Line6 Variax Workbench

[ChrisK]

So, I bought one Saturday 30 April 05. Anybody else?

Anybody actually opened theirs yet? (I haven't, real busy weekend.)

[egdeltar]

Check this guy out:

www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/mods.htm

[SGTLlama]

Due to the outrageous volume of little white squares with little red "X's" in them on this screen, it would seem that the network administrators here at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad where I'm currently assigned apparently feel that all the .gifs and .jpgs on this site are of some significant threat to national security to include the smiley icons so navigating this forum is a bit tricky for me, but I think I figured it out.
I'm wondering if anyone here can help me out with my modification project. I've got an ESP AX 350 that came with EMG H4's in the bridge and neck positions. I've been trying to make the EMG ZW series active pickups that I bought for it work for several days now and am having very little luck. EMG says (In what was a very sarcastic reply to my simple inquiry on the matter) that I have the quick connect plugs in backwards. Having re-opened the guitar for the 4th time I've verified without a doubt that the pickups are not only plugged in correctly, but that I've wired the guitar exactly as the thing that ESP calls a "wiring diagram" that they provided describes. I thus determined that the techs at EMG are not very familiar with EMG pickups, nor are they aware of what a wiring schematic is, as I requested an actual electronic schematic from them but received nothing from them as of yet. Whats happening with the way they are currently wired is when the patch cord is plugged all the way in I get no signal to the amplifier at all. When I plug it half way in, I get a weak signal to the amp and the volume pot has no effect on the signal output. I've checked every circuit for continuity and received a positive tone on my multimeter on each one. At this point I'm ready to say that the pickups themselves are bad, but it just seems so unlikely that both pickups would not only be bad, but have the exact same problem as one another. Thoughts?

[erikh]

Hey SGTLlama,

First, let me say a big THANK YOU from everyone here at home for everything that you and the rest of the troops are doing over there. Without you, we wouldn't be sitting here chatting like this. Our prayers go out to you all.

Now, on to your pickup delima. I personally don't have the ZW EMG's but would love a set myself for my Epi Les Paul. What you describe sounds like the wires going to the output jack may possibly be wired incorrectly. If I remember correctly, the hot goes to tip, battery to ring, and the ground to sleeve. Make sure you replaced the output jack with the one that came with the pickups. It has to be a stereo output jack (sleeve turning the circuit on when the plug is inserted). If possible, sketch out the way you have it wired and post it (if you can) or email it to me (just PM me for my address) and I can take a look at it.

Since you have the ZW set, I'm assuming your a Zack Wylde fan. Me too. If you are, it's nice to hear from a member of the Bezerker Chapter.

[StratLover]

First of all SGTLlama------I would like to say:

"THANK YOU AND ALL OF THE GUYS AND GALS over there allowing all of us here at home to be whom we really are."

Here is a link that might help you out in your quest for wiring help on your EMG-ZW(tm) series pup's. There are 5 different configurations in this link, and I am sure one of the diagrams will be appropriate for your application.

Hope this helps and once again, "A BIG THANKS FORM ALL OF US HERE AT GuitarNuts2."

emgpickups.com/downloads/wiringdiagrams/ZWset.pdf

[SGTLlama]

Not really familiar with his post Ozzy stuff, I'm a big fan of his work with the great and powerfull OZ though. Although by todays standard my playing style would be considered "Outdated", I am a firm beleiver that the mid 80's through mid 90's metal scene produced the best guitar players in the history of the instrument. Seems like that was the only era since Vivaldi, Bethoven, Bach and all the other greats in which musical talent seemed to really matter. Maybe I'm just getting old, but while I consider a lot of contemporary hard rock and metal to be entertaining, very little actual musical tallent is used. It almost seems to be disscouraged by the industry. (Not that I'd ever DARE say that the major record labels completely lack any idea of what really good music is or that they're obviously much more concerened with how big their bank account is than if the music they're telling us to like contains any musical talent or not).....but I'm not bitter. Who are your major influences? Mine are Dave Mustaine, Zakk Wilde, Kerry King, OLD style Metallica (pre black album), and I've recently developed a strong interest in David Gilmore's stuff. I don't really play much in the way of "covers" though, mostly my own stuff. As far as my guitar goes, I'll definately look at that. Thanks for the info!...and thanks for appriciating what we do out here. It means more to us than you know to hear that kind of stuff. Thanks for the support!

[erikh]

SGTLlama, I feel the same way about how the metal scene has gone. Although I've been a huge fan of Zakk's since he started with Ozzy, I really love his post-Ozzy work. Black Label Society is freakin' incredible. Go to www.zakkwylde.com/ and you'll see what I mean. There's streaming audio of a few new songs.

My influences range from Eric Clapton, B.B. King, SRV to Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Dimebag, Zakk, Mustaine, early Metallica like you, Paul Gilbert, George Lynch. Some country players have snuck their way on to the list recently like, Jerry Donahue, Brad Paisley can play a mean lick on a Tele, and Brent Mason. I primarily play rock or metal but dibble with other styles too. I'm a rocker at heart. My majors though are Eddie, Ace and Zakk. I had already been playing a few years when Zakk hit the scene but his style and pinch harmonics kicked me in the butt.

Let us know what you find out on the jack.

We salute you!....standing tall and proud.

[RandomHero]

This... is going to seem -really- stupid and mean, but I figure I should ask just to make sure.

If the HZs have quick-connect plugs, then the ZW set won't just "drop in" in the place of the HZ pickups, the reason being that HZs are passive, the Wylde set are active.

The reason I say so is because it sounds from the description of your output jack's behaviour that you're getting nothing from the dead preamp when fully plugged in, and you're getting the weak signal from EMG's tiny magnetic coils as a form of bled off garbage moving through the dead circuitry!

Did you install the batteries and proper pots for the ZW set as well?

[SGTLlama]

......Alrighty then. I guess that reply was a bit too long winded for the moderator. Long story short, yes I used all the hardware that came with the pickups. I have a couple of possible culprits as to why it's not working correctly that I'm going to chase down. I greatly appriciate the advise from everyone, and hope to hear from you all on my next project with this guitar- going from a hardtail to a Floyd Rose. Ought to be interesting once I get arround to that one.

[RandomHero]

SGT, I know I didn't delete your post, and I doubt anyone else did within the 6 minutes it took you to do another one. My apologies, but I wonder if the forum didn't glitch out your explanation!

[bam]

.. and I didn't delete your post, too.

[ChrisK]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo,

Did anybody else buy a Workbench?? (A perchance futile attempt to regain the thread's focus.)

egdeltar, thanks fer the link. I think that he should reverse the control plate. He can then have the Variax 5-way near the rotory switch (and the V tone and vol).

I've often thought about doing a Teleax, but time takes time and my Variax works fine such as it is (and some "communist" stole the original Warmoth Teleax body from the Warmoth site before I got around to getting it). The Workbench was the real reason that I originally bot the Variax. I have a VG-88 and really enjoyed being able to futz w/ some basic virtual guitar design.

[StratLover]

.. and I didn't delete your post, too.

Neither did I.

[JohnH]

egdeltar said:

Check this guy out:

www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/mods.htm

I just followed that link which egdeltar kindly provided above, to Jeff Miller. This guy builds variax circuits into his own custom guitars. He builds some beautiful guitars (and photographs step by step) and plays them well too. I downloaded an mp3 from his 'teleaxe'. It sounds very good and worh the download.

A question on these variaxes: To me, the expressiveness of guitars in general comes from the many ways that you can control the sound, moment by moment as you play. The strength of the plucking of strings, bending of notes, where on the strings you strum, subtle transients as you pick one way or another. all of that in addition to what you set up electrically with switching and amps. My question is, how much of that does a variaxe respond to as it creates its digital sound ? Obviously it picks up the frequency of the string, and the volume too?, how about transient effects? palm damping? how close to the bridge you pick?or even finger flubs?

If the system can pick up those sort of effects, and translate them into the control of a new and different sound, then it is probably the way of the future.