jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

y'know, I have the old diamond bundle from like 10 years ago, but I wanted the enw shit from waves so I did the mercury subscription last year. When I'm not mixing I don't pay the $150 and then I renew qwhen I need plugins. I keep considering buying the Waves satlleite processor to take the laod off my CPU so I can get more out of the subscription. Its expensve just like the UA one and waves only makes like 1 virtual instrument and its well modelled but very much voerlaps my existing hardware so tis hard to justify.

I have a 70s 1200 on a shelf too Zach! Used to have 2, but I never DJ so I sold one of them to a buddy... they're still worth a lot.

its funny you liked the Jr so much, your taste seems so far from that with all the fenders and fender-alikes

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-Gibson-Les-Paul-Special-Double-Cut-Guitar-TV-Yellow-w-Gibson-Case-/232265268890?hash=item361416be9a

Lighthouse sound get close for cheap

I'm always tempted to get one of these and have a celluloid or acrylic tort pickguard made for it.... I could even get the robot one and change tuners myself (I have a bucket of Gibson deluxe tuners I kept every time I would put grovers on someone's LP for them) so the savings on the used robot LP special might be the way to go for me. But wow, 800 bucks for a new TV yellow Special with grovers already installed? not bad, man. I wish it had all 4 controls, but hey, you seldom wanna blend the P90s together, the middle position isn't anything to write home about to my ear unlike a standard with PAF copies where interesting shit happens when you mix those pickup knobs at different levels.

why would you want a DS1 out front of a tiny terror? I'm not really thinking 15 watt amp or el84s for 'grunge' heaven.... a lot of those seattle bands didn't even give a shit what they played through anyway, its not really about that for like the guys from TAD or the Melvins... I think Buzzo cares what he plays now but he used to just buy those solid state sunn heads because they were super cheap but super reliable and super loud... you didn't really see a lot of P90s in the 90s despite the name.... I think it was already the millennia when the guys from eparl jam started embracing the LP Jr, not that they were ever particularly grungey other than their hair and flannel shirts. I am usually thinking green river, mudhoney, tad, maybe early soundgarden when someone says grunge. But I was a teenager for that whole thing and I think maybe I have a different perspective than someone whow asn't born until the 90s, its not historical for me yet. Its past but it seems recent... but yeah, P90s, try some old humbuckers too before you go singing the uniqueness of the P90. The bridge P90 and a bridge T-top are not far off. The P90 will be a little more open and extended in the low lows and the highs can get a little more razorbladey under pedal distortion or with a CRANKED marshall superlead. But tis apples and apples or at least apples and pears.

they're okay... Iw as really enamored of them for awhile. It really depends on the amp you use how distinct they sound from a humbucker. I found they stood out most through marshall 18 and 20 watt models. They stood out through a vox, tny terror or matchless, but it wasn't THAT flattering to them to my ear. ABed in the studio against an ac15 the Marshalls schooled it for P90 tones in the room and during playback, but I digress. Not so distinctive through a superlead, blackface fender or even a tweed deluxe. But yeah, if I eneded a Gibson doublecut with P90s I would buy an SG classic or gloss finish Junior not a faded LP special or jr.I really don't miss P90s though. They're mushier than a stple pickup or dearmond 'dynaonic' but pretty much have a similar response to those polepiece magnet types, just not as clear or punchy because of the bar magnet... and a low output, original spec bucker with properly matched coils like the old T-Tops or a Duncan Seth Lover is very very close to the P90 sound side by side. Seth did a great job of getting rid of the hum while keeping the basic sound of the popular P90 with his original design. Particularly close without a cover. All the overwound, large bobbin singles are nightmare at shows since the iPhone came out. just awful. Studio only! None of the hum cancelling P90s I've tried are right, the T-Top is closer to my ear for the kidna sounds I have always been after from a P90. But YMMV

okay, I feel better.... I would debate the hiwatt badge on any amp baring the name since Dave Reeves died. its not like Marshall where the dude owned the company but was really just involved in cab design and finance and the amps were designed by a team, Hiwatts were a 1 man show until Harry joyce got involved and his company just did wiring to raise the production numbers without sacrificing the quality hand wiring. Until Dave died it was 100% Reeves designed. Being a former Mullard employee I highly doubt Dave woulda put his name on a solid state amp if he were alive. I just can't see it, not judgement on tansistors, just saying, he was a tube Hifi head who went over to instrument and PA circuits at a time when everyone was predicting the death of tubes...

so the maxwatt sounds good? the reviews are good but Music Ground ahs no shortage of money to dump into purchasing good reviews. it seems very expensive for a solid state piece. Aren't they 2 or 300 hundred US dollars? Is it trying to sound like a tube amp or is it more like the Quilter amps where they just sound GOOD and do their own thing (and cost an arm and a leg so you might as well get a tube amp)????? I am a little weirded out by a soldstate amp with channel switching in a Hiwatt-style box. Hiwatts are so abre bones for a big head and I kinda love and embrace that.... the only big amps with elss options are the Marshall major and the early Oranges with like 5 knobs (1 of which is pointless, turn it up)

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/61d48e69-624f-47bc-8a9c-573015976085

I'm so pissed that these guys don't have embed code and it doesn't auto-embed in Gchiaren's code yet because this is the perfect clip duration of this line and it LOOPS! This Getyarn site is the greatest movie quote machine. It even has a 'generate meme' feature. Bwahahaha

oh well. If you wanna see my 'off topic' this month you have to click

I've never heard o this hiwatt? I mean, they have a few models ranging from 5 watts now that are a mystery to me but I've enver heard of the one you're mentioning.... I know their parent company I now making those solid-state 'maxwatt' amps with hiwatt cosmetics and strangely they are getting better reviews than hiwatt UK's tube amps LOL But what's a Hiwatt G50?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j89_zNpy1Uw/Uuz0uRCaaEI/AAAAAAAACBI/82X3WdDGjCg/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-02-01+at+8.20.27+AM.jpg

AH! Please don't make me eat an EXTRA deep-friend piece of pulverized chicken-dicks! 10 is already too cruel!!!!!!

"hey, why don't you fill out a financing app?"

because my credit will go down even if I'm approved! every time I open a credit line I am fucking myself unless I use all of that immediately.... I made that mistake once at samash, got a 5k line of credit and decided not to buy a Gibson historic.... I figured if I didn't actually open the credit line it wouldn't matter but I was wrong, I learned that day that just seeinghow much I could get from the finance company dropped my credit score! High class problem these days, my wife torched my credit rating. I don't owe any money anymore and managed to dispute some of HER debts tog et them offa me, but I'm still fucked.... its like starting over as a college grad.

I had one, gift from my dad when my band looked poised to snag a national tour.... but then wound up in a legal battle with our manager instead. I think it was $800ish new. Sold it reluctantly, however, it did develop problems. Apart from losing most of the tv yellow on the upper bout and neck the fretbaord was not well dried in the kiln and despite an amount of conditioning I enver gave another guitar before or since it shrunk and caused me to constantly have to redress the frets until I stopped using it on the road. The cheap mdoels get the rush job woods and sadly that makes them sketchy road guitars for bands going far enough afield that their isntruments endure tons of climate changes and even tempa dn humidity changes from van to venue....

I think I got $500 for it when I HAD to sell it in a hurry, GC shafted me. With a case I would say one that's well maintained, mostly used at home should be worth 600 to 700. I give the 700 for TV yellow, the rarer color.... and cooler. I would just as soon look at a single cut junior at this price range. Or an SG Classic, very similar, much better build. You even get binding. The recent DCs (jr and special) with gloss finish but w/o the pickguard regularly goes for well under 1k because they have robot tuners and people ahte them, but they are easily removed and replaced with grovers or tonepros which will erpform better than stock Gibson 'deluxe' kluson style. You can buy a pickgiuard and frankly black is not half as cool as celluloid tort shell or acrylic tort/swirl on these guitars. Any P90 guitar will need to be heavily shielded for lvie use. Even ebfore smart phones mine needed heavy shielding and I would hesitate to gig with P90s today because they just soak up the iPhone RFI and spit it out at music-volume.... its not like the 60 cycle RFI hum of my youth, its brutal.

you have one of his picks and to get where he is he probably sucked Jimmy Iovine's dick. That's a poem but you can use it as lyrics, I'm putting it in the public domain.

I mean, I can go to the worst samash in my region, play a Memphis 335 that's pretty decent.... its marked way up, but tis there, and if I am clear with the goon at the coutner I'm not shoping he wont bug me, he won't put my name in his lead book and try to get my contact info BUT I still get to play the 4k guitar if I want.

Samash paid me top dollar for my near-mint '60s Fender Bandmaster rig when I needed a large amount of money faster than I could line up with a private buyer. And they paid that 4 figure sum IN CASH out of the fucking registers at my request. Took them forever to sell erh at the mark-up, but she was a discerning player's piece. Super clean outside but all original inside but no leaky caps or anything. A rare find in old tube amps though a less desireable model (for whatever reason, BMs are great). GC totally profiteered off me for my Gibson Les Paul special one time when I really needed tos ell in a hurry (my wife caused a lot of financial problems, a lot)... I tried to sell it to Sam Ash but they ahd tons of Specials at various price points and didn't need more of them, even in TV yellow.... so GC it was where I got thoroughly butt raped. You expect to take a hit from a retailer usually, they need to keep it near market value and still turn a profit... but you don't want to see them factoring in a 50-75% profit margin! more irritating still, the fuckers at GC took my case whichw as non-original to the guitar and spray painted and stuff, a gift from my old bassist.... they WOULD NOT take it without the case even though they usually don't want non-original cases and they always SELL GUITARS without them. I think the manager just liked the case and planned to take it home. Fuckers... just fuckers, super-fuckers.

Someone gave me a GC giftcard for x-mas this eyar. I grudgingly went to get strings... 1st the guy at the counter tried to tell me what strings to buy instead of ernies because 'there's no difference' between them and d'addarios. To me there is, the customer is always right, Next I decided Iw anted to haggle for this beatup old frontman with a thought to modding it and using it as a recording tool.... the eye rolls I got. Like, dude, I have nicer amps than anybody at home, but I want a junker to be creative with. Shut up and tell me who little you can sell it for. I wound up getting it for like 10 bucks (they musta got it for NOTHING with a guitar trade-in) because I think they just wanted rid of me and it worked out how I wanted. Got my 10 bcuks worth in 1 DI guitar track... but I will NEVER set foot in a GC again at this point, for serious. Its a magnet for sharks and morons and everyone who isn't out to bleed or mind-meltingly stupid is overly rude and opinionated, they speak up without being asked questions.... I know what I want, I've been playing 25 years, ASSHOLE! Just sell it to me at a good price and let me get out of this corporate shit hole before I kill someone.

its okay, its okay... just remember for the future that friends don't let friends play modern Ibanezes... except the prestige models, those are still sweet. And friends don't let friends shop at GC.... unless its for strings, that's okay. As your new buddy I amt elling you, friend to friend, stay outta the big box stores, especially GC. Look up some of their financial info and how bad they shaft Fender! Their open and unpaid account with Fender is probably solely responsible for the big Fender price hike from 10 years ago AND its probably the reason that Fender is no longer manufacturing all standard and classic models in Ensanada Mexico and is now doing quite a few in China, why you don't see the cool set-neck Korean models, they've been thinned out, production moved to Indonesia and the quality is way down...

so stay out of GC, they are a drain on the guitar world, really.... they weren't always as bad and when the managers ahd more autonomy there were loations run by giuys who knew how to balance commerce and musicianship.... but now? if I have to pick its Sam Ash! They have overly aggressive sales training that's very antiquated, however they have elgit techs, solid customer service, fair used trading and they pay their bills having generally fair business practices and a general desire to see the guitar market continue to thrive for enthusiasts at all ends of the income spectrum... I mean, they're vicious with competition, but that's America baby. Samash over GC. GC's not even owned by musicians anymore.

agreed, there's no provenance on that site.... its mainly about selling you new gear so you can worship your hero, Johnny Douchebagguitarslingerwhoisaslavetosomemajorlabelstooge

I thought you were from Detroit

I'll bet you can just mount MM type bass buckers in there and go passive electronics but you will need to gut EVERYTHING

its so hard to find adult Velcro.... but that's why I wear cowboy boots.... that and I am one of the only people outside of Nashville's scene to have the balls to wear them

my strat is pretty beat up from all the times I threw it.... the tech doesn't always catch it or you forget you no longer have a tech and the monitor guy just gets out of the way and.... SMASH. I am lucky the headstock never broke off, but its just dinged up thank god. And there are big heel cracks but I know how to handle them... I'll never throw a guitar again though.

its pretty hard to bend any of the 5 alnico formulations commonly used for guitar, if I recall A3 is softest, but tis also the least common of the big 5.... hard to break them too! hell, guys ruin power tools trying to reshape/cut alnico bars cast to a specific dimension into soemthign to fit into a different pickup. Ferrite tends to shatter rather than bend. This is a weird symptom. I am wondering if there's a ton of carbon mixed into these magents to ring the cost down since cobalt is a very expensive metal and aluminum and nickel aren't exactly cheap anymore.... it would explain the need for active electronics with big, honkin' alnico slugs in these ickups if there was non-ferrous amterial in the alloy weakening the flux density... wait, but carbon would make it MORE brittle.... what the fuck could be in there? some less brittle slag material maybe? most slag that doesn't burn out under foundry conditions tends to make alloys MORE brittle.... hmmm

aww, here I go, getting all science.... gut and start over or smash on stage! Smashing is more fun and less time consuming.

nope

https://youtu.be/g8huXkSaL7o

I guess we could put a stove in... I actually couldn't do the spam and peaches without all the beer, I went to culinary school and I'm a serious 'foody'... I actually own a Japanese chef's knife worth more than a lot of guitars, that's how into it I am. But enough beer can make Spam taste good.... or neutralize it and I am going underground for the LONG HAUL

okay, not really... some days though, people are so obtuse they just get under my fucking skin, even on the internet

I am not following? they're polepiece magnets? they're alnico? ferrite? should be hard to damage?

just get a new pickup.... it scares me that you have a damaged MAGNET. I've NEVER seen this in 25 years of guitar playing!

I would straight up GUT this instrument and start over. Get some cool pickups in this format/mounting, get some passive pots and a handful of different value tone caps (I like Mallory 150s in that spot they're cheap but sound better than whats usually stock in guitars.... once you upgrade to something super fancy you spend a ton and while they may perform a bit better than the poly/film caps they're really diminishing returns compared to the price/cap), warm up your soldering iron and make a passive Ibanez to your spec.

Evilbassist is a youngish dude making his first 'basement tapes' with his band and some seriously limited resources. You should chime in . We've been talking in the "what's your home studio" thread. Its cool to talk to new guys who are actually trying to do something and not just lusting after gear to play in their bedrooms.

Every oldster who makes music was once young and cool sowe have a plethora of insane stories.

The screwdriver slude is not terribly original. Sorry Terry. Its no vocoder trick. Thats1st rate as us the story about your inspiration. Just sweet.

yeah

Finally, I feel like some of you (attn: Jim) are WAY more creative than myself regarding the use of components in ways they were not intended. Like using a reel-to-reel tape deck with tubes as some kind of vocal effect, or using a passive DI box to remove hum from your guitar amp speaker.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

okay, I reread this earlier today while replying to Evilbassist and Tel_nobody and I noticed the idea of 'misuse' of equipment and its been buzzing around my head as I do non-music tasks today and I turned my feelings into concrete ideas I want to share with all of you so I hope a lot of EBers are reading...

I can't speak for the designers' intentions (though tis safe to assume them I guess.... they're in the manuals I am sure, thoughthe only gear manual I ever read was the SSL G series primer and that didn't tell you HOW, more WHAT, leaving it up to you to turn the WHAT into a HOW) but I think a lot of audio tools perform a specific electronic job but as far as the musical context of that electronic function? limitless...

This is an extension of the idea that there's no wrong way to play an instrument if it expresses the music inside YOU that way (or conversely that any object can BE a musical instrument if sued to create a patern of sounds that are innately musical.... saw players, spoonman, Einsturzende Neubauten). Now I am huge proponent of learning to play with proper technique and by extension learning to use all the tools in the studio in conventional ways. This is a laudable goal but its a technician's goal, not ana rtist's goal. As creative people we owe it to the manufacturers to exploit (and I love this word) every item they make in every way possible AND as consumers we owe it to ourselves to extract maximum value from every music purchase. Just like I will sometimes do thigns with my tele in the service of my music that would have made Leo Fender cringe I will find a million and one uses for everything else in my audio arsenal. With gear I am more interested in general input, output, THD specs and a schematic than a manual. I want to know how it works not how some guy thinks it oughta be used. can think for myself if I have data to fuel my brain... if everyone just sued recording equipment tey way they thought or were told was intended by the designer there would be no Sgt Peppers, no parallel compression, no heavy guitars, no acid house, no delay, no NS10 woofer as a kick drum mic, no no no??? no music as we know it. It woulda stopped at Roy Acuff and everything would sound the same. You, as a creative person, even if you're just engineering for other people, OWE IT TO THE MUSIC to take the paper specs of every item and exploit them in new ways to further the artistic goals of the project. Documentary recording is a laudable goal and I have done many Rudy Van Gelder or Steve Albini type of recordings when that expresses the music best, but music is bigger than that be it live or recorded. Recently I used my technics turntable as a MIDI controller by 1st employing it as a control voltage source converted to MIDI.... I don't think that's what technics had in mind but it worked a treat after some tinkering. A little understanding of the specifications and a will to make use of an obsolete item in service to my whacky creative vision got me exactly what I wanted but couldn't achieve exact;ly as I envisioned with tools dedicated to faake scratching and power-up/power-down analog playback system FX... and it just required me to forget about the intended purpose of a record player and think about its electronic capabilities, mechanical behavior and previous exploitation of the latter in the Dj sphere while looking at the ability of some of the modern analog synths in my collection to scale and convert voltages to MIDI data that can be recorded and applied to all manner of parameters once digitized.

Keep an open mind, be creative and know the spec sheets so you can apply those figures anywhere and any way they might be beneficial to a song.

As an aside, all the designers I know are delighted to hear stories of creatives using their gear in unexpected and exciting ways and they try to leave room for limitless application of even something as simple and ubiquitous as a DI.

I think I need an EB editorial column called "Jim's Soapbox" (for 80s comics fans you'll remember this was the name of Jim Shooters monthly editorial --handed off from Stan Lee where it was originally Stan's Soapbox-- in the back of Marvel Comics at that time).

this is like a UK thing. We don't have guitar performance as a class until college in the states, and then apart from specialized schools like Berklee and GIT its only classical guitar... but I would suggest learning something outside of your box that will demonstrate you've expanded your musical and technical vocabulary if you want top marks. Try a little chord melody, maybe a standard like "Cry Me a River". The experience of working this out and learning to perform it with fluidity and feeling will improve and inform your rock playing in positive ways as well as impressing your teachers. I know you asked for rock, but I know what I'm talking about and I think going with what you already know does not demonstrate learning and growth in an academic musical sense. Not in the sense I would be looking for as a music teacher. I also don't find most rock offers muchin the way of solo recital content unless you can channel Yngwie and shred some Paganini... even then it demonstrates technical growth and not an increased understanding of musical theory. If you are going to do a rock song try making it into something that stands alone as a solo guitar piece expressing both melody and harmony without accompaniment.

but that's just one man's opinion, I am sure someone else will pipe up

EDIT:

I forgot, what's the goal of the project? maybe you need to tailor the audition piece to show you can handle whatever curves the project throws you. Knowing what you're auditioning to do would really help here... like, I didn't show up to jazz band tryouts with a strat playing little wing, I brought an old guild starfire 1 and played the chart to "take the A train" pretty much verbatim.... as an adult I did an alt country audition with a tele, strat and matchless, no effects and I learned my 3 favorite tunes from the singer's last record as well as working out new parts so I could demonstrate that I can expand a live show beyond the album. When I sued to play in the local Rocky Horror backing band around Halloween I originally got the gig with 335 in hand, a amrshall and a knowledge of all the guitar parts exactly as written as well as kicking out a couple of the tastier Bowie licks of that era while jamming beforehand... use the tools that you will need on the job is the point, and that includes the tools that are inside your head. And don't BE a tool either. But by all means, if its a prog-metal audition play a song BY tool... sorry, I had to. Maybe if you're not sure you could come to the instructor and humbly tell him you really want the gig, know you can handle it but that you don't know how to show him that.... maybe could he give you some idea of what he's looking for? It never hurts to ask a question or for a favor from someone as long as you are respectful. If you don't ask you will never know whereas if you get a 'no' you are no worse off than if you had kept your mouth shut.

One time I asked a label owner if he would buy me a $5k vintage amp as a signing bonus since the band was already financing its own recording and handling its own booking and just need manufacture and promotion.... Iw as pretty sure he wouldn't go for it but you never know until you ask and the guy was just tickled by the ridiculous question and how sweetly I asked him about it... I mean, I didn't get that 1st year JTM45, but it did no harm to ask him for it and we were actually better friends afterwards because of the humorous situation and my sheepish grin!

if you have specific sonic problems feel free to ask me about them or if you want someone to hear a rough mix for general, non-creative advice on the straight up balance? you can hit me up

if you get stuck creatively, ask Eno:

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html

Pigeonholes are for pigeons.

and pigeon-shit! fucking flying rats

I wanna add that everyone is insane, some days I wanna just crawl in a bomb shelter with my SG and a lifetime supply of beer, spam and canned peaches and hide out.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/juha.seppanen/musa/evki/ibabass/ib05.jpg

whoa, fugly in there... I say gut it and build a passive circuit or buy a higher grade active board and install that in place of this

could be dust.... could be a failing pot. Even if it is dust it may be attenuating your highs as the dust clots and blocks the capacitances in the pot. Get hifi-stereo cleaner, yeah. Stuff works wonders but you really have to turn the pot a zillion times to work the dust out of the signal path and a cheap pot ay not survive. You can replace it with something better you know. Also, don't go to GC for tech work. They will hire anyone who can change a set of strings, turn an allen key and remotely solder. Those people aren't REALLY techs and they talk a lot of smack and often make problems worse. Ask Boom about his GC tech experience last year on his Spector bass! Always remember that a chains tore makes little in repairing your old cheapy, the bench time is nothing compared to the profit margin on a new instrument so does the manager of said store want a great tech who fixes everything or a loser who shrug at the problem causing you to shop for a new bass? What's going to get that store manager a bigger Christmas bonus from the GC brass? When the guys who work in the local GC get up in the morning do you think they have your best musical interests at heart or are they thinking about the extra commission they make on enw gear sales that can go towards THEIR next gear purchase or recording time for THEIR band? When you get advice, consider the source. How much do you have to KNOW to work at GC andwhat motivates the GC enterprise? Not much is the answer to the former and NEW GUITAR SALES is the answer to the latter. Weigh that GC employees comments accordingly through your own internal bullshit filter.

those lines have always been artificial and some of the most iconic gear from one scene was specifically marketed at another group of musicians.... take the aforementioned Jazz Chorus! or the afore mentioned Marshall Superlead? The Superlead is known for its great power amp drive, but Andy Summers later used it to great effect as intended. The original marketing material touted it as 'the world's most powerful distortion free amplifier' and everything Jim Marshall claimed in itnerviews about looking for more dirt is untrue. Once they failed tog et a tweed fender sound that could go to 10 clean artists embraced the dirt and marshall did too, but originally they were selling it as a clean amp. Marketing categories, be they genres of music or intended uses for gear are like shackles on creativity and need not be discussed on a site like this.

that's me though.... I don't own a label and would never want to, I don't even want to deal with the drama of music as a career anymore, I do this because I love it and I am compelled to.... and I love to share ideas with other music afficianados

I don't mean to be a dick.... I just hate music marketing (its not even a nescasarry evil in the post-iTunes/youtube age) and totally disagree with a lot of people's feelings on this whole genre topic and will never be brought around. I don't give a fuck about genres and I don't give a fuck what microphone I put in front of a guitar amp. I have preferences in both regards but I don't take either seriously and its about MUSIC, notthe marketing bullshit from David Geffen or the gents at Neumann!

I actually like a lot of flangers better for guitar, but on bass? this is the one. I played about 100 shows with this in-line on a p-bass copy into a couple of B25s or a B25 and a Bassman50

make a tube of fine grade sandpaper and poke it in your hole and give it a tickle... I live near a beach and get some issues with salt corrosion...

good thought.... he could also tighten the jack up and retension the inner TR clip part while he's at it, never hurts

I mean the hole of your output jack...

ahaha... Iw as about to say that as I was reading the the 1st sentence

by any chance, could it have to do with output jack?

maybe, I don't know what the circuit looks like in an Ibanez bass.... tis a weird symptom for an output jackissue on a passive, but on an active? not sure! I don't usually see a lot of these for teching as I mainly tech for friends and they're not into this sort of thing

GO SCIENCE

now you're finding out how I make my mixes so musical, even the roughs you're used to hearing. I use my ears, but I dial in with scientific precision before making artistic alterations. Not one very mix, but I do this a lot. I even take this into consideration when printing peak limiting during tracking. I am really thinking about those time constants and setting them before I really worry about how much reduction I need on my loudest, thickest notes and what kidna knee to use.

I know more evil secrets than just this but no one ever asks.

I am going to throw you one of my personal secrets here to help you with your record:

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-bpmtempotime.htm

why do you need this chart?

a couple reasons:

1) compression/limiting/gating/expansion time constants - apart from being a useful tool to control extreme transients, dynamics processing can tailor attack and decay shapes in musical ways.... this is partially a product of compression ratio but more importantly and often overlooked are attack and release times. knowing the number of milliseconds in a beat of a song can help you to calculate musical timing of attack and release settings which will help you shape channel and bus dynamics processing to enhance the groove of the song. Even when sidechaining a tonal source from a percussive source or working in parallel (the 2 hot ticket compression techniques the last 10 years) using musical time constants based on tempo and meter can really enhance a piece of music... I will start with 16ths or 8ths depending on the source material and tweak and tweeze from there by ear

2) delay and artificial reverb timing in songs that aren't locked to grid.... if you want a synced delay on, say, a vocal but you didn't use a click you may want to calculate the average BPM of the song or set different delays for a verse and chorus based on the BPM... this sit eh chart. Speeds things way up to have it bookmarked on your desktop for quick reference.... tis great when using hardware digital delays, like older rack units w/o MIDI sync or more importantly stompboxes w/o tap but with a time readout ;-) FURTHERMORE when using distant mics you can use this chart to adjust the delay back or forward to be more musical and enhance the groove with a room sound trailing in time, maybe gated or expanded to have a 16th or 8th specific attack and decay time constant like I mentioned above

you don't need ANY specialized tools for this advanced mixing technique, just basic, functional dynamics, delay and verb plugins that come with your recording software or even guitar pedals, OH and you need the chart and a sense of musicality when applying the data on it

the BF3 is inferior, just so you know, don't get a BF3 new.... you want the 2, it sounds good! there are actually a lot of guys on this site who have BF2s and many use them for bass. Its a sleeper classic sound