Alembic Series I.
| Alembic Series I. | |
|---|---|
 Alembic Series I with standard Omega body |
|
| General | |
| Type | Electric bass |
| Manufacturer | Alembic; USA |
| production | since 1971 |
| Construction and materials | |
| Scale length | 34 inch (864 mm) long scale , 32 inch (813 mm), Medium Scale or 30.75 inches (781 mm), Short Scale |
| Body | Solid body made of mahogany and walnut wood ; different types of wood for the ceiling |
| neck | Full , five to elfstreifiger neck maple and amaranth |
| Fingerboard | Ebony with mother-of-pearl inlays, 24 frets |
| saddle | Brass |
| Mechanics | 2 × left, 2 × right; capsuled |
| Footbridge / bridge | Fixed, two-part brass bridge with individual saddles, with partial supports also chrome-plated or gold-plated |
| Weight | approx. 4 kg |
| Pickups and Electronics | |
| Pickups |
2 × single coil |
| Tone control | active; Preamp : One switchable 3-band EQ per pickup, powered by a 9 V battery or cable
|
| Unless otherwise stated, the data come from the manufacturer's website (as of December 14, 2013) | |
The Alembic Series I is a four-stringed in the basic version E-Bass model (with solid body english : Solid Body ) and neck through ( neck-thru ), which from 1971 American musical instrument manufacturer Alembic is built. When the Series I was launched, it set new standards in terms of processing effort and the sound of electric basses. The Alembic Series I is the electric bass model that for the first time enabled high fidelity sound quality on this type of instrument through the use of active electronics in the pickups and tone controls . The Series I was thus groundbreaking for the further development of the electric bass; its design features found numerous imitators and were further developed by other manufacturers. Because of its innovative features and because of its influence, the Alembic Series I is sometimes referred to as the “second milestone” in electric bass construction after the Fender Precision Bass introduced by Fender in 1951 .
The history of the Alembic Series I
prehistory
Since 1969 the company Alembic, a guitar workshop near San Francisco , had made a name for itself in the Californian music community with the construction of electromagnetic pickups with low impedance and integrated preamplifiers , which required its own power supply. With this active electronics, it was possible to significantly improve the electrically amplified sound, especially of electric basses. Some bass players on the local music scene had commissioned Alembic to build such pickups into their electric basses, referred to by those involved as " alembicizing " . The company's customers have primarily included bassists from rock bands such as Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane, as well as Crosby, Stills and Nash . The first of Alembic developed active electronics was established in 1969 in the twelve-string Guild- western guitar of David Crosby built. Crosby is said to use this modified instrument to the present day. The first electric bass in which the alembic pickups were used was a Gibson EB-3 bass by Phil Lesh. The most common “alembic” electric bass model in the early 1970s was the Starfire Bass from the US guitar manufacturer Guild , a semi-resonance model based on the Gibson ES-335 electric guitar .
prototype
In order to be able to test the Alembic pickups developed by the company's founder and electronics specialist Ron Wickersham, the company's guitar maker , the trained carpenter and former folk guitarist Rick Turner, had the prototype of one for Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady in 1971 Electric basses with active electronics (pickups and tone controls) and built with detailed woodwork. The instrument consists mostly of the fine woods of Microberlinia ( English Zebrawood ) and Peltogyne paniculata ( Purpleheart ) and is richly decorated with carvings and inlays on the front and back. The fingerboard of the prototype has a large-format “tree of life” inlay made of mother-of-pearl . Both pickups of the bass can be moved on metal rails between the lower end of the fingerboard and the bridge to enable greater variety of sounds. Turner said he had invested a lot more effort in the construction and design of this one-off piece than was planned: “It wasn't supposed to be a work of art, but I let myself be carried away.” The prototype for Jack Casady cost US $ 4,000 Dollars and was later named Alembic # 1 . The success of Turner's work gave the company the impetus to begin series production of high-quality electric basses based on the Alembic # 1 model in 1971 ; a model range that was named Alembic Series I in 1975 .
Economic success
Alembic's commercial breakthrough came in the summer of 1973. Rolling Stone Magazine had reported positively about the company and its electric bass model in its Pro Audio section . Rolling Stone author Charles Perry's two-page article, titled The Sound Witches in the Service of the Grateful Dead , portrayed the Alembic team as "personable, talented hippies " with a lack of business acumen. The article piqued the interest of Portland-based distributor LD Heater , Oregon . LD Heater was a subsidiary of the musical instrument group Norlin, which at that time owned the US musical instrument manufacturer Gibson along with several other companies in the industry . The distributor's first order from Alembic was for 50 Series I E basses, giving the guitar maker the opportunity to expand and invest in new equipment. LD Heater took on the tasks of sales, advertising and training of sales staff.
The demand for the alembic bass continued to grow when the prominent jazz and fusion bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke also switched from a Gibson electric bass to a Series I in 1973, increasing the brand's awareness. Production was increased to 25 instruments per month, the vast majority of which were Alembic Series I basses (for comparison: in 2005 Alembic produced 1,500 instruments per month).
Equipment and sales price
Due to the high cost of materials and manufacturing, the Alembic basses were among the most expensive of their time in the 1970s. The Series I retailed for $ 1,250 in 1975 - the top-of-the-line model from competitor Fender was around $ 430 that year. As early as the 1970s, the purchase price of an alembic electric bass could rise to several thousand dollars due to custom-made products at the customer's request. The wholesale price for a Series I in its basic four-string version in 2008 was $ 14,800; with optional extras (versions with five or more strings, fine woods and other features) the price of a single instrument can rise to over $ 20,000. In addition, Alembic had already introduced the Distillate series at the end of the 1970s, a series of less elaborately produced electric basses that were offered at slightly lower prices.
In the same year as the first production model, Alembic presented its sister model, which would later be referred to as Series II . The design and equipment of both versions is largely identical; The Series II is also equipped with an extended control unit, which gives musicians additional options for sound adjustment. Both Series models remained Alembic's only electric basses for about 15 years. Another model followed in 1986, the E-Bass Europa . Series I and II are manufactured by Alembic to this day in numerous variants and entirely in Santa Rosa, California, in the USA. In order to make the extended sound possibilities of the company's own electronics available to users of electric basses from other brands, Alembic has been offering a kit called Activator since 1980 , with which instruments from other manufacturers can be connected to the Series I equipment - pickups if they are structurally suitable and tone control - can be retrofitted.
Influence on other manufacturers
The Alembic Series I was not only the first electric bass with active pickups and tone controls, the construction of the multi-lined, continuous instrument neck was also a novelty. Previously, only the companies Rickenbacker with the models 4000 and 4001 (since 1957) and Gibson with the Thunderbird (since 1963) had electric basses with a continuous - but not multi-lined - neck in their product range. The generous use of precious woods was also a novelty for electric basses. Alembic's success with these innovative designs, which began with the Series I , has prompted several other manufacturers of electric basses to adopt the Alembic design in a more or less modified form and in some cases to develop it further since the mid-1970s. These included bass models that were offered at far cheaper prices than the original. The most famous include the Musician E-Bass, who in the late 1970s by the Japanese manufacturer Ibanez was sold and by the bassist Sting of the English pop band The Police gained some notoriety, as well as presented at the same time model SB1000 the also Japanese brand Aria . Smaller manufacturers who were influenced by Alembic design are the Modulus company, which started out as a supplier of carbon fiber instrument necks (to Alembic, among others) and the British company John Diggins ("JD"), whose electric bass model Jaydee Supernatural Classic from 1978 was played by bassist Mark King of the pop group Level 42 , among others . In particular, the active electronics introduced by Alembic with the Series I , which significantly expands the sound spectrum of electric basses, proved their worth and initiated a new market segment: "Active electric basses" are still offered by a large number of manufacturers to this day. An example of this is Music Man , whose StingRay electric bass model, introduced in 1976, became a success that continues to this day. A German company whose electric basses are influenced by Alembic in terms of construction, design and sound is the Löwenherz company . Their four-string electric bass of the same name, presented in 2004, is clearly based on the Alembic Series I and has been further developed in some features.
Construction of the Alembic Series I
The characteristic features of the Alembic Series I are a particularly detailed construction made of high-quality components for the standards of guitar construction and the use of active electronics integrated into the instruments with complex control options for sound shaping.
The woods used to build alembic instruments are stored for years to dry out before they are processed, until they have an average moisture content of around seven percent. Different types of wood are always stored together in order to achieve an even degree of drying. During the drying process, it is taken into account that the wood used is again added moisture by gluing it during processing.
Neck and headstock
Both the body and neck of the Series I are assembled from a large number of individual workpieces made from several different types of wood .
The continuous through the entire tool body neck (engl .: Neck-thru ) exists in the four-stringed standard version of the Series I of three stripes light maple (Maple) and two stripes of dark red to purple tinted wood Amaranth (Purple Heart) , which are alternately glued together . According to the company co-founder Susan Wickersham, cherry wood (Cherry) and birch wood (Birch) are also used for the neck construction . In the case of custom-made products with more than four strings that require a wider instrument neck, the number of wooden strips is increased accordingly (see photo on the right). The purpose of this laminate is to give the neck particular rigidity and thus to ensure an even tone formation. The glued on to the neck, 24 frets supporting fingerboard of the Series I is from ebony and has as Bundmarkierer elliptically shaped inserts (inlay) of different size and gradation of mother of pearl . The neck is equipped with two internal neck tensioning bars that can be adjusted at the end of the neck on the body side.
According Alembic guitar maker Rick Turner this consisting of hard woods rigid construction method is the supporting element for the brilliant, rich sound of the instrument height with a long Ausschwingdauer the strings (ger .: Sustain ). For the multi-lined neck construction, Turner was inspired by the construction of banjos from the early 20th century. The head plate of the Alembic Series I, which is axially symmetrical to the center line of the neck, consists of eleven wooden components glued together in layers. The core of the head plate is formed by the laminate of the continuous instrument neck, on the front and back of which five layers of plywood are glued. The result is a particular stiffness of the neck construction, which has a positive effect on the swing time of the strings . The Series I headstock is slightly angled towards the back of the neck to ensure that the strings are pressed evenly on the saddle .
In 1976 Alembic built a special model with a short scale length ( short scale ) and a full neck made of carbon fiber for the Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie . Due to the positive, but slightly different sound result compared to neck constructions made of wood, a larger number of the Series basses deviating from the original design with instrument necks made of carbon fiber were made between 1976 and 1985 ; a material that is lighter and more rigid than the multi-strip wood construction used before and after. The supplier of the components was the Modulus Graphite company, which would later appear as an Alembic competitor with the sale of its own electric basses. A few other electric bass and electric guitar manufacturers also adopted this design in the 1980s.
Instrument body
The two carcase wings, which are glued to the left and right of the neck construction, are also constructed in a multi-layer “sandwich” construction. Both body wings each have a cutaway at the lower fingerboard approach to make it easier to grasp high pitches. The core of both carcase wings consists of a mahogany board each. A two-ply separating veneer made of maple and walnut wood is glued on top and bottom , onto which the parts of the instrument top and bottom are then glued. Customers can choose between selected tropical woods such as bubinga or cocobolo or other woods with a particularly intense grain for the ceiling and floor . Customer needs are also taken into account in terms of the body outline, neck profile, scale length , number of strings and if any decorative inlays are required in the body surfaces and fingerboard. The instrument makers at Alembic also regularly allow themselves freedom in the choice of woods for the body wings, so that there are many different-looking variants of the bass model.
In order not to impair the visual effect of the wood, the surfaces of the wooden components of the Alembic Series I are usually not covered with opaque lacquers, but almost exclusively with a colorless or translucent clear lacquer; In most cases, a high-gloss polyester lacquer is used for the body and a semi-gloss clear lacquer for the back of the neck. A side effect of the hard types of wood is the comparatively high weight of five kilograms for a four-string electric bass. A drawback of the practice of Alembic combination of a relatively small body of relatively heavy instrument neck and -kopfplatte at an E-Bass with long scale is -Mensur a slight heaviness of Alembic Series I: The vice suspended from a carrying strap instrument slips through the weight distribution of itself in a horizontal position in front of the player's body tends to be less favorable.
In the early versions, the Alembic model had a small tapering shape on the base of the body (company name: Standard Point ). This design feature was introduced to make it more difficult to place the instruments on the floor. Alembic had previously received numerous repair orders for instruments with a damaged or broken headstock; Damage resulting from accidentally falling over electric basses placed upright on the floor and leaning against an instrument amplifier, a wall or similar. With the tip at the bottom of the body, the company wanted to force Alembic users to place their valuable instruments in guitar stands that would prevent them from accidentally falling over. Later Alembic models have different body shapes - for example the standard Omega shape (see adjacent photo) - which do not or less effectively fulfill this function. In addition to the Point and Omega design, the Alembic body shape Small Standard is one of the most widespread, especially for instruments with a short scale length (see photo on the left).
Metal components and electronics
In order to promote a brilliant, high-pitched sound, cast brass is used for the metal parts of the Alembic Series I that are in direct contact with its strings - saddle, bridge and tailpiece . The encapsulated tuning machines in a "2: 2" arrangement (in the four-string version; two machine heads per side) on the headstock of the Series I are chrome-plated or gold-plated and in earlier versions of the model came from the German manufacturer Schaller , later from the US Gotoh company.
The electronics of the Series-I- E-Bass consist of two active electromagnetic pickups with integrated preamplifiers, an also active control unit for sound and volume and two sockets for plug connections . One advantage of active tone control is that even with the long guitar cables (six meters and more) that are often used on large stages, the reduction in the frequency range of the transmitted signal (“treble loss”) can be compensated for by increasing the high frequency components directly on the instrument.
The two pickups are models with low impedance ("low resistance") in a single coil design . The low ohmic resistance of the coils leads to a clearer, "sharper" but quieter sound than with high-ohm pickups. The single coils each have a preamplifier built into the bass between the pickup and volume control. This compensates for the low output voltage of the pickups and ensures a constant frequency response of the sound regardless of the playback volume. In order to eliminate disturbing background noises caused by electrical interference, the instrument is equipped with an additional, phase-rotated compensation coil, which is mounted in its own housing between the two pickups in the instrument ceiling. This "dummy" coil works in the same way as the double- coil pickup type humbucker - by winding the copper wire of the coil in opposite directions and by a magnetic field that has reversed polarity compared to the two single-coil pickups.
The control unit, which is housed in a body compartment in the right lower bout of the body, with which the sound can be precisely adjusted, includes a volume control for each of the two pickups as well as an elaborate tone control . The latter consists of a low-pass filter for each pickup, which is also equipped with a three-stage toggle switch for frequency switching. There you will also find the sockets for the plug connections with XLR plugs (external power supply) and jack plugs (instrument cable for connecting the instrument to a bass amplifier ). A three-stage rotary switch with a "chicken head" knob for selecting the pickup is housed in a separate body compartment in the upper right bend of the bass.
The active electronics of the Series I can be supplied with voltage either via a power supply unit that can be connected externally to the instrument or via a 9-volt block battery inserted in the body of the bass .
The Alembic Series I in Music
The Series I produced, connected to a bass amp, a tone that reflects the whole this type of instrument available sound spectrum in high quality - from deep bass to fine sound details in the high altitudes and the overtones . This innovation enabled bassists to play a more nuanced, multi-faceted game than is possible on electric basses with passive electronics. The Alembic Series I thus made a decisive contribution to the fact that the role of bassist in bands could change from that of a pure accompanist to that of an independent soloist.
Stanley Clarke and the Series I
The popular American jazz and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke plays a special role in the popularity of Alembic electric basses. Clarke has been using Alembic basses since 1973 and was one of the first musicians to exploit the high-fidelity sound spectrum of electric basses , which was new at the time, by using advanced playing techniques ( tapping , slapping ) . As part of a stage performance by the band Return to Forever , Rick Turner from Alembic, who was present as a listener, criticized the sound of Clarke's instrument and presented the bassist with a copy of the Series I he had brought along . According to Clarke, who had previously played a Gibson EB-2 -E-Bass, the expanded Alembic sound spectrum enabled him to “suddenly play everything I heard in my head”. On the front of the cover of his second solo album Stanley Clarke from 1974, the bassist was shown with his alembic bass. Clarke's fame and his virtuoso use of the tonal possibilities of the Series I E bass contributed significantly to the popularity and demand for the Alembic model. Clarke continues to play special Series I models with a shortened scale . To its typical " lead bass sound " to achieve, he agrees the strings of his Alembic basses higher than the standard tuning of a four-string electric bass in fourths , , E, ADG . After more than ten years with his first alembic instrument, the company dedicated two signature models based on the Series I to Clarke in the late 1980s (see photo on the right), the Stanley Clarke Standard (1988) and the Stanley Clarke Deluxe ( 1990). Because of their short length and because of the higher-pitched strings, the bassist calls both models "tenor bass".
Other prominent bassists with Alembic Series I.
The Alembic Series I was and is used by several other prominent bass players. John Entwistle of the English rock band The Who , whose extensive electric bass collection contained several copies, played Series I regularly in the 1970s until Alembic made three special models for him in 1981 according to his specifications (according to Alembic co-founder Susan Wickersham Entwistle owned a total of 15 copies of the Alembic Series II model). Greg Lake , bassist of the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer , got a custom-made product around 1976 with eight double-choir strings and a richly decorated fingerboard. Mark King, bassist of Level 42, also played a custom-made Series I and was also given two signature models by Alembic with the names Mark King Standard and Mark King Deluxe , before moving to a similarly elaborately designed instrument from a British bass manufacturer changed.
literature
- Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the Definitive Guide . Guitar encyclopedia. Backbeat Books, London 2004, ISBN 1-871547-81-4 .
- Tony Bacon, Barry Moorhouse: Bass Book. German edition. Balafon Books, London 1996, OCLC 315491929 .
- Dirk Groll: The noble bass - Alembic Series I. In: Electric guitars . Special issue of the magazine Guitar & Bass on the history of the electric guitar. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 2004, p. 170 f.
- Lars Lehmann: Company profile Alembic . In: Bass Professor , German-language specialist magazine for bass players. Issue 2/2005 - Edition 35, ISSN 1431-7648 , p. 92 ff.
- Jim Roberts: American Basses - an illustrated history and player's guide. Backbeat Books, San Francisco 2003, ISBN 0-87930-721-8 (English).
Web links
- The Series I from the Alembic official company website, accessed March 8, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 12.
- ↑ a b c Bacon: Totally Guitar. P. 300 f.
- ↑ English: “ alembicizing ” - German, analogously: “distill”. The company name Alembic is the English-language name for the Alambic device used for chemical distillation . This still helmet is the main graphic element in the company's logo (see photo of the headstock). According to their self-image, the company "distilled" the sound of the musical instruments it had modified.
- ↑ a b Bass Special - Alembic Series I and Series II . Article and photo gallery in the journal Bass Professor. Issue 2/2009, No. 50, ISSN 1431-7648 , pp. 18-22 (without indication of author).
- ↑ a b c d e Lars Lehmann: Company portrait Alembic. In: Bass Professor, German-language specialist journal for electric bassists, issue 2/2005, No. 35, ISSN 1431-7648 , p. 50 ff.
- ^ Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 39.
- ^ A b Ron Wickersham: Why Active? Chapter on Active Electronics In: Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 19.
- ^ Heinz Rebellius , Dieter Roesberg: The Stradivari of Guitars - 60 Years of Guild Guitars . In: Guitar & Bass. Edition April 4/2012, MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 2012, ISSN 0934-7674 , p. 94.
- ↑ “ It wasn't supposed to be a work of art, but I got carried away. ”- Rick Turner, Alembic Luthier, on building the Alembic # 1 prototype . Quoted from Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 13.
- ↑ Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 13.
- ↑ a b c d e f Susan and Mica Wickersham: A Field Guide to Alembic Basses. Chapter on the history of the Alembic range In: Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 16 ff.
- ↑ Quoted from Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 39, translated by Michael Luxenburger. The ambiguity of the title of the English-language original (“ The sound wizards in service of the Grateful Dead ” - German, literally: “ The sound wizards in the service of the grateful dead”) cannot be translated into German without distorting the meaning.
- ↑ a b c Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 14.
- ↑ Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 15.
- ^ Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 42.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Dirk Groll: The noble bass - Alembic Series I In: Electric guitars . P. 170.
- ↑ Price list valid since January 1st, 2008 on the official Alembic company website (English) accessed on June 12th, 2012
- ^ A b c d Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. Reference part with technical specifications, p. 82 f.
- ↑ a b c d The Series I E-Bass on the Alembic company website (English; accessed on June 13, 2012)
- ^ Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 47 ff.
- ^ Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 58.
- ^ A b Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 54.
- ↑ Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 132: Chapter Music Man
- ↑ Chris Hees: Lionheart 4-string . Test report in the specialist journal Bass Professor, issue 3/2004, issue 32, p. 40 ff. ISSN 1431-7648
- ↑ Löwenherz four-string electric bass on loewenherzbass.com (English; with several images. Accessed June 14, 2012)
- ^ A b c Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 41 f.
- ↑ Examples of the woods used by Alembic on the company website (accessed June 13, 2012).
- ↑ "Try putting a standard point instrument on the wall without a stand - it won't work!" - Mica Wickersham, son of the company's founders Ron and Susan Wickersham. Quoted from Lars Lehmann: Company portrait Alembic. In: Bass Professor , Issue 2/2005, No. 35, p. 94.
- ↑ Helmuth Lemme: Electric guitar sound. Pflaum Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7905-0675-3 , p. 63.
- ↑ Helmuth Lemme: Electric guitar sound. P. 84.
- ↑ Tony Bacon: Guitar Classics - all models and manufacturers. Premio Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86706-050-9 , p. 168.
- ↑ "He said it to me in a nice way:" Look, you play really well, but your sound is awful. " So I tried the bass and it was great. ”Stanley Clarke, quoted from Bacon, Moorhouse, translated by Michael Luxenburger: The Bass Book. P. 42.
- ↑ “ It was like a new bass player was born that night — suddenly, I could play anything I heard in my head. ”- Stanley Clarke on his first experience with the Alembic Series I, quoted from Jim Roberts: American Basses. P. 14.
- ↑ “Tenor Bass” - see also the article Tenor Guitar
- ^ A b Bacon, Moorhouse: The Bass Book. P. 41, with images of several special alembic models by prominent bass players
- ↑ John Entwistle's Gear 1974–1985 . thewho.net, with numerous images (English), accessed on March 8, 2012
