Product: Alembic Excel
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
01/26/2006
at
03:32pm
by
Gary
Features
:
10
Built 10/04
Set neck, 24 frets, Pau Ferro fingerboard, maple neck, mahogany body, Coco Bolo top laminate. 32" scale, 2 Alembic Fatboy pickups, low pass filter plus active treble and bass controls. Body trim is maple and purple heart, hardware is gold and brass.
I custom ordered this bass..as many Alembic owners do.
This is Alembics 'entry' level instrument, but that by no means detracts from the quality in materials or craftsmanship.
Sound
:
10
I play mostly classic rock, prog, and classical. It gets played thru Mesa 400+ and M-2000 heads into Schroeder cabinets, a TC Electronics G-Major ,and BBE maximizer.
You can'y really compare an Alembics sound to others like Fender etc. The wide aperture pickups give it a nice full round sound. The filter, treble, bass, and balance controls, give a wide varerity of sounds from warm and round, to growly, to bright and thin, plus the amps controls. I generally run the EQ in the preamps almost completely flat. Plus, with the filter and active controls it is easy to overdrive a preamp, if thats the sound you're after. And, the electronics are quiet, quietest I've heard.
The best way to describe the sound is clear and well defined.
Since getting this bass my Rickenbacker and Spector get little to no use.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The instrument from the factory was setup up nice. But, I like low low action. A nice thing about Alembics is they're very easy to setup once you get the hang of it. The Adjustable nut and duel truss rods make it fairly simple to adjust things to your liking.
Overall, the bass was flawless when I got it.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
The fit and finish are excellent , the hardware is brass. It's also comes with straplocks. Adjustments are only needed seasonally or when changing string gages. Seems to stay in tune forever.
Customer Support
:
10
Customer support is top notch. While still in the planning stage, I talked to the factory several times, anything they were even remotely unsure of was checked and verified. Nice talking to the owners and designers.
Overall Rating
:
10
Having played since the mid 60's, like others I've gone thru alot of instruments and equipment, from Fender to Alembic. I consider this the best yet and plan to add a fretless version in the future. Even as the Excel is their lowest priced bass, which by todays standards would be considered expensive, (think Squire), custom options seem to be their specialty. Of course the luxury comes at a price. But there's really nothing like an instrument made to your liking and needs. This bass is a real sleeper in the Alembic lineup, well worth checking out if you're in the market.
If something were to happen to it I'd replace it immediately without a second thought.
