{"id":576,"date":"2016-04-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?post_type=bass&p=576"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:46:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:46:54","slug":"bass-of-the-week-alembic-series-ii-leap-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"bass","link":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?bass=bass-of-the-week-alembic-series-ii-leap-of-faith","title":{"rendered":"Bass of the Week: Alembic Series II \u201cLeap of Faith\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alembic\u2019s basses have been a big influence on custom builders, and it\u2019s easy to see why. They started in 1969 as a live sound consulting operation. Founders Ron and Susan Wickersham then moved into instrument electronics, creating low impedance pickups and what would become first set of active electronics for a guitar. Their first bass was built in 1972 for Jefferson Airplane\u2019s Jack Casady, and Alembic has been pumping out high end instruments ever since.<\/p>\n

\"Alembic<\/p>\n

This week we\u2019re checking out a custom Series II model called the \u201cLeap of Faith\u201d, which got its name from a customer taking chances on their boutique bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk to a future Alembic owner that has little or no experience with our instruments, we are sometimes a tad nervous,\u201d the Alembic website states. \u201cWill they like the choices they\u2019ve made? Will we live up to their expectations? When someone takes a \u201cLeap of Faith\u201d and purchases a tricked out music machine on reputation alone, it is a humbling experience for us here at Alembic. [The customer] convinced us that he knew exactly what he wanted and he was also open to suggestions from Susan\u2019s experience to shape the specifications into a bass that would last a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bass is built with neck through construction featuring a seven-piece maple, purpleheart, and ebony neck matched to a mahogany body topped and backed by a gorgeous selection of bookmatched buckeye burl. The matching headstock is inlaid with the Alembic logo made of buffed bronze with mother of pearl and blue-hued paua abalone shell. \u201cThe rays are mixed paua and red abalone shell,\u201d the company writes. \u201cThe inlay is below the surface of the finish, and is like a beautiful jewel atop the crown peghead.\u201d Its ebony fretboard is adorned with Black Tahitian mother of pearl ovals as well as a custom inlay at the 12th fret.<\/p>\n

The neck is also souped up with blue LED side markers that are powered by the same batteries as the electronics. Pickups include a pair of Alembic SC-1 with a comprehensive set of controls: a pickup selector switch, two volume knobs, two filter knobs, two CVQ knobs, a master volume, and a mono\/stereo switch. \u201c[The] CVQ [is] the continuously variable Q control,\u201d says Alembic. \u201cThe Q is an attribute of the low-pass filter, affecting the frequency you have the low-pass filter tuned to. You can dampen the Q to near zero by turning the control all the way down, or get extreme with a 15dB boost at the maximum, plus all the subtlety in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For more, check out the Alembic website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alembic\u2019s basses have been a big influence on custom builders, and it\u2019s easy to see why. They started in 1969 as a live sound consulting operation. Founders Ron and Susan Wickersham then moved into instrument\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1885,"template":"","meta":[],"builder":[98],"class_list":["post-576","bass","type-bass","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","builder-alembic-series-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/bass"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"builder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fbuilder&post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}