Alembic bass guitars - anyone know much about them?

irishstu

irishstu

really experienced
So I popped by my local guitar shop on the way home yesterday to pick up some strings. The guy there does basic guitar repairs, but this one's a bit much for him and he knows I do some electronics stuff, so he handed it over to me to try and fix.

It's an Alembic bass guitar with bad electronics (no sound coming out). I'm not finding much info online about this particular pre-amp. Actually I'm not even 100% sure of the model of bass. Anyone?

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Here are some more pics of the individual boards:

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Actually, does anyone know what that faded orange-coloured thing is about the same size/shape as the resistors?
 
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Decent advice, but the guy's well aware how much it's worth. Plus I'm not on the market for a bass.
 
Sometimes it's good to get out of the box. I bought a Fretless Jazz a while a back from a bandy and sold it for a good profit.
 
The store owner just should just contact Alembic. Most of what they make are custom one-offs, so there’s probably a record of what’s inside. It’s possible that the preamp is a one-off and only Alembic would even know!
 
I'd gut it and just put a regular volume, tone, and blend pot in. Who needs to be swapping batteries on their bass.
 
jp_nyc said:
The store owner just should just contact Alembic. Most of what they make are custom one-offs, so there’s probably a record of what’s inside. It’s possible that the preamp is a one-off and only Alembic would even know!
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This is what I was thinking. Rolling Stone did a story on Alembic this passed autumn, and the same folks are still their building the stuff. It doesn't really matter whether it's you or the store owner, but they know their stuff and should be able and willing to help.

Good luck, we're all counting on you.
 
OK, guys. I got it working. Actually it turns out that there is a pretty decent Alembic forum and someone there was able to tell me that two of the leads were in the wrong place. I'd also previously found a slightly dodgy earth wire, which I fixed (I don't think it was bad enough to have stopped the bass from outputting sound).

Even then, it still didn't work.

Then I started reverse engineering the circuit and realised the chip was in the wrong way around (it wasn't me!) Normally this would be easier to spot cos chip holders tend to be marked at one end. However this one wasn't.

I've no idea who messed up all the wires and the chip and I doubt I'll ever hear the truth (I was told nothing had been changed), but anyway, it's working now.
 
Congrats on the repair!!
To this day a Alembic Spoiler is one of the best sounding bass guitar I've ever played & that preamp & their pickups are the answer to why, That an the great builds that they do there. Also it's a 32" scale or Mid scale..
I'm a member at the forum that you went to to get the answers to BTW, They steared me clear of the one I was looking at as they even knew who had it before & what had been done to it.. It looked like the one you have there but with a curly maple top, I could have gotten it for $1200 last febuary-march..
 
el diablo said:
Hopefully store owner will remember your free work for him...
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Yeah, actually, funny you should mention that. He owns a really small store and mostly makes his living giving guitar lessons. This bass belongs to one of his students. It's the only guitar store I know here that has more than just the usual brand new unsurprising stock. He's really into guitars himself and I just really like the guy. He's always been really nice to me too. He's given me free (second-hand) stuff in the past before when I've been looking for parts, including a couple of (cheapo) pickups I needed for a fun project.

So yeah, I did this as a favour (he's not charging his student either). It didn't cost me anything, and I learned quite a bit from the experience. Anyone else and I would've charged them.

He insisted on giving me some Nanoweb strings as I was walking out the door, which he remembered as being a brand I'd bought there before.
 
You did both those guys a great favor, exspecially the student bassist, which in turn really helps the owner of the store & the word of mouth that he'll get from the student/bassist to ALL his buddies, If He'd sent that to Alembic He'd been out Hundreds & a month or two without his bass too..

My hats off to you irishstu..
 
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