What do you think of Alembic's Blaster?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Saw this page: (link removed)

Alembic's an interesting outfit. What do you think of the Blaster? What's it good for? If you have one, what do you use it for?

Thanks!

 

[John C]

Never used one, but they've been around since the 1970s - I'm surprised their page doesn't mention it but the original was designed for Jerry Garcia - there was one on that "Gator" Strat of his. I'm also pretty sure that Adrian Belew had one on at least one of his old Strats back in his Bowie/Talking Heads/his early King Crimson days (before he started using those modded Mustangs with Roland hardware installed).

At any rate it's just a preamp with all the guts and battery housed under the jack plate.

 

[Blazer]

Yes indeed, Adrian Belew used the "Stratoblaster" in his Fenders.
image removed

But another guy who used the Stratoblaster is Lindsey Buckingham.

That was most likely the guitar he used on "Rumours"

From what I learned, they had Rick Turner as a guitar tech on the "Rumours" tour and Turner would try to get his employers to start playing Alembics. John McVie was eager to do so but Lindsey hated the crystal clear clinical sound of those.

Lindsey had Turner soup up the Blasters in his Fenders so they could emulate the sound of a Gibson but they fried his Hiwatt full stacks in the process.

 

[Mike Simpson]

Lowell George of Little Feat also used a stratoblaster.

 

[FenderLover]

Well, you could mod your guitar, or step on a switch. It's the same circuit on the other end of the cable. How long is you cable? That's where the difference comes in. For most, probably no difference.

 

[kingvox]

I made a Stratoblaster style plate for my Strat out of cherry veneer. Super quick and easy. I drilled one hole for the jack to mount, and one for a DPDT. No routing was required, they both fit perfectly into the pre-existing jack rout, and if you don't like it you can simply go back. Mounts on the same screw holes.

On mine, the DPDT is a bass cut. You can see it here:



As for the actual effect: I've never tried a Stratoblaster. I like the idea though I made an onboard, switchable op-amp buffer for my Strat, which works very well. You retain all your high end clarity and detail no matter where the volume knob is. It runs on a 9v battery. I made one according to this schematic:



I made a turret board out of vulcanized fiberboard and brass eyelets, mounted it under the pickguard (some routing required) where a Clapton boost would normally go. You could very easily use the Stratoblaster style jack plate and wire the buffer to the DPDT, instead of a bass cut, which I have on my Strat.

The buffer goes between the output of the volume pot and the hot wire from the jack. So on the DPDT you simply solder together the top two lugs, middle two lugs are your output from Vol. Pot and then your Hot wire from jack, bottom two are Input from the buffer and Output from the buffer.

So while I don't have personal experience with the actual Stratoblaster circuit, I will vouch for the utility of the design. Having a DPDT right next to the jack is awesome, and opens up many possibilities for tonal control on a Strat. Ever since I made that little plate (you could make a much nicer looking one out of brass), I can't imagine going back to a normal jack plate. It seems like a waste of space when it's such a convenient location for a DPDT that you could do whatever you want with.

 

[Andy B]

Wonderful clean boost. Works hreat in the guitar or as a pedal. I currently have one in a Danelectro. Great for slide. Two knobs: Gain and Volume. The Stratoblaster is the gain knob.
General Guitar Gadgets sells a nice kit.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Good descriptions, good trivia. Glad I asked. Thanks, gang!

 

[ScribbleSomething]

A friend had one back in the 90's. It sounded good. If I remember correctly it had a trim to adjust the output volume. It was easy to install — solderless I think.

 

[ahiddentableau]

To be clear, it's a JFET boost (although that onboard IC buffer project is stylin'). JFETs set up like in the blaster basically operate like the triode tubes in your amp--lots of second order harmonic distortion, so it should be pretty full and warm sounding. If you want to try it, put it in a pedal. As mentioned, unless you're using hundred plus foot cords you're never going to notice any difference, and it'll save you from guitar surgery.

 

[FenderLover]

...I made an onboard, switchable op-amp buffer for my Strat, which works very well....

Where do you stuff the battery? Can you post a shot of the other side of the jack?

If it's just a buffer, I built a small JFET amplifier (+6dB) into the plug, and phantom powered it from the other end. The buffer/amplifier is still physically and electrically in the same place.

 

[Steve Ouimette]

The recent Mu-Tron "Boostron" has 3 different circuits in it, #1 being the Stratoblaster. #2 is the Orange Squeezer and #3 is the RAT. Pretty amazing pedal!

https://www.mu-tron.com/shop/pedals/mu-fx-boostron3/

 

[kplamann]

I put an Alembic blaster in a Lowell George tribute strat I assembled a couple of years ago.

It is the newer "blaster", but I tried to replicate the older ugly rectangular "Stratoblaster" mounting plate.

The battery is normally supposed to be placed in the control cavity; I had a separate battery compartment installed so that I don't always need to remove the pickguard for a battery change.

I did all that for the fun of replicating Lowell's strat, but soundwise it turned out to be an interesting option. It is fuller and richer than the passive sound and, yes, there is a trim pot for the volume setting. You could use it as an onboard booster if you want.

 

[kingvox]

Where do you stuff the battery? Can you post a shot of the other side of the jack?

If it's just a buffer, I built a small JFET amplifier (+6dB) into the plug, and phantom powered it from the other end. The buffer/amplifier is still physically and electrically in the same place.

 

[FenderLover]

I like the phantom power because there is no "install" but I don't get to add a switch either:

 

[luckett]

You don't want to put one of these in the guitar without a bypass if you like to use low input impedance fuzzes.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You don't want to put one of these in the guitar without a bypass if you like to use low input impedance fuzzes.

Don't use fuzz and can't tell low from hi impedance. But my impression is that a Blaster wouldn't do anything my pedals don't do.

(It does look like fun, though!)

 

[Andy B]

It is just a great simple boost.

 

[SPUDCASTER]

Lowell George of Little Feat also used a stratoblaster.

Plus a Tele bridge pickup.

 

[GuitarJonz]

I got an original Strat-o-Blaster on a used strat back in the 80s. It was cool. I hated the black plate, so I took it off, and had the DPDT switch installed on the pickguard. Removed it when I sold the strat, and it sits in my parts drawer to this day. Of course, I lost the black plate. I've got the wiring diagram, not sure if I'll ever use it, being a tele guy now.