Alembic - show us your pics

[andysg42]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='270629' date='Aug 26 2008, 10:51 PM']Right-o. well here's mine as seen in a few threads already.





And one of it in action with its previous owner.




I won't put the Elan 6 in because Ped's already beaten me to it. [/quote]

[andysg42]

fantastic bass,tried 1 of these carbon graphite alembics about 25 yrs ago
wish i had bought it,still 1 of the best basses ive ever played,and ive a had a few dozen....

[lozbass]

[quote name='andysg42' post='910449' date='Jul 30 2010, 05:11 PM']fantastic bass,tried 1 of these carbon graphite alembics about 25 yrs ago
wish i had bought it,still 1 of the best basses ive ever played,and ive a had a few dozen....[/quote]
I've never had the pleasure unfortunately. There's one of these ultra-rare graphite Alembics for sale on the Alembic Club site at the moment (at a firm $10k) - I don't doubt it will sell - an extremely desirable model

[Clarky]

Ooops, just pressed the button on this 1992 Alembic Elan 5! Hope to get this by the end of the week. Having failed to sell my AC Willie Weeks maybe not my smartest move but you only live once!

[attachment=58171:elan54.jpg][attachment=58091:elan52.jpg][attachment=58092:elan53.jpg]

Edited September 5, 2010 by Clarky

[Chris2112]

What a stunner! Lovely top wood on that!

[Kiwi]

[quote name='lozbass' post='911018' date='Jul 31 2010, 09:35 AM']I've never had the pleasure unfortunately. There's one of these ultra-rare graphite Alembics for sale on the Alembic Club site at the moment (at a firm $10k) - I don't doubt it will sell - an extremely desirable model[/quote]
[url="http://alembic.com/club/messages/395/81845.html?1280447172"]http://alembic.com/club/messages/395/81845.html?1280447172[/url]

This one? It's a stunner for sure. The nicest one I've seen had a quilted birch top though. I would have bought it if I'd had the readies but the owner wanted pretty much the same figure for it.

[lozbass]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='945667' date='Sep 4 2010, 08:16 PM']This one? It's a stunner for sure. The nicest one I've seen had a quilted birch top though. I would have bought it if I'd had the readies but the owner wanted pretty much the same figure for it.[/quote]
That's the one - absolutely lovely and now sold. Prices on these are staggering (even by Alembic standards).

Clarky - absolutely beautiful - the walnut makes me go wobbly!

[Jigster]

never heard an Alembic - can anyone describe their sound a little?

[Spoombung]

[quote name='Jigster' post='946356' date='Sep 5 2010, 04:56 PM']never heard an Alembic - can anyone describe their sound a little?[/quote]

[Clarky]

Or, in a distinctly rockier vein (and what attracted me to Alembics), try Metallica's Black Album, eg, Enter Sandman, Holier than Thou or My God of Misery. Quite an aggressive crunchy tone when played by Jason Newsted (or before him, Cliff Burton, who also used an Aria and a Rick)

[TheGreek]

[quote name='Jigster' post='946356' date='Sep 5 2010, 04:56 PM']never heard an Alembic - can anyone describe their sound a little?[/quote]
I always think of it as a Cappucino/ Latte sound..if you know what I mean!!

[Clarky]

Here's Holier than thou by Metallica - check out the bass break at 3:10 and you'll see what I mean about crunchy aggressive tone (not very cappuccino/latte to me!)

[Clarky]

And here's a cracking Enter Sandman from 1991 in Moscow, with Jason Newsted playing a gorgeous black Alembic Elan

[Clarky]

And last one from me - Jason Newsted doing the solo entry to My friend of Misery live on his modded black Alembic Spoiler (like mine but with uprated electronics and an added middle pickup). The first 2-3 minutes should give a good idea of the Alembic natural sound - ignore the last minute of how-many-fx-can-I-play-with-simultaneously twaddle

Edited September 5, 2010 by Clarky

[molan]

[quote name='Jigster' post='946356' date='Sep 5 2010, 04:56 PM']never heard an Alembic - can anyone describe their sound a little?[/quote]

I'm another person who instinctively thinks of Stanley Clarke as soon as I hear anything about Alembics. This is exactly the sound I always think of, Stanley pretty much soling throughout the song over the top of George Duke's synth bass:




Partly because of SC's style I guess but I also associate Alembics with intricate finger work more than any other bass. Another favourite piece of Alembic playing is from the wonderful Jimmy Johnson - if you can spare 4 minutes listen through to some of his really tasteful stuff with James Taylor

[Jigster]

nice assortment of clips guys - ta

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Clarky' post='946429' date='Sep 5 2010, 04:52 PM']And last one from me - Jason Newsted doing the solo entry to My friend of Misery live on his modded black Alembic Spoiler (like mine but with uprated electronics and an added middle pickup). The first 2-3 minutes should give a good idea of the Alembic natural sound - ignore the last minute of how-many-fx-can-I-play-with-simultaneously twaddle[/quote]
I was kind of disappointed by his tone. Alembics have HUGE sub bass which is why they're such an underrated rock bass. But none of that was coming through in Newsteads sound.



I thought this might be a better example but its not. Still interesting though just for the tone.



This one of Led Zep is pretty good for that Alembic tone but again the sub bass seems to be left out.

[jazzyvee]

I'm sure those basses would have sounded good live but over the computer it's gonna sound thin. I have seen the who live and JE's sound i thought was very top heavy.

From a mere mortals personal point of view, i've found that Alembics do respond better to good quality gear, amps, speaker cabs you will never get the best out of them using lesser rigs. I found that every time I use a rehearsal room.

I understand what you mean about that kind of sub bass sound that they give. It's something I've never heard on stage but have been told about it by other bass player friends of mine who have been to my gigs.

I'm hoping to get a reggae gig soon so I can really investigate the low end properly. I read that Aston Barrett the bass player for the Wailers bought himself an Alembic Elan 5 bass in recent years which is a pretty good recommendation for the bottom end especially since it's all maple which is known for a bright tone.

Jazzyvee

Edited September 7, 2010 by jazzyvee

[Musicman20]

[quote name='Clarky' post='946398' date='Sep 5 2010, 05:31 PM']Or, in a distinctly rockier vein (and what attracted me to Alembics), try Metallica's Black Album, eg, Enter Sandman, Holier than Thou or My God of Misery. Quite an aggressive crunchy tone when played by Jason Newsted (or before him, Cliff Burton, who also used an Aria and a Rick)[/quote]

I love Metallica, but what the hell is with the low volumes of bass on the albums?! It seems to have got worse, but AJFA was just plain daft!

[Clarky]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='948342' date='Sep 7 2010, 02:51 PM']I love Metallica, but what the hell is with the low volumes of bass on the albums?! It seems to have got worse, but AJFA was just plain daft![/quote]
Apparently Hetfield and Ulrich deliberately mixed down the bass on AJFA as some sort of mean trick on Newsted although some say it was because they were still grieving for Cliff Burton. I think the former is probably closer to the mark as they made Newsted go through all sorts of unpleasant initiation rituals according to a biography I read. Makes me laugh that there's a bass tab book for AJFA as I really can't hear ANY bass on the album! From the Black Album onwards though I can hear the bass perfectly well, especially the aforementioned as the Alembic cuts through (Newsted switched to Sadowskys in the mid 90s)

[throwoff]

[quote name='Clarky' post='948358' date='Sep 7 2010, 02:04 PM']Apparently Hetfield and Ulrich deliberately mixed down the bass on AJFA as some sort of mean trick on Newsted although some say it was because they were still grieving for Cliff Burton. I think the former is probably closer to the mark as they made Newsted go through all sorts of unpleasant initiation rituals according to a biography I read. Makes me laugh that there's a bass tab book for AJFA as I really can't hear ANY bass on the album! From the Black Album onwards though I can hear the bass perfectly well, especially the aforementioned as the Alembic cuts through (Newsted switched to Sadowskys in the mid 90s)[/quote]

I also heard this story, in fact the poor bass mix is so well known a movement does exist which remixed these with the bass back up at a decent level (alledgedly from the masters, which is plausable considering the quality) under the moniker 'And Justice for Jason'

If it pleases the court, exhibit A -

Edited September 7, 2010 by throwoff

[ZMech]

Played the always fun hypothetical game with some mates of 'what would you buy first if given £1m'. Of course I said i'd phone alembic, followed by a trip to the Bass Gallery.

I currently adore the Balance Heart K body shape, simply brilliant.

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='Clarky' post='948358' date='Sep 7 2010, 03:04 PM']Apparently Hetfield and Ulrich deliberately mixed down the bass on AJFA as some sort of mean trick on Newsted although some say it was because they were still grieving for Cliff Burton. I think the former is probably closer to the mark as they made Newsted go through all sorts of unpleasant initiation rituals according to a biography I read. Makes me laugh that there's a bass tab book for AJFA as I really can't hear ANY bass on the album! From the Black Album onwards though I can hear the bass perfectly well, especially the aforementioned as the Alembic cuts through (Newsted switched to Sadowskys in the mid 90s)[/quote]

It seems slightly ridiculous that they should do something like that simply as a practical joke. I can just about hear the bass on the original album but i guess it depends on how you're listening to it. Also what is up with that video? It starts off in stereo and then fades into mono for some odd reason?

[Chris2112]

[quote name='molan' post='946478' date='Sep 5 2010, 06:23 PM']partly because of SC's style I guess but I also associate Alembics with intricate finger work more than any other bass. Another favourite piece of Alembic playing is from the wonderful Jimmy Johnson - if you can spare 4 minutes listen through to some of his really tasteful stuff with James Taylor [/quote]

Jimmy can't half play!

I always think of Stanley and Mark King when I think of Alembic. Stan went from that strange "rubber band" sound and onto something thin and precise and burpy. A Lovely sound, though quite different from the tones Mark King got from his Alembics...all distinctly "Alembic" tones!

The first minute and fifteen seconds of this demonstrate the Alembic tone perfectly to me (for a fretted bass at least). Bright, piano-like bottom end with a curious, thin and precise sounding top end. Of course, take into account this is a 30" scale bass too. Some awesome playing from Stan here and a great tune too:

[Musicman20]

[quote name='throwoff' post='948563' date='Sep 7 2010, 05:43 PM']I also heard this story, in fact the poor bass mix is so well known a movement does exist which remixed these with the bass back up at a decent level (alledgedly from the masters, which is plausable considering the quality) under the moniker 'And Justice for Jason'

If it pleases the court, exhibit A -

[/quote]

That sounds more 'normal' for bass levels.

I used to, and still to, love Metallica. I just dont see how a Sadowsky suits Newstead one bit. The Sadowsky tone, IMO, doesnt suit heavy music.

That Alembic tone is nice though.