[zambiland]

A picture is worth a thousand words. I have to shoot the back at some point, it's awesome as well, with the continuous wood backplates.

[strumminsix]

Outstanding! Details, please!

[jdsmodulus]

WOW! IMHO there is only one brand that does it better than Modulus! Great score! Beautiful!

[seamones]

Superb piece of Coco Bolo. Scale? Electronics upgrade?

[jackr]

That is sweet. Must have set you back a pretty penny.

[hogan]

edwin,
I'd post that anime cartoon girl popping a huge boner that then pops three more boners .Gif , but i'd probably get kicked off the forum. Stoked are you.

[zambiland]

Outstanding! Details, please!

Well, the history is as follows:

I had a 1978 long scale series I in schedua that was a wonderful bass (http://alembic.com/club/messages/411/47 ... 1270676966). It was in pretty bad shape as far as the finish, so I sent it back to the factory for a refinish as well as an omega cut (I never liked the little tail those basses had, much prefer the omega cut). They did a spectacular job. However, the bass was ultimately too heavy and was causing serious neck and shoulder problems, so I sold it. I then mentioned casually on the Alembic forums that if I ever found a nice short scale cocobolo with LEDs, I'd probably buy it, thinking that a used one might pop up. A week or two after that, Mica called me up, saying they had one just like that with a slight issue. The original customer had specified a certain distance of the neck pickup from the neck and he meant from the edge of the pickup and they interpreted it as from the middle, which resulted in pickup placement like the old school short scale basses rather than the new ones, which have the pickup closer to the bridge. So, they started a new one for him and had this one that was almost done. So, we figured out the rest of the details and 9 months later, here it is!

The details are: Short scale Series I in cocobolo with the following options:
Side and front LEDs and dimmer control for the fronts (which is the extra knob down by the edge of the bass).
Continuous wood backplates.
Abalone inlays.
Volume/blend layout instead of volume/volume.
Master on/off switch
Gold tuning pegs (not something I requested, it just showed up that way!).
Recessed gold straplocks.

While it's still heavy, it's a lot more manageable than the long scale and plays just wonderfully. The long scale did have a really cool tone, this one is a little bit more lumpy in the low end, but I need to experiment with strings a little more. I have to say that the way this bass is set up is pretty amazing. It plays more in tune than any bass I've ever played. Not only are the fundamentals in tune, but somehow it seems like the harmonics are in tune as well.

If it were up to me, I never would have ordered the front LEDs. They are a little ostentatious. I might have also ordered different colors (maybe amber at the 12th and 24th frets.) but it's pretty fun and people seem to like them.

[strumminsix]

Very cool and thank you for the story, dude! I am very happy for ya!
You have that content look with relaxed arms that one has when they are happy with the axe they are holding!

[Rusty the Scoob]

So jealous, and so happy for you! That bass is perfect!

I'd have picked the Vol/Blend setup, too.

So cool that the pickup is in the old-school location.

How's it sound?



Total tangent and sorry for the hijack- any sound clips of the Starfire with Bartolinis mentioned in your Alembic.com thread? Was it a mahogany or maple version?

[zambiland]

So jealous, and so happy for you! That bass is perfect!

I'd have picked the Vol/Blend setup, too.

So cool that the pickup is in the old-school location.

How's it sound?



Total tangent and sorry for the hijack- any sound clips of the Starfire with Bartolinis mentioned in your Alembic.com thread? Was it a mahogany or maple version?

The Starfire is mahogany. There is a record I recorded with it called Reckless Habits with Great American Taxi. If you go to their myspace, I think there are clips. It wasn't the greatest capture of that sound, but you can hear the basic idea. http://www.myspace.com/greatamericantaxi There are also shows up at archive, but I'm only on them up through July of 2009. I'll try to get some more recent clips with Shakedown St. together.

The Alembic sounds really nice, but it's taking me a while to dial it in. There are so many options! I think if I were to do it from scratch, I would do the neck differently: maple/mahogany/ebony/mahogany/maple. The maple/purpleheart might be lacking in mids a little bit. The bass has a surprising amount of bottom end for being a short scale.

[Laytonco]

Nice Edwin! I'd love to hear it. What's next on your schedule in Denver? I've been in India the last couple of months and need to hear some familiar tunes!

Peace,

Gil

[mgod]

Gorgeous bass Edwin. As you probably know by now, I think T-I short scale are the best strings in the world at the moment. If you haven't done it, try both rounds and flats and see how you do. It can require an adjustment of technique due to the lower tension. I use T-I on all my short scale basses and the long flats on my Alembic.

And yes, back pic please.

[Rusty the Scoob]

Interesting observations!

An Alembic lacking in mids!? That doesn't seem possible!


Purpleheart pretty much sounds like Maple from everything I've read and from tapping on various pieces of wood while building my Tiger-shaped bass, I believe it to be true. Fender has made thousands of all-maple necks with good mids... but I could see a neck-through being much brighter.


I don't have a ton of short-scale experience but I never thought of them as not having enough bottom...

Thank you for the clips! I'll give them a spin tonight.

[zambiland]

Gorgeous bass Edwin. As you probably know by now, I think T-I short scale are the best strings in the world at the moment. If you haven't done it, try both rounds and flats and see how you do. It can require an adjustment of technique due to the lower tension. I use T-I on all my short scale basses and the long flats on my Alembic.

And yes, back pic please.

Yeah, I'm tempted to swap out the strings. I have T-I flats on my Starfire and I love DR Sunbeams. I have both strings at hand. However, the way the bass is setup right now is so amazing that I'm loathe to mess with things. This bass plays more in tune than any other bass I've ever played and it's hard to disturb that. However, I might as well get to it as it's going to happen. I really love the way Thomastiks interact with Alembic style filters (I have the ACG filters in the Starfire with one low pass per pickup).

Rusty, as far as the mids thing goes, when I was at the factory a couple of years ago I played a Brown Bass that had mahogany in the neck and it had a midrange quality that was just wonderful. This bass is more around the highs and lows. It was interesting last weekend, Shakedown was playing Shakedown St. (imagine that!) and for 99% of that gig I use a pick, but I couldn't resist and decided to do some slapping during the jam. The tone of that was so perfect! Deep bottom and excellent snap and it was a really quick sound, not muddy or floppy.

However, I think the Thomastiks are going on this weekend.

[tigerstrat]

It was interesting last weekend, Shakedown was playing Shakedown St. (imagine that!) and for 99% of that gig I use a pick, but I couldn't resist and decided to do some slapping during the jam. The tone of that was so perfect! Deep bottom and excellent snap and it was a really quick sound, not muddy or floppy.

Hold the phone- you play in Shakedown St. now, e? Is Ted G. still the Man?