’s Jimmy Johnson....phenomenal player. Saw him with Allan Holdsworth several years back. 

Edited by 4000
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, 4000 said:

There’s a Status Buzzard II in the Gallery that used to belong to John and it’s got Maxima Golds on. I don’t know if it has been set up since he had it, but the action is about the same as mine. I believe someone on the Alembic Club (and poss here?) had one of his Buzzard 1s and said the same. I know that Rob Green said that he set John’s basses up and John took one look and said “they’ll go much lower than that!”, but every time my mate sent his old Status off to a Rob it came back with what we considered an almost unplayable high action, which we then had to drop several mm, so I don’t think that story means that much.

I’ve read and watched quite a few interviews with John and I’ve never heard him say anything about filing his frets to the board. I’d be interested to know where that came from. 

John often said he liked the action so low that the strings were on the other side of the frets but I've never heard anything about fret filling.

Having had the pleasure of playing the Status Buzzard belonging to @Wolverinebass , I can confirm they can handle a RIDICULOUSLY low action.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, 4000 said:

Er, that’s Jimmy Johnson....phenomenal player. Saw him with Allan Holdsworth several years back. 

Jimmy has my favourite Alembic tone of all time. Back in the 80's he was playing graphite-necked Alembic in Lee Ritenour's band. The tone was absolutely insane and his playing was unbelievable. 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Chris2112 said:

Jimmy has my favourite Alembic tone of all time. Back in the 80's he was playing graphite-necked Alembic in Lee Ritenour's band. The tone was absolutely insane and his playing was unbelievable. 

 

 

Jimmy Johnson is an absolute gent ... and his tone is the absolute best I've ever heard live from any bassist. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

There’s a Status Buzzard II in the Gallery that used to belong to John and it’s got Maxima Golds on. I don’t know if it has been set up since he had it, but the action is about the same as mine. I believe someone on the Alembic Club (and poss here?) had one of his Buzzard 1s and said the same. I know that Rob Green said that he set John’s basses up and John took one look and said “they’ll go much lower than that!”, but every time my mate sent his old Status off to a Rob it came back with what we considered an almost unplayable high action, which we then had to drop several mm, so I don’t think that story means that much.

I’ve read and watched quite a few interviews with John and I’ve never heard him say anything about filing his frets to the board. I’d be interested to know where that came from. 

As @Cosmo Valdemarsays, an all graphite status buzzard will happily take an action down to less than 0.5mm which is almost immeasurable. If that's not low enough for people I don't know what is. It really is scary. 

Ironically, when I got it the action was way too high for me (especially if you do tapping), but it adjusted down easily. My alembic also takes a truly insane low action as well.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/12/2019 at 20:23, Cosmo Valdemar said:

John often said he liked the action so low that the strings were on the other side of the frets but I've never heard anything about fret filling.

Having had the pleasure of playing the Status Buzzard belonging to @Wolverinebass , I can confirm they can handle a RIDICULOUSLY low action.

On the Alembic website it mentions that John's frets where flush with the fretboard enabling him to get his action super low. I read this about fifteen years ago but I cannot remember the source but I know it was not from the Alembic site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/12/2019 at 14:02, 4000 said:

There’s a Status Buzzard II in the Gallery that used to belong to John and it’s got Maxima Golds on. I don’t know if it has been set up since he had it, but the action is about the same as mine. I believe someone on the Alembic Club (and poss here?) had one of his Buzzard 1s and said the same. I know that Rob Green said that he set John’s basses up and John took one look and said “they’ll go much lower than that!”, but every time my mate sent his old Status off to a Rob it came back with what we considered an almost unplayable high action, which we then had to drop several mm, so I don’t think that story means that much.

I’ve read and watched quite a few interviews with John and I’ve never heard him say anything about filing his frets to the board. I’d be interested to know where that came from. 

Some fret buzz was something he could control better than most players. Notes were never choked out.

Edited by grenadillabama
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, RedVee said:

On the Alembic website it mentions that John's frets where flush with the fretboard enabling him to get his action super low. I read this about fifteen years ago but I cannot remember the source but I know it was not from the Alembic site.

Really? If the frets were flush with the fretboard that would render them ineffective surely?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 05/01/2020 at 00:09, 4000 said:

Well I’ve done a search over there and I can’t find anything, so a link would be appreciated.

I did however find this:

https://www.sonicnuance.com/2017/10/02/rick-turner-interview-on-john-entwistles-instruments/?doing_wp_cron=1578176837.1030249595642089843750

Nice to confirm that John liked his necks dead straight, no relief. Ditto. 

That is a really interesting interview in which Rick Turner covers much more ground than just info re JE’s Alembics. Some great insight into pickups and electronics, the weird and wonderful uses ‘70s musicians had for Anvil flight cases and last but not least the revelation (for me anyway) that the bass John  McVie used for the end section of The Chain was an Alembic fretless fitted with a stainless steel fingerboard!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, EMG456 said:

That is a really interesting interview in which Rick Turner covers much more ground than just info re JE’s Alembics. Some great insight into pickups and electronics, the weird and wonderful uses ‘70s musicians had for Anvil flight cases and last but not least the revelation (for me anyway) that the bass John  McVie used for the end section of The Chain was an Alembic fretless fitted with a stainless steel fingerboard!

I’d read a few times that it was his graphite-necked Small Standard (Stanley shape) that he did that on, so I too was surprised to hear that. I’m not completely convinced. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I don't want to have it out with anybody, I'm just confused by the concept of flush frets! 😆

Just doesn’t make sense....I’ve been a member over there for years and never read that (although obviously I haven’t read everything), so I’d like to see a link to it.

Edited by 4000
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...