We all know Alembics are bloody expensive and can sometimes be heavy, however they are amazing insturments. I have never had the pleasure of playing one, and would love to even own one someday in the future, so:

Which is 'better' out of these 2 models:

The Stanley Clarke Signature OR

The Mark King Signature??

The Clarke one does look better, and I think thats where the Kingbass 'look' came from with the double cutaway body etc. However, the Mark King doesnt even use his own sig bass, and the body contours are more curved than the clarke one.

I know that the Seires I and Seires II Alembics are probably better than the 2 sig models, but I was just curious as to what bass you all thought was better out of the 2 sigs.

Any of you have any experience with these masterpiece basses?

If so, whats your opinion?

Thanks

Hi !

I've never had the pleasure to play on an Alembic Signature.
I own 2 Alembic Series I at the moment and they're great sounding basses.
The long scale maple is from 1977 and the medium scale walnut is from 1978 :


A French guy who often visits the Alembic forum website has created his own website showing pictures of his SC & MK signatures models. You can also download one audioclip of his MK sig by clicking on the link "le son de la Mark King", right after the SC photo gallery. You'll also notice that the Mark King model has nothing to do with a Series I body shape !!
Here : http://www.batraciens-reptiles.com/al...lembic.htm

Your basses are superb.

Does that french guy find a difference between the two basses??

Mike

Well, according to what he described on his webiste, the Mark King model has much more power and definition (brighter sound) than the Stanley Clarke's, maybe because the MK is a long scale whereas the SC is short scale.
He also wrote that he now prefers the mono preamp on his SC raher than the complex stereo preamp + power box on his Series I, though he doesn't mention any difference in sound.

One point to note is that thew Mark King signature model that this guy has features the later Balance K body shape which is much narrower than the models played by MK. This narrower body is supposed to reduce the weight problem. The basses that MK played are still available from Alembic as signature models also and look similar to the one below: -

I've been fortunate enough to have owned an Alembic Mark King Sig Standard and currently own a Stanley Clarke Sig Deluxe. Electronics and construction of the MK and SC models are identical so the only differences lie in the body shape and the scale length. I personally found the MK (original large body shape as shown above) too big - it wasn't the weight, it was simply that I couldn't find a gig bag big enough to put it in, and the hard case was too big to fit in my car or be easily carried around town. I love the large body shape with the tail-point, but it can't be denied that the SC is much more compact, and there's something rather 'gem-like' about its small size and shape. I also prefer the short scale length of the SC not only because you can get around the neck so quickly but also because of the way it affects string tension - the lower tension enables me to pull off some tricky triplet effects that I can't generally manage on a higher tension string. Some say there's a loss of definition in a shorter scale, but I've honestly never noticed it.

I'd actually say that there was more difference between the Standard and the Deluxe models than between the MK and the SC models - i.e. you would notice more difference in going from a Standard MK to a Deluxe MK, than in going from a Standard MK to a Standard SC. The 'Deluxe' model gives you an extra couple of laminates on the back of the body, which look pretty but don't particularly affect the sound, but more importantly, it also gives you extra purpleheart laminates in the neck - the added density of the purpleheart really gives a noticeable warmth and body to the sound. I found my MK Standard beautifully playable, but a little bottom-end-light perhaps. The SC Deluxe has bottom-end for days and a lovely growly quality in the lower register. All other things being pretty much equal, I can only attribute this to the extra laminates in the neck. A huge difference.

Incidentally, Stanley Clarke has never used a Stanley Clarke Signature Alembic, either. His basses have always been Series instruments, like Mark's. Neither signature model is intended to be an exact replica of the basses either artist plays, but are lower priced (and lower spec'ed) models intended to give you an affordable way to get something close to your hero's axe. But they are beautiful basses in their own right, manufactured by hand by the same people and to the same high standards as the series models, and many players do prefer the simpler control layouts of the signature models to the series electronics., and the signatures' solid bodies to the chambered series bodies. Horses for courses!

Anyway, bottom line is, I don't think you can say any model is inherently better: the MK and SC models are basically identical apart from the body size/shape and scale length, neither of which, given the outstanding quality of Alembic's electronics, really makes a noticeable difference to the sound. So it's all a matter of personal preference and what works better for you.

K.

I used to have 2 Alembic. The first was a 6 strings and the second a 4 strings. Both very built basses with very nice electronics. There were 2 things I didn’t like:

1. The bridge. I like to set the height of the strings separately.
2. The sound: a little bit too guitar-like for me. They both lacked a little bit of low-midrange. It might have been the model or the type of woods though.

There are a lot of other basses I like more. On the same range of high-end basses: Fodera, F.Bass, Ken Smith. Other basses I like more than Alembic: Status (needless to say), Pedulla, Fender, some Yamaha.

Talking about Alembic… can someone tell me exactly how the controls of this bass work?

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On the series II there are no "tone" controls as such . To be honest on my seriesII i dont really fully understand whats going on , i just turn them until i get the sound i like but i will try to give some explanation to how they work.

OK here goes..Series II controls are pickup selector switch (left, tear shaped one),master volume, neck pickup volume, neck pickup filter, neck Q switch ( small tear shaped ), bridge pickup volume, bridge pickup filter, and bridge Q switch. (small tear shaped)

The selector switch chooses between neck pickup, both pickups, bridge pickup, and standby.

Basically, the filter control is a low pass filter; as you roll it back it lowers the point at which it passes low frequency signals and blocks high frequency signals, "the range is from 350Hz-6KHz. Wherever you set the filter, only frequencies below that cutoff point are passed." The Q switch is a continuously variable switch and works in conjunction with the filter. It provides 0 to 9db of boost at the cut off frequency you've set with the filter. When the switch is off you get a flat response up to the filter setting or a boosted response the more you turn it .The Q affects mainly the attack portion of the note".

The 5-pin connector provides power to the bass and sends a stereo signal (if you so wish ,separate signals for the neck and bridge pickups) to the amp .This is done using a seperate Alembic phantom power supply that goes between bass and amp.

The system does give huge options in the sound capabilities if you wish to play around with them.

hope that makes some sense....Darren

As for cost , i think i was fortunate .. when i had my bass custom made for me in 1991 i ordered it through the bass centre in London , they Quoted me £3500 (a lot of money 17 years ago ), a week prior to taking delivery they said they had made a mistake and the price should be £4500 . Needless to say they still let me have it for the £3500 quoted, and i probably wouldnt have been able to afford the extra thousand pounds.
Dont think i would be able or willing to pay the new price today though so i count myself lucky for having it.

Thanks for detailed description Beany.

I really like the idea of the variable frequency low-pass filter. The idea looks similar to the Gibson Varitone or the more recent ToneStyler.

Overall, the entire "interface" is a little bit over the top for me. I would have liked: volume, pan, freq, Q. (I am sure it is available as custom option).

One thing I really like of Alembic basses is the nut. It makes the setup so easier...

Overall, the entire "interface" is a little bit over the top for me. I would have liked: volume, pan, freq, Q. (I am sure it is available as custom option).

Hi Silentfly,

this is exactly the configuration you get on the Signature electronics...;)

Not only they build great basses but they can also read my mind! Amazing! :D :D

To add my personal experience to the Alembic way of life;
In '86 I ordered my first Alembic bass, a Spoiler in the Original Body Style. When it finally came I was totally blown away by its sounds and the way it was build. I had some exclusive basses prior to the Alembic, but the Alembic was something unbelievable. Very soon after that bass I ordered my second Alembic, the real thing; A Series II! After a very long wait it finally came and again it was something very stunning. Except for one thing; it was a complex bass. Onstage I was more busy with tweaking sounds than with just plain playing bass. The Series II has so many sounds onboard, it's almost unbelievable. And freaky as I was, I always was tweaking untill I found the right bass-sounds for the right songs. In the studio that's very cool, but onstage ....
It also bothered me that I couldn't use the Series II bass wireless. And so I ended up playing the Spoiler OBS onstage and the Series II stayed at home.
Finally I sold the Series II, because I didn't use the bass a lot.

A few years later I went the the Musik Messe in Franfurt (Germany) and some English pal pushed a headless bass in my hands and since then...

this is my special Series 1, those of you who are on Basschat will know about it already.


In my experience, there's a difference between Series basses and all the other models. But I think the Signature basses are far more practical to play and own. I particularly like maple topped Mark King Sig models - very growly and almost play themselves.