Total magic for sure

Wow, that was awesome. Love that Alembic Series 1 bass great playing too!!!!!!!

Yep there has never been anyone better on the Alembic bass than Stanley Clarke. I saw this same lineup a couple of years ago in Los Angeles on their 25 year reunion tour ... they were even better than ever ... such a mind blowing band. And they also played this song of course.

The best live fusion act I've ever seen. Liked Al's sound so well so well, I built up an ES-295 with the same hardware (DiMarzio pick-ups) as he played. Had an Alimbic bass, but the pre-amp was 18 volts and the battery life was less than 2 hours. Believe it or not, they used to make a direct wired power source you plugged into the wall...awkward!

After the concert (their last, in 1975-6-Lexington, Ky Memorial Hall, they showed up at the after hours place I played for breakfast. I remember one of the guys asking about Vince DiMartino, who was at UK, running the brass department. He is a world-class educator and touring player.

Saw Chick 10 years later in a whole different venue-at the Singletary Center. Everything was acoustic and much more experimental.

One of my all-time favorites.


Russ

Hey things haven't changed so much, my Line 6 Variax 300 only has a battery life of 2 hours .... if I'm lucky. But I only use it for a few songs a night mainly for acoustic guitar emulations on stage so it isn't so big a deal but would be if I was to use it all night. But it was real cheap ( $350 ) and is so much easier than having a real acoustic on the tiny stages we play on. Plus the emulations aren't bad at all. And it can also double up as a Fender or Gibson type electric guitar if I break a string during a set on my main guitar. I even use it to play a banjo picking part when we play Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" so I live with the needing a fresh battery problem every night or so.

Nigel, I'm just a curious person (not really that interested in guitars) so naturally I was wondering why you wouldn't use a 110v adapter, so I looked it up at ZZSounds. Apparently there is one and it works very well (see first review). Is this something that has just been recently added? Just curious, is all.

chas

No, my Variax came with the power adapter ... but the rub is it isn't for the guitar. It is to power the floor converter box that converts the guitar signal into a line level signal that is better for recording the acoustic emulations. But the guitar itself still needs a battery. And even worse it seems to me the battery life is much worse when running the guitar into that converter box, more like 1 hour. But as I want it to drive my guitar amp more like a regular electric guitar I don't use the line out converter because guitar amps aren't made for line level signals.

Yeah I thought at first that using the powered box would mean I didn't also need a battery in the guitar. I found out straight away that wasn't the case.


And as you have to use a TRS cable with the line out box I first thought it would provide phantom power to the guitar. Wishful thinking.