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John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin

Alembic Basses and Guitars

Played by the Rock Stars

I just stumbled on to the name of a Bass that is played heavy duty by the Rock Stars. The company also builds and sells Guitars but they are best known for the Basses they build that Many Rock Stars own and play, and the Rock Stars must buy the instruments, Alembic does not give the Rock Stars Basses or Guitars.

The Alembic Owners feel that the best endorsement is if a Star Buys their Bass or Guitar. And of course they are correct in this matter. I know a Builder of Electric Violins that feels the same way. The Electric Violin Builder is now selling enough Electric Violins that he is up to capacity in building the instruments. In other words all the Electric Violins he can build are already sold.

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If one wants to buy a fine instrument and even pay hand made prices they can often get something that is not close to being as good as a decent factory made Guitar or Bass for the number of hand builders is great and many of the hand builders simply are carpenters and not people who understand how to build a musical instrument to make the instruments sound great. Probably at least 50 percent of the hand builders can’t build an instrument that approaches the quality of a decent factory made Guitar or Bass.

The founders of Alembic were sound consultants to Many Rock Stars. Alembic designed pickups that they installed in many Rock Players Basses, then they started building the entire Bass using the very best tone woods and coming up with a design that is superior. About 4 or 5 Bass Companies that builds Electric Basses far superior to the Fender Bass came into being by in some ways copying Alembic in using the best tone woods and superior design plus better pickups.

You can get an Alembic Bass for as low as $4000.00 which is of course not cheap. However Alembic Basses go as high as $15,000.00.

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It’s nice to know that there are Alembic Basses for sale on Ebay, used of course, and the price is usually somewhere around $3000.00 but can go to a very high price. However, if I was able to have an Alembic, I’d want a new one and break it in myself.

I’ll admit I’m intrigued with the idea of having a $15,000.00 bass and the fact is that bass is not my main instrument. However I have played Bass Professionally quite a lot in the life of my music career and a ho hum bass is most assuredly not inspirational and in some ways is de-motivating.

Alembic is holding true to building super high quality instruments and will not license their instruments to be built in Asia and sold as cheapies that have low quality. That shows pride in their work and product. If one buys a Alembic Bass or Guitar they know they have the real thing and do not have an Asian Cheapie of low quality sound and workmanship.

The biggest names in music are quite often paid to play a certain brand of Guitar or Bass in public for this is the best advertising that any Guitar Company can get. It has been told that many big names in music would buy the Alembic Basses and use them on their Recording Sessions then use the Guitar or Bass they are paid to play on personal appearances.

High level players have the ear for the tone quality of and instrument and they know what they want. So when the Big Name Musicians record, they use the Guitars or Basses that fits the songs they are recording. I personally have used as many as three Guitars on one part in one song when doing multi track recordings. One part of the song might sound best with a smooth and rich sound of Electric Guitar with an Acoustic Sound Box. Another area of the song might sound best with a certain type of Solid Body Guitar. And still another part of the song might sound best with another Electric Guitar. In Modern Digital Multi Track recordings it is possible to change Guitars in the middle of the song and to change Guitars more than once to get the sound you want.

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For the person who cannot afford $4000.00 for a Bass, the Bass I prefer most is the Warwick Bass. The more expensive Warwick Basses that are up to around $1400.00 or more have a sound that is absolute great and to me they are far Superior to a Fender Bass.

When you go down in price, I would choose an American Made Fender Jazz Bass that is priced around $1100.00 or going down even further in price I’d choose a Fender Mexican Jazz Bass that is priced around $449.00.

If you want more than just a low end filler then you must have a bass with superior tonal quality. Even a $200.00 Bass will give you that low end filler, but it will not be the sound that any real Bass Player who has developed would want.

The music most definitely comes from the musician and not the instrument, the instrument produces only the sound. However, if one has a great sounding instrument it can be very inspirational to the musician and he/she will play at a higher level of artistry.

Lee

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