jazzyvee Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 On 14/01/2021 at 20:30, dmccombe7 said: Like that a lot. Me too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 @4000,absolutely correct. I have had one since 2002 and it does neck dive plus the top leans away from your body. I didn’t want to sell what was my dream bass at the time so i got used to it and found a way of playing it that didn’t bug me . Now i just naturally adjust it. But i havd read many threads stating neck dive as areasom to offload it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 1 hour ago, 4000 said: The Stanley Clarke shape typically neck dives like crazy. I had one - a fantastic bass - but sold it for that very reason. Certain shapes will always neck dive, whoever they’re made by. It’s nothing to do with quality. Must admit if i was buying a bass at that price i would expect a perfect balance on the strap as part of the build. That's really surprised me and its something i never gave any thought to when looking at the Alembic basses. Kind of throws a whole new light on them. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 46 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said: Must admit if i was buying a bass at that price i would expect a perfect balance on the strap as part of the build. That's really surprised me and its something i never gave any thought to when looking at the Alembic basses. Kind of throws a whole new light on them. Dave Alembic now do 'Balance' versions of the Series and Signature basses. They look too skinny to me but apparently they remedy the balance issues. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Would have thought with neck dive you would add body weight rather than go skinny. Will that not make it worse. ? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Mica from alembic has said that Stanley gets over the way the short scale bass hangs by fixing the strap directly to the bass using a big screw and washer. I haven't tried that yet though. http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=24945.0 Edited January 18, 2021 by jazzyvee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) 13 hours ago, dmccombe7 said: Would have thought with neck dive you would add body weight rather than go skinny. Will that not make it worse. ? Dave The longer upper horn shifts the position of the bass when playing so the neck doesn't extend as far. Edit: Alembic explain it better than I do! http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_ootw.html Edited January 18, 2021 by Cosmo Valdemar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 14 hours ago, dmccombe7 said: Must admit if i was buying a bass at that price i would expect a perfect balance on the strap as part of the build. That's really surprised me and its something i never gave any thought to when looking at the Alembic basses. Kind of throws a whole new light on them. Dave Balance isn’t just about weight, it’s also about the shape/dimensions of the bass and where the strap buttons are. It’s pretty basic physics. Some people want a bass to look a certain way, and if that’s how they want it to look they take the rough with the smooth. Unfortunately you can’t overcome physics! Depending to a degree on the body shape, most basses need the strap attachment of the top horn to be somewhere around the 12th fret to balance correctly. Obviously depending on certain other dimensions of the bass, and the weight of the body compared to the weight of neck/headstock, this will vary slightly, but as a general rule it’s more or less the case. The strap button on the SC is on the neck heel, which as stated above means that it doesn’t balance and also that the body tips forward somewhat. Now this won’t bother some people; it evidently never bothered Stanley Clarke too much or he’d have asked for a different shape! Other people, like me, it bothers a great deal. Of course different SCs will balance somewhat differently based on the weight of the body (dependent upon woods, electronics, whether hollow or solid etc) but they will all neck dive to some extent. One other thing about the two original Alembic shapes, bear in mind they were loosely based on the Gibson EB and Guild Starfire; they came up with those shapes a long, long time ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 14 hours ago, dmccombe7 said: Would have thought with neck dive you would add body weight rather than go skinny. Will that not make it worse. ? Dave As above, balance is not just about weight, it’s as much to do with the shape and where the strap buttons are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) 15 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said: Alembic now do 'Balance' versions of the Series and Signature basses. They look too skinny to me but apparently they remedy the balance issues. I love the Balance K shape. IIRC it had just come out around the time I ordered my Triple O, but I was dead set on the Triple O. With hindsight I wish I’d got a Balance K as I probably could have kept it. Unfortunately the Triple O was a little too heavy standing up and was uncomfortable to play seated; a hollow BK would have solved both of these issues. FWIW the Balance K is smaller than the Standard (Mark King) shape, which is what Cosmo was referring to, it’s a bit more like an SC with an extended top horn. They do loads of other shapes too. If you haven’t been on the Alembic site yet Dave then do, there’s loads more info than we can provide in brief here. If you want a shape that balances, pick one of the ones that does. Don’t consider the fact that some designs won’t balance really well as some sort of flaw, they’re simply based on a particular aesthetic choice. FWIW I’ve played some old Wals that don’t balance well, and some Warwicks aren’t the best. Edited January 18, 2021 by 4000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obi 2 kenobi Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Looking at most Alembics, including my former Essence, they all appear to have bridges that are placed a bit too forward. If the bridge was even an inch back, may be it would help the balance 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Obviously you can compensate for that by having a longer horn, as above. I actually like having a bit more body behind the bridge because of how I rest my hand. The Rogues and Balance Ks balance fine, as do the Epics and Orions, at least as 4 strings. One of the problems with multi string Alembics is the necks can often be quite chunky, which won’t help matters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Does anybody know why the custom quote generator isn't working? That's a valuable resource as it reminds me that I'll never be able to afford a new one and to get my head out of the clouds 😆 Edited January 18, 2021 by Cosmo Valdemar 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebassmusic Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 19 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said: Does anybody know why the custom quote generator isn't working? That's a valuable resource as it reminds me that I'll never be able to afford a new one and to get my head out of the clouds 😆 You only think its not working properly because the decimal point looks like it's in the wrong place! 😥😂🤣 Now where's my Lotto ticket gone to? 😂 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 3 hours ago, jazzyvee said: Mica from alembic has said that Stanley gets over the way the short scale bass hangs by fixing the strap directly to the bass using a big screw and washer. I haven't tried that yet though. http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=24945.0 I didn’t try that, but my SC didn’t have strap locks, just strap buttons, and still neck-dived/fell forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 My shorty has two sets of strap systems, schaller and dunlop. the dunlops were added by a previous owner and the end one is higher up the upper body edge which does reduce the balance and forward lean but not completely. I guess another less cool way to stop neck dive would be to put the strap on like this. 😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Never expected to see the phrases 'shorty' and 'strap-on' on Basschat.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike f Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 1 hour ago, yorks5stringer said: Never expected to see the phrases 'shorty' and 'strap-on' on Basschat.... And don’t forget that once you’ve got the strap on there’s nothing left to do but plug it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 9 hours ago, 4000 said: As above, balance is not just about weight, it’s as much to do with the shape and where the strap buttons are. So you say... and many of the points are correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Just now, itu said: So you say... and many of the points are correct. Er, not quite sure what this means..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 1 minute ago, 4000 said: Er, not quite sure what this means..... I try to explain this in the near future. I do not speak English as my mother tongue, so I need to do some work with the text. So sorry, this takes some time, but I'm workin' on it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 15/01/2021 at 10:24, Doctor J said: I have a couple of "Monthly Challenge" tracks I did with it. I'll bounce down mixes with the bass turned up and upload later. Oops, forgot all about this. Here they are. First one is overdriven and slightly favouring the bridge pickup with some treble rolled off. Second one is cleaner and about 65% neck pickup with some treble rolled off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Thanks for sharing @Doctor J really enjoyed those. Is the bass DI'd in them. Has a nice clear tone, not too bassy or top end. Nice. Certainly like the bass tone. The first track Fireball is my kind of instrumental music. Dave 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Thanks. Both DI'd with a plugin used for the overdrive on the first one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 (edited) I've always found that DI'd basses sound "smoother" and "warmer" I'd like to get that DI sound thru an amp and cab but never really managed. Came close once with a Genz Streamliner 600 into Berg ae112 cabs. They sounded great on their own but in a band setting they dropped out and i just couldn't put my finger on what caused it. Tried various EQ settings but nope didn't work. Do you have any live clips of your Alembic just to hear a comparison. ? Dave Edited January 22, 2021 by dmccombe7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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