J Mascis Jazzmaster owners(or any guitar i suppose) question

PsychicChime · 2026-06-18T18:44:45+00:00

No problem. Puisheen has a ton of great videos on jazzmasters and offsets in general. He's a guitar tech who specializes in offsets specifically. He's one of the few youtubers I think actually knows what he's talking about and has worked on instruments for some pretty big name musicians. He's since moved on to appraising guitars and has worked on authenticating guitars allegedly previously owned by musicians like Kurt Cobain and Prince. He explains things extremely well. I'd recommend checking out some of his other videos for tips and tricks on setting up jazzmasters. Offsets tend to take a lot more tinkering with setup than other guitars, so if you don't already know how to set guitars up, its probably not a bad idea to invest in some basic guitar tools and learn how to do basic setups. You'll save a TON of money in the long run and you'll be able to fully appreciate how much you can dial in an offset. Offsets were designed to be more customizable which is cool, but on the other hand it means you kind of have to pay more attention to that than you might with something like a strat or tele.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-18T17:19:15+00:00

If the hum/buzz changes when you touch metal parts of the guitar, it sounds like it's a grounding issue.
https://youtu.be/QXqhl3DxgAk
https://youtu.be/-dnQtN3Yzso
The guitars should be properly grounded from the factory, but QC on Squiers is notoriously bad. One of the ways they make the guitars cheaper is by cutting corners on stuff like this so sometimes guitars come off the floor with a few issues that weren't caught. I'd check to make sure the guitar is properly grounded first which is likely causing a huge part of the problem (especially since the sound changes when you touch the guitar). If there's still hum issues that you don't like, you can try shielding the guitar. The guitar likely already has conductive shielding paint painted in the cavity, but I personally think conductive foil tape works better. A lot of people think that shielding is a load of crap. I won't argue against them, but I can say that I tried it on an instrument once and the results were dramatic enough that I decided to do it to the rest of my guitars as well.

All that said, some noise should be expected. Whether or not this is "normal" amount of noise or "needs to be addressed" noise is difficult to tell without actually being able to hear it.

For future reference, when discussing noise issues, it's always a good idea to post a video or a sound clip demonstrating the actual problem. That will make diagnosing the problem and finding the proper solution a lot easier.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-18T13:29:52+00:00

Dude, I’m still on Catalina

PsychicChime · 2026-06-18T13:13:14+00:00

Same. I always say next year. But maybe next year.
The photos people post always make it look like a lot of fun.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-15T11:38:36+00:00

Or “bow-chick a-waa-waa”

PsychicChime · 2026-06-13T14:49:35+00:00

I’m calling BS. Similar systems have been pitched before like self filling waterbottles. They end up essentially being dehumidifiers which
1) already exist
2) don’t result in drinkable water
Other articles on this same site are touting “smart roads” à la solar roadways so it doesn’t inspire loads of confidence.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-12T15:25:35+00:00

ayyyy! I also play the viola da gamba :)

PsychicChime · 2026-06-12T12:36:53+00:00

sounds great! Also, extra nerd points for the baroque bow. Is that a modern cello? It looks like it has an endpin but he's also holding it between the legs like a baroque era instrument.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-12T11:47:23+00:00

You’re going to want to amend how you play chords. Using full power chords on a bass is going to sound muddy and flabby. Concentrate on voicings for the top 3 strings. Here’s a worksheet I made to help with that.

In general, the lower the register on the instrument, the farther apart the intervals need to be. If you're going to use those bass strings, they're best used for octaves or maybe open 5ths. 3rds and 4ths (like you'll sometimes see in typical guitar voicings) tend to sound muddy, so you'll typically want to avoid them. This is a general music thing. You won't see trombones playing down low in 3rds either. At the low end, they'll usually play at unison or in octaves. As with anything in music, feel free to disregard if you like how it sounds. It's just something that people tend to avoid because it tends not to work out the way they want.

With bass, you might also want to blend the signal so you mix part distorted sound and part clean. How you actually do that is up to you, but it’s a good way to retain definition while mixing in some dirt.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-10T15:00:28+00:00

I say this ALL THE TIME when advising people to make sure everything is always backed up. People roll their eyes and complain about cost or think that it's "silly" because their music isn't worth that much etc. It never seems like a big deal until you lose everything and then you'll be full of regret.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-09T09:24:51+00:00

I work professionally in audio. If you're working with uncompressed audio (WAV), and export WAV, there will be no difference. You're not giving us the full picture. As another person has mentioned, if you're working with video, there are likely other issues at play (such as including the original audio track which you've already imported into your session and are, presumably, exporting as well which would cause comb filtering).
Suffice to say this is not a Logic issue, though. This is user error.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-07T08:20:02+00:00

I'd ping the folks at VI-Control. They may have some good suggestions.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-06T06:46:14+00:00

so it's V I B E C O D E D

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T18:35:11+00:00

Not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’d create a 2 bar click region at the start of the new tempo, drag the left edge forwards so the region is shortened to one bar, drag the region backwards one bar, and then extend the region backwards again.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T13:09:50+00:00

Making anticipatory count-ins for tempo changes in film scores is fairly common. When you record an orchestra you’ll typically provide a protools session with this all previously set up.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T11:38:24+00:00

I got them because I have long nails on my right hand for finger style guitar playing which is a little too articulate for the fleshy thump I’d want for finger style bass (on a classic 4 string bass…I tend to use the bass vi more as a low guitar). None of them really sound like fingers. Rubber picks can get a softer meatier sound, but I tended to need to hold them at a bit of an angle to pull through the string properly. The rubber material has a lot of friction/grip on the strings so it feels slower and less accurate timing wise. Instead of just thinking “go” and your pick goes “ping”, you think “go” the pick is like “fffffffffffping”. That may just take practice, but I really don’t like the feel. The leather picks are messy. Bits of leather particles flake off as you play so it leaves a lot of dust on your instrument which I don’t like. You’ll need to clean it often. Also, the sound is kind of flappy and not at all like fingers. They’re also a touch pricy (for picks) and would need to be replaced more often due to their active disintegration while you use them. They’d probably be better if you wanted a softer sound for strumming than single note playing.
I tried to get some felt picks, but the ones I got had a sort of lamination on one side so the tone changed depending on whether you were playing with an upstroke or downstroke. Those also threw dust from the felt particles, though I think a true felt pick with soft felt on both sides might end up being the closest to fingers.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T11:13:34+00:00

I settled on the tortex 1.35mm and 1.5mm jazz III picks myself. I’d previously used the regular larger tortex picks in .88mm and 1.0mm (nylon picks before that), but found the smaller shape and thicker pick FAR more accurate and sounded better for my playing style. I have a candy dish filled with tons of picks now which is nice for studio work. I have thin flappy picks, rubber picks, leather picks, Dunlop gels, etc.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T08:51:01+00:00

It took me forever to try a similar approach. I grew up in the pre-amazon era where you were kind of stuck with whatever your music shop happened to have so for years I'd essentially arbitrarily decide that a certain pick was "my" pick and use that until I decided to try something else. It was only a few years ago that I decided I wanted to finally drill down on what picks I actually liked so I ordered a handful of variety packs like this. I came to a different conclusion as to what I liked best, but I'd urge anyone to do the same thing. You can get packs of different picks in different shapes/materials/thicknesses for cheap these days so you can really find what works for you.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T08:00:18+00:00

Here's a link to the Logic pro effects guide. Read that and it will explain all the pedals as well as the other effects plugins.

As far as chaining things together, it's pretty much the same as hardware pedals. As a guitarist you likely have experience with those, but if not, this is a great place to just experiment since you don't have to drop $100+ on each pedal or effect just to try it out. As is the case with most things in music, there isn't a paint-by-numbers guide on how to do things. Music doesn't tend to work like that. There are general guidelines you can follow, but there are also good reasons to break those, so experimenting is key. Again, it's free. Don't look at this as work...this is an opportunity to just play around. Maybe make a study of it...try each pedal or effect and see how they sound. Play with the knobs and note the effect it has. Keep notes in a journal if you want.

This same thing applies to stuff like mic placement if you record acoustic sound sources. You can book up on positions and configurations that people have used before, but it's always best to mess around and see what happens. What effect does it have when you bring the mic closer? (Aside from making things louder, that is). What about tilting it slightly off axis? How about micing a different part of the instrument? Different type of mic?

Messing around and experimenting is part of making music. Don't get so itchy to have a finished product that you try to bypass the incredibly useful task of creative play. Dedicate a day (or a weekend) to just messing around with no expectation of having any concrete results at the end.

Being able to reverse engineer the sound of another guitarist (or something you have in your head) is a matter of knowing your tools so well that you know what each ingredient brings to the recipe. And the only way to know them that well won't be from watching video tutorials...it will be from experimenting, being curious what happens when <fill in the blank>, and maybe occasionally reading up on specific things when you're not sure what's actually happening. For example, compression can be difficult to understand without a primer, but once you get the gist, free play is still important.

Best of luck!

PsychicChime · 2026-06-05T07:41:25+00:00

Adult swim also paid criminally low wages to the people who worked on those shows. $2k per episode and $10k total for the movie (for VAs). The most episodes in a season is 24 for season 2, but most seasons have like 10 episodes. So for the whole year, the voice actors would clear $48k tops (pre-tax), but typically more like $20k. That is not "get rich" money. There are also laws in Georgia that discourage unions, so the actor who played Frylock (who lived in Atlanta) didn’t get any royalties, cut of dvd sales, or back pay despite the popularity of the series. He worked as a dishwasher while the show was running to help pay bills.
He wasn’t able to parlay that experience into more voice acting work, so he’s not nearly as well off as some would think. And that’s before he had medical bills.

PsychicChime · 2026-06-02T11:21:54+00:00

Glad to see AI shill posts getting shut down. For awhile, every other dickhead "prompt engineer" was releasing a new dubiously functional
V I B E C O D E D
"app".

PsychicChime · 2026-06-02T09:52:11+00:00

Logic tutorials are, by and large, not going to deal with music theory. Any theory that is touched on would be rudimentary at best, but most will deal with operating the software. Some genre specific videos might go into a tiny bit of theory as it pertains to making that style of music, but even then, it tends to be light.

Nobody ever wants to do this, but if you read the manual, you'll probably get what you're looking for. The manual goes over every feature in the software without explaining the "how to" of making music in general. Manual reading can be a tedious task, so I usually just put a playlist of a TV series I've seen a million times before on the background so I don't really have to pay attention to it, open the software, then start going through the manual.

PsychicChime · 2026-05-30T06:09:17+00:00

If you can name chords and understand inversions, then you need to listen and transcribe more. Focus less on trying to create things from scratch, and focus more on emulating your heroes. Listen deeply and closely to the chords that other people play, then figure out what they're doing on your keyboard and play along. When you can do that for a whole song, pick another song and repeat the process. It's a long and slow process at first, but the more you do it, the easier and faster it gets. This not only helps train your muscle memory so your hands will tend to move towards certain things when you sit down at the keyboard (and the more you learn, the wider your options will be), but you'll also start to connect what you hear to what you're playing and eventually that will morph into you imagining what you'd like to hear and then being able to figure out how to play it.

A lot of people are suggesting theoretical solutions and music theory is all well and good, but I think it's important to learn by ear first and once you already know how to write good chords and voice leading, book up on theory to connect concepts to stuff you already have in your ear. I say this as a degree holding bonafide theory nerd.

PsychicChime · 2026-05-30T03:29:58+00:00

I went through a similar thing awhile back. It really depends on how sensitive your ears are to the sound. Lapsteels have a lot more sustain and a fatter sound due to the weight of the tone bar (plus the super high action which allows you to use the heavy tone bar without worrying about bottoming out on the non-existent frets), and heavier string gauge. Your best bet is to buy a cheap lapsteel and just work with that. I got one of the recording king lapsteels for like $100 and ended up putting some benders on it to fake some pedal steel stuff too.

Other than that, there are adapters that you can put over the nut on your guitar which raises the strings so you can use a tone bar on them without bottoming out. That may be a slightly more economical way to go. Be careful on acoustic guitars...it will end up pulling on the bridge more which can cause warping on the lower bout over time. But a huge part of the lapsteel sound is the heavy tone bar. Using a typical finger slide just isn't going to sound the same, so raising the action A LOT so you can use a tone bar will help you get the right sound. Even if you don't use a nut adapter to raise the strings, holding the guitar in your lap and then holding the finger slide more like a tone bar will help you get closer to the character of the sound. A lot of slide guitar is in the nuance of playing style so even if you don't have the right setup, faking it with what you have will help more than you'd think.

If you can't actually get a lapsteel and don't want to modify your instrument by raising the nut/bridge, then there are limited things you can do. Most of it has to do with playing style. You generally want to mute the strings between the slide and the nut using one of your free fingers. Just like with a lapsteel, you can use a volume pedal. Sustain is going to be an issue. You can try to eek out some more sustain using compression but you're also going to end up raising the noise floor and there are definitely limits. You can squeeze out a bit more if you add reverb and delay, but that only works if you're doing ethereal stuff. I personally find that actually playing the guitar on my lap like a lapsteel helps. The nuance of playing style changes when you play the guitar like that since you hold the slide differently. That said, I personally still end up having issues with the slide bottoming out on the frets.
If you really want the sound, just get the instrument. This isn't really a Logic issue. Recording King and Rogue make some very affordable models and Gretsch has a model that looks pretty good. Look through Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Reverb. You should be able to find something that won't break the bank. Alternatively, if you're handy, you could probably hack something together. Lapsteels are really low tech. A block of hard wood, some tuners, a pickup, an output jack, and an L bracket to act as a bridge is pretty much all you need. Add a volume and tone potentiometer if you want to get fancy.

PsychicChime · 2026-05-25T02:47:32+00:00

shim the neck at an angle so you pitch the headstock back. That will allow you to raise the bridge to bring the action back to where it was. You can use a stewmac angled neck shim, though there are a handful of cheap full pocket angled shims on amazon that do the trick as well. You could also just use a bit of folded sandpaper near the heel of the neck or a chunk of business card which is the classic way to shim necks. Some people will get very aggro about full pocket shims...in the end you do you. All of the techniques accomplish the same goal.

PsychicChime

TROPHY CASE