[zambiland]

Well, Series pickups and electronics showed up at the Alembic forum almost the same day, so I snapped them up. They are both very old, original PF-6 and butterscotch colored pickups with single screw tabs. I'm going to try putting the humcancelling pickup inside the bass to start off with to see if I can avoid routing out the bass further. I'm going to wire it as a Series II. Pickups first into a ACG preamp to see how that is while I rebuild the electronics to fit the bass. I still need to round up a few parts (pickup selector switch, CVQ pots) and make sure everything is functioning. I'm also considering building a copper box for the inside of the bass as Alembic did for Starfire mods back in the day to get good shielding.

It's exciting!

[Rusty the Scoob]

You are putting together my dream bass! Soundclips and pics please!

[zambiland]

You are putting together my dream bass! Soundclips and pics please!

It will be at least a month until the wood work is done and probably another few weeks for the electronics to come together. But, rest assured I'll provide both!

[Rusty the Scoob]

I can relate.... my EB3 has been 2+ years in the making and still has a few months to go.

[zambiland]

OK, here are a couple of shots of the bass. I have a pretty serious buzz problem without the humcanceller in the circuit (think early Fender Tele around some neon signs), so I've got to get on the electronics so I can install that. Other than that the tone is great. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the ACG preamp in there as the sweep goes much lower than the Alembic filters, which sounds great. Maybe I could even reverse engineer a Superfilter? Anyway, it's another (expensive) step in the journey.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachmen ... 1308082739

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/attachmen ... 1308082739

[zambiland]

Everything is installed, but for some reason the filters aren't working and I'm getting a lot of noise. I'll get it right, though!

[zambiland]

The filters and everything are now working right. It turned out that I had used the wrong caps and sent the filter up into the megahertz range!
The noise disappeared after I turned the humcanceller around 180 degrees to face the back. Weird, but it works.

[Rusty the Scoob]

That is weird, why would the hum canceler care which way it's facing? Or do you mean that it's facing the back as in toward your body and away from the strings? (which still wouldn't matter... I think?)

Very cool, man! You have the closest bass to the actual Godfather in existence! How does it sound?

[TI4-1009]

I have a pretty serious buzz problem without the humcanceller in the circuit (think early Fender Tele around some neon signs), so I've got to get on the electronics so I can install that.

I'm thinking of The Greatful Dead Movie and Phil getting the buzz (in more ways than one) off the camera during rehearsal!

[zambiland]

That is weird, why would the hum canceler care which way it's facing? Or do you mean that it's facing the back as in toward your body and away from the strings? (which still wouldn't matter... I think?)

Very cool, man! You have the closest bass to the actual Godfather in existence! How does it sound?

Well, there are some other basses out there that are from the same era and much closer. I know of one that lives in LA and is known as The Supreme Being! Apparently its filters have been known to induce nausea.





There is also this one which was on ebay a few years back. It has Pluto filters:


And then this, which is a partial conversion done by Alembic, which is owned by the guy who has the one just above:


I'm sure there are at least a few more out there somewhere.

The hum canceler thing is weird. I guess it has to do with how the noise is sensed and then put out of phase. My assumption is that if it is installed like all other series basses, between the other two pickups, it should be properly out of phase with the other pickups. For some reason, with this one, it does have to face the back of the bass, away from the strings.

As far as how it sounds, it's pretty much like you'd imagine. The low end is really deep and clean and the overall sound is very present and woody. In other words, just exactly perfect!
I'm going to have to get some clips posted, although my band isn't nearly as polished as some of the others who post here.