I am interested in getting the above pups for my home made bass.
I have a couple of questions so if you could help I would be very greatful.
Firstly what is the difference between the 2?
I mainly record direct to recorder (AW16G) as opposed to playing live, will I need a dedicated Alembic pre or will a good mic pre with DI do the same job?
The pups on my bass at the mo are a pair of EMG Jazz what sort of results generaly can I expect with replaceing them?
I may make a bass just to use the Alembic pups is there anything else I need to know or take into consideration?
Kind regards,
FTI

Ralph, welcome to the club.  I can't address your questions but I did see this thread which talks about some AXYs for sale.
http://club.alembicguitars.net/Images/395/22254.html?1131847259
 
Rich

AXY and HB refer to the pickup shapes. The AXY is the classic Alembic soapbar size, and is the same shape we use on Series I basses, Spoilers, and Stanley Clarke models. HB are direct replacements for Gibson humbuckers.  
 
The electronics suffix of AE-1 is only for 1-pickup models, like a P/AE-1. That will get you the split P pickup and 1 volume and 1 filter control.  
 
Most of the electronics we sell are the PVF (like AXY/PVF). These include a pan, volume and filter control.
 
AE-3 is the suffix for the pan-volume-bass-treble arrangement of controls. You can use just about any pickups we make with either the PVF or AE-3 electronics (or even electronics from an offered model, like Signature).

Here are some I found on ebay uk and they are very cheap.
You may want to check them out.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&shortcut=0&from=R41&query=alembic+activator&category0=