Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It's actually a "Persuader"!
Alembic used the Spoiler as a Model Platform for their Activator Series Pickups. That's why you see the Split-P and Jazz shaped Humbuckers on what is in every other way a "Spoiler"!

I love your "Exlpoiter".
A guy at American Music, close to the Waterfront, offered me an All Mahogany Exploiter for $700.00 in 1985. I didn't have the cash but, I offered him a 74 Rick 4001 JetGlo and an Ibanez Bass & Six-string Double-Neck. He declined.
That year I also got to play a Black Exploiter, owned by Stanley Clark, at the Winter NAMM Show.
That ruined me for a long time.

I would love to have an Exploiter!

That's why I was confused! The P- shaped pickup kind of threw me.

Was the black Exploiter you played the one on the back cover of Find Out! perhaps?



(And to try and keep things Rickenbacker-related, here's a link to that video of Stanley Clarke playing a 4000 w/ Return to Forever)

If I could get one more Alembic, I think it would be an 8-string Spyder - only $12,500 at Bass Central!

Jack, many thanks for the info, that's great. I'll give it a go as soon as I get chance. BTW, that footage of Stanley is one of the things I was hoping to save.

Those Exploiters are cool. Personally I've got a Triple Omega (similar to John Paul Jones's 8 string only mine's a 4). I did manage to post a picture once, but try as I might I can't seem to post anything now!!!

And Harry, I actually know someone who is selling an 8 string Spyder, I think he's only looking at around $8000-$9000 or so...

Hey Harry,

The Exploiter I played had Black Pickups. The guy at the Alembic Booth said it was Stanley's, plugged me into an amp, set me free, then informed me that it could be mine for a mear $1000.00

My Exploiter had Spoiler electronics that I took out and put in a box to create a small preamp wth two inputs for using with any bass. I installed Alembic's VPT with Q switch in it's place. The body was Mahogany with a flamed Koa top, and I had it made into a fretless. I also added a second TRS output jack on the bass and built an outboard AC power supply to eliminate the use of batteries. The tip was the audio signal and the ring was the power supply to the bass. I did the same for the Persuader I had as far as the power supply and VPT-Q switch electronics are concerned. It had a flame Maple top and I added Sperzel tuners to it.

BTW, I have that Stanley Clarke CD, it is the worst thing of his I have ever heard! I bought it for the photo of him with the Exploiter.

Yeah, the '80s weren't the best decade for Stanley, or for fusion in general, huh? At least Time Exposure had that crazy bass workout with Louis Johnson, even if it was only like 30 seconds. I remember liking the last song on Find Out! - kind of a reworking of "School Days".

I think there are a couple of cool solos on it; at the time it came out I really liked some of it, but most 80s stuff (not just Stanley's) seems to have dated terribly. Personally I like his earlier stuff best; his "Brown Album" is one of my all time favourite albums. The last album of his I bought, East River Drive, I didn't like much; I've only played it once, despite it having 2 of my favourite bassists on it (Stanley and Armand Sabal-Lecco).

Jack, back to the plug-ins, any idea what to open the video player into? I've tried Quicktime and it doesn't work and I appear to be a bit stuck. As before, please bear in mind this is for Mac.

Hi Shaun,

Go to this link for a demonstration:
http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php

If you click the box that says "see extension in action" it'll show you the download link tab, and there's a mention of using the 'flv player', and shows you how to save files as flv. Click that to download the flv player, and you should be set.
I assume it's fine for Macs.

Thanks Jack, I'll try that out. Much appreciated!

This was a fun thread!

In keeping with the Rick/Alembic theme, I recorded something new:

circumambulate

The "bass" bass is the 4001, and the lead bass parts are the Exploiter. This one took a long time to germinate - I recorded the 4001 over the drum part (played by Greg DeGuglielmo and lifted from another song entirely), but the lead part was a long time coming. I think it might finally be done...

The 4001 is the bridge pup played with a pick, compressed, then split. One signal is clean through channel one of my Alembic F2-B preamp with the bright switch on, the other channel is through a Fulltone Bass Drive (one of the best bass distortions out there!), though the dirty channel isn't so high in the mix, more for a little flavor.

The Exploiter is compressed, then put into a Roland RE-201 Space Echo, then compressed again. I ran the gain on the Space Echo pretty high, and the second compressor is tube with the gain pretty cranked, resulting in a little bit of fur. The tonal variations were the result of the Q switch activated and adjusting the low-pass filter knob while playing, plus I played most of it with a really heavy bone pick (only the intro and outro were regular pick).

Very Cool Harry!

Thanks Garret! I realized while recording this stuff, I really like my Space Echo! I'm finally using the spring reverb on it.

I originally tried to do all the parts on my 4001. The lead part was going to be heavily saturated - I thought I wanted a smooth, creamy lead part - but I wasn't happy with anything I came up with. Also, I didn't want to bury the "bass" bass part.

Then I decided to use the Alembic, and actually I think this thread helped push me in that direction! It's tuned in 5ths, like cello tuning - CGDA. So that may have helped me come up with something different than I normally would have.