Ignoring the beater bass gigs or dodgy places where you wouldn't want to take an alembic.
 
 What is it that determines what alembic  you take on a gig. Is it more about the music you will be playing or a personal choice because you feel more comfortable with a particular instrument or something else?
 
At the moment I am choosing the Black Elan 5 or standard Europa for reggae. Now that I have series basses as well I would take one of them if it was more of a concert setting in a theatre.
 
For my jazz/funk band I have in the past taken my Europa 5 or my SC Deluxe depending. Now I would think more about taking my series basses unless there was a lot of slap bass in the set. In that case I would take my standard Europa because there is a bit more thumb space between the base of the neck and the neck pickup.
 
The folky band I play, we don't gig that often and for those I'm trying out my Series II as it has the clearest acoustic type tones which I think work well with the acoustic guitars used in the band.  
 
Jazzyvee

I just bring my brother with me.

My Essence comes with me on every gig regardless of The Dodgy Factor(tm).  It's a fabulous instrument and it's meant to be played.  Why suffer with anything less?
 
If I need a 5 string I bring my Rogue. However I'm quite sure that bass is feeling a bit jilted lately as it hasn't been out of the house in years.

Take Your sound with you.
 
Anything less defeats the purpose.
 
You have the axes you have for a reason.  Don't you?

Yep in part its about taking your sound with you, though I was more interested in the reasons people take specific alembics to a gig. For example when I played more guitar live, some of the factors that determined what guitar I took was not about the sound of the guitar, more for security reasons,  especially if I was touring I didn't want to risk losing a more expensive instrument or one that I had owned for a long period of time.  When touring in certain countries I had to up my insurance to cover me in that country so in that case was better to take a cheaper instrument because minimum time period for the cover was a 30 days.  
 
if I knew a particular venue was likely to be full of intoxicated punters, I would be concerned about the instrument getting damaged. Other times it may have been purely cosmetic because we knew the gig was being filmed and/or being photographed. But the guitars were always good guitars.
 
But after a while I decided that I wanted to enjoy playing a particular guitar regardless of the punters, because I loved the way it played and sounded so that became the primary reason along with the sound I needed for a particular gig.  
 
Now that I haven't done guitar gigs with any frequency for years now, and I only have alembic basses to choose from for bass gigs, I'm trying to make decisions based which bass I feel is more appropriate for the music I will be playing on a particular gig. Yes you could feel that any individual alembic bass is going to fit any genre of music but some are more fitting than others for both sound and the ability to perform certain playing techniques without distraction.
 
Jazzyvee

No need to ignore the beater bass gigs, Alembic is the only bass to bring wherever we play (I don't have much of a choice) :-)
 
I always bring the Elan 5 and the '83 Spoiler, if Sad but true is on the setlist the '88 Spoiler also comes along (tuned ADGC) and most of the time the '90 Elan comes as backup (never needed though) The '88 Spoiler can also serve as backup for the 5 string.
 
For my other band it is: Fretless Orion and '90 Elan for backup.
 
My Fender is as good as retired, I only take it to special gigs (like the All stars gig some weeks ago)

What about the Prodidgy? Those stickers rock!

People ask me that a lot and I tell them it depends on the set list. If I am playing an older musical with lots of wind players I take Europa fretless with signature electronics for the sweet mellow upright growl. If it is a rock show with guitars and keyboards I take series one fretted Europa . It breaks my heart but, no alembic goes to an outdoor night time summer gig in Illinois. Have been known to take both and switch off as the music demands. John

For example, tonight I play Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which is all horns with the fretless signature. Then up early playing at church which is a contemporary set. I know one guitar player has PRS the other has a Jackson . Keyboard will have a Hammond so i will play a series one. I love them both , my wife likes the way the series one presents itself out front in the house mix.

I'm just on a 3 hour drive home from a reggae gig and took my maple europa 5 signature bass. I have an outdoor festival gig tomorrow and thinking of taking my series 2 Europa for a change as it hasn't seen much gig action.  
Jazzyvee

 
 
(Message edited by Dlbydgtl on August 10, 2013)

I have seen pics of your maple, love it!, Series 2 wise choice. Those electronics will make your Europa pop right to the front of the mix outside, especially the night air..have fun. John

Thanks John, I did take the Series II with me yesterday and it was by all accounts a great big sound out front. I will post some pics here once I get round to downloading them from my camera to my mac.
Unfortunately once again I had an old Ampeg rig which was useless even the keyboard player commented that it was the worst sounding ampeg rig he'd ever heard.  
 
Jazzyvee

Right now, I'm playing most every gig with my SCSD SigDeluxe. When my Rogue is delivered, I'll probably go-to with that bass and change the setup of my SCSD for specific stuff - super low action more than likely. For crazy rock and roll gigs, I take out my Exploiter - always a great show bass!

My MK gets gigged all the time, the 'beater bass' I have is my Squier P bass which has Alembic PJ activators & a Baddass bridge, the only reason it is a beater is because my son used it when he was in emo bands and the body has took a few knocks but the electronics have survived and it sounds and plays great!