Hi all, I am going to be taking ownership later this week of my first Alembic - an 86 Spoiler with quilt maple top. I will be honest and say I was attracted to this because Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted played this model and I am a huge Metallica fan. However I have been a long time passive Fender Precision user. So the controls on the Spoiler are a mystery to me. Could anyone explain them please (I did do a web search but came out not much wider - I saw mention of a Q-switch but didn't really find a good explanation of what this does). All help much appreciated!

Congratulations on your first Alembic. Like many of us here you might find that one is not enough. :-)  
 
Here is a link to the Spoiler Electronics description. You might also want to  take a little time and review Joey's setup post. There are many other things in the FAQ and Must Reads if you wish to look.  
 
Keith

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum.  Congrats on your Spoiler. Enjoy and Play it Healthy!  Art

Thank you guys. The link you provided is just what I needed!

Mark -
We like pictures.
When you get your bass take several pictures of it and post in the Showcase section.
 
Welcome to the club! :-)

The pics I have from the seller are just over 300kb - I tried to load them on this site but the limit appears to be 150kb and I'm not savvy enough to know how to reduce the memory size of a picture :-( And my camera is even worse, every photo it takes is >1Mb! Any ideas for a techno-idiot like myself on how to do this, gents?

(At least) One of the board's moderators, Art (artswork99), is a brilliant expert (not only) of resizing images  ... I wonder why he did not chime in yet  He will, within the next minutes, probably...
 
If not, I may give it a try, just send the pics to my email (click on my underlined nickname on the left), and I shall resize and display them for you  
 
greetings from Germany, Christian

Thanks Christian  Mark, Feel free to send the pictures to the email address in my profile and I will gladly resize and post them here for you.  Best, Art

Thanks Art (and Christian). I will mail them to you (Art) now and set up a post for you to put them in. Cheers Clarky

Maybe I have done it - let me try
 

OK, didn't work so sent you pics Art

No problem.  Send me large resolution pictures and I will resize them.  I am getting ready for a meeting now and have rehearsal this evening, therefore I may be out of touch until later tonight. Regards, Art

See Showcase Thread for pictures