Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
The mysteriously unreferenced current model Ibanez 3EMP3LD EQ
- Thread starter admacdo
- Start date
3EMP3LD - Main PCB, 3 band Low noise, Dual gain
3EMV5S - Volume / Balancer, 500k, Solid shaft
3EMB410BSB - Bass / Treble, with Bypass BK SW
3EMM247SB- Mid with Mid freq. BK SW
Pay special attention to the 'modularity' of each satellite component, and the need for dedicated PCB's on most (read: $$$ and proprietary).
Last edited:
These components came to about $92, without S/H added, when I inquired. The main board? $24... sure, okay. But about the same for each of the others? Hmmm, no. Even prewired, no. I can do it myself, cheaper... still not sure what the need is for the aux interface boards, on the pots.
That
Well, proprietary is a given as it's Ibanez's modular system to cover all their basses at present.
When it came down to cost for my upgrade, I looked at all the other options available to me, from the super cheap Chinese ebay specials, to all the other big name brands. I bought a few of the super cheap ones just to see how they performed. (My recommendation is not to bother. They're very limited.)
I even ran into a local electronics engineer at a dinner party who is currently designing a top end EQ for some of the boutique bass builders. We have about five friends in common, but had never met each other before. That he happened to be working on it as one of his side projects absolutely blew my mind.
In the end, having tested a heap of current Ibanez basses, the cost of a 3EMP3LD and the switches that I wanted was about 1/3 of a comparable 3rd party system, with no soldering and very little care.
So my "anchor" reference was a lot higher cost, and direct experience with a lower cost system. The psychology of anchoring made the price quite acceptable to me.
I will be super impressed if you can use non modular pots and switches.
Just having a look at the 3EMB410-S, 3EMM4-S and 3EMV5T47, they all have surface mount resistors and the balance pot has a regular small cap.
I expect that there are some normalising requirements across components to assist with achieving the modularity they wanted. Electronics isn't my strongest area.
Well, proprietary is a given as it's Ibanez's modular system to cover all their basses at present.
When it came down to cost for my upgrade, I looked at all the other options available to me, from the super cheap Chinese ebay specials, to all the other big name brands. I bought a few of the super cheap ones just to see how they performed. (My recommendation is not to bother. They're very limited.)
I even ran into a local electronics engineer at a dinner party who is currently designing a top end EQ for some of the boutique bass builders. We have about five friends in common, but had never met each other before. That he happened to be working on it as one of his side projects absolutely blew my mind.
In the end, having tested a heap of current Ibanez basses, the cost of a 3EMP3LD and the switches that I wanted was about 1/3 of a comparable 3rd party system, with no soldering and very little care.
So my "anchor" reference was a lot higher cost, and direct experience with a lower cost system. The psychology of anchoring made the price quite acceptable to me.
I will be super impressed if you can use non modular pots and switches.
Just having a look at the 3EMB410-S, 3EMM4-S and 3EMV5T47, they all have surface mount resistors and the balance pot has a regular small cap.
I expect that there are some normalising requirements across components to assist with achieving the modularity they wanted. Electronics isn't my strongest area.
I have two of those preamp modules, one is in my SR1800E, with the mid-selector SWITCH.
The other is in my EHB with the mid-frequency KNOB. The parametric mids is kilometers ahead of the switch, IME, AND it will work with that preamp, you just plug it into the VM3 socket. (look at post #19 on the previous page)
However, it might prove difficult to purchase one from Ibanez.
Apparently there is a Talman with the same parametric mids-knob.
You could repurpose your mids-selector switch-hole as the active/passive switch.
Very true, KBD! Regarding the mid freq mini toggle, Ibanez said they probably no longer carry the exact same switch. I can invest in a different toggle for the active/passive function, or get two so they'll match. Yep, I'll have to drill a new hole, cause I plan on keeping the mid switch.
While we're on the subject of mids, having never had a sweepable mid frequency selector on anything before AND having had the standard fixed mid knob as the single change to the entire bass, I would now always recommend it. The changes to available tones are a bit mind blowing. I thought my TRB-5 was cool with the variable presets..
Well, this is amazingly convenient.
As Ronald discovered, there's a difference between the BEQ3 and VM3 output.
Since all my switches turned up last week, I tried both and found that the BEQ3 worked SO much better with the variable sweep mid.
View attachment 4108055
I also used the +6 dB in, rather than the 0db in.
Now Ronald's latest info confirmed what he discovered and I also confirmed.
Thanks Ronald!
View attachment 4108056
It's nice when that happens.
The SR premium wiring also nicely shows the modularity of the board and switch choices.
I've decided that rather than plugging up the two holes left, I'm going to have a look to see if Ibanez makes any pickups that will let me run any single/series/parallel three position switches so that I can do the same trick as my Warwick Corvette.
It would be really nice to have the headless project bass able to be completed using all genuine Ibanez components in a configuration not actually ever used by Ibanez.
Hello!. I own an ibanez btb 846 . When i checked out the preamp , (3EMP3LD) ,, the output was connected to VM3. I changed it to BEQ3 output since the BTB has a 3way mid configuration switch.
I see the 0db input and 6db input. Can u explain to me what the difference is ? And where should i connect the input to? Right now im using the 0db slot. Thanks in advance
I am in the process of toying around with the 3EM preamp modules on a few Ibanez SRs. I figured out that for post-2015 models modules can mostly be swapped without soldering. However, in case of the Bass+Treble EQ module, some soldering needs to be done, since the grounding wires of both pickups (color coded as black) are soldered to the base of the bass poti (see picture). These 2 wires need to soldered to the base of the bass control of the new 3EMb410B-SB module? (See picture) There is a small PCB attached to the bottom of said poti. Any recommendations. Since i'm an absolute noob when it comes to soldering: Any recommendatios on where and how (not) to solder those grounding wires to the side of that poti's base? Thanx.
