Here’s an update on the EBH1505MS from Ibanez. With the help of some others I think I have zeroed in on what its problem is: the pickups are wired out of phase. This results in an instrument that sounds perfectly reasonable with either pickup soloed, but that sounds really wrong when both are used together. I knew there was something wrong with it the first time I plugged it in. Now I think I know exactly what it is.

While I gather the courage (and the tools) needed to rewire one of these pickups, I have made do with just playing the neck pickup. It’s not unlike a p-bass when played this way. So I decided to lean into that sound and play with a SansAmp bass driver DI running full time at the end of my pedal board chain. Using very modest settings: the EQ knobs all dialed back to let the mids rise a bit, gain well below noon, and the blend at about 3 o’clock. The result is a mild retro rock sound that is usable in a wide variety of music. It sounds great in both my little Harke combo and in the gig rig.

Now I just need to decide if I’m going to click it off when I go for the YYZ crunch sound. Likewise with the smile EQ for slap. If I keep it on, I’ll really have to dial those in differently, if it’s possible at all. If I click it off, well, I guess that’s one more thing I have to click to make the transition. I’m leaning toward the latter. The SansAmp really cuts high mids which works completely at cross purposes to the YYZ, at least the way I’ve been using it. In fact, if I have the SansAmp on and I click on the YYZ it almost sounds like nothing changed. Like I’m overdriving the exact frequencies that are being suppressed further down the chain.

I have one week to figure it out because we’re playing at some winery one week from today. But it’s not a big deal. It’s not strictly necessary for me to have multiple sounds in this set. It’s a nice-to-have. But I do have music to learn, so I expect I’ll be practicing every day until next Sunday.