djhollowman
Apprentice Shielder
7 outta 6 cats preferred it.....
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Post by djhollowman on Mar 13, 2006 14:08:28 GMT -5
Hi guys, really hope someone can help me here! I’m a newbie and the problem is this: I’ve replaced the passive humbucker in my BC Rich Assassin (Humbucker,single,single; 1 vol, 1 tone; 5-way lever) with an active EMG89. The 89 works beautifully, but now the passive single coils in the centre and neck don’t work! It’s not as simply as that might sound – it’s not that the single coils don’t work (they do work – I’ve tested them independantly) it that they don’t get a chance to work! The 89 is what you hear in EVERY position of the 5-way lever – even the positions it shouldn’t be heard in eg. Centre only, centre and neck, and neck only positions. I’ve used the jack socket, volume pot and tone pot supplied with the ’89. The 5-way lever is the 8-tab enclosed type, with two poles: 1,2,3,sweeper on pole A, sweeper,1,2,3 on pole B. I’ve wired the neck pickup to A1, the centre to A2, and the EMG89 to A3. Here’s the thing – even with the output of the new volume pot physically disconnected from the lever tab A3 you still hear it! How is that possible??? Here’s what I’ve done with the other wiring: neck pickup output to lever tab A1 and ground to tone pot body; centre pickup output to lever A2 and ground to tone pot body; the EMG89 battery red wire connected to the red wire from the EMG89 pickup, and the EMG89 battery black wire connected to the jack socket (which is a stereo jack and acts as a switch when guitar lead is present) and then onto ground on tone pot body; lever switch sweepers connected together (one from pole A and one from pole B) and both connected to ground on tone pot body; white output wire of jack connected to volume pot. I’ve followed the wiring instructions well, I feel. I’m sure everything is grounded fine. I did not reconnect the bridge ground wire, as stated in EMG instructions. The pots supplied with the EMG89 are rated at 25k Ohm audio taper. It also states in the instructions that they assume you already have EMG pickups installed, which I don’t. I’m wondering if this could be the problem – combining active and passive pickups through single volume and tone pots?? Surely someone has successfully fitted a combination of actives and passives before!! It can’t be that hard to achieve! On EMGs website FAQs there is a mention of fitting PA2s to the passives to boost the gain and even out the sound difference, but I’m not sure that’s my problem. My problem would seems to be that the EMG89 over-rides any other pickup, regardless of where the 5-way lever is set at! I would greatly appreciate any help or comments from anyone! Thank you for your time! Derek Johnston.
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Post by dunkelfalke on Mar 13, 2006 14:18:47 GMT -5
as far as i know passive pickups need at least 250k ohm pots what you can do is convert all your pickups to active pickups with a small preamp, either self made (easy enough) or a bought one. or buy some active single coils, might be cheaper ( www.guitarheads.net/product%20pages/ActSC.htm)
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blackout
Apprentice Shielder
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Post by blackout on Mar 13, 2006 14:31:39 GMT -5
ya man mixing active and passive pU's are usuely bad news, its not that it cant be done, but to do it and have it work right (all the same vol, and have the pots work) its a very tough thing to pull off. good luck. I would swap in some emg sing/coils , the sing/coils are super cool to, realy sound like no other pickups in the world. super clean and punchy yet quite like a humbucker.
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Post by UnklMickey on Mar 13, 2006 14:39:14 GMT -5
Derek,
Welcome to GN2.
three possibilities come to mind.
1 -- a confusion as to which tabs are which on the 5 way, and a wiring error there.
2 -- incorrect wiring on the ouput jack.
3 -- damage to the 5 way from overheating during soldering
my guess is, of these, #2 is more likely the culprit, it is way too easy to make an error there.
i fully expect an active pickup to drown out a passive one, when used together. but having only the passive one selected, seems strange to have the signal present from the active.
unk
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djhollowman
Apprentice Shielder
7 outta 6 cats preferred it.....
Posts: 29
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Post by djhollowman on Mar 13, 2006 15:54:39 GMT -5
Thank you all for your replies guys!! OK, dunkelfalke - thanks for the link! Might well go for all actives, nice suggestion! I thought active singles would be much more expensive like EMG SAs, but those on guitarheads site are much cheaper! Wow! Blackout - thanks for your comments too! And unklmickey - thanks also for your helpful comments! Please explain about the wiring on the jack, do you mean the socket? By the way everyone, I also emailed EMG and they sent me a .pdf with a new diagram, detailling how I could replace the EMG tone pot with the passive vol pot and have it work that way. Haven't tried it yet, hoping to still have a tone control if at all poss. Try to post pic if I can work out how to! Thank you all again! Derek. Oh dunkelfalke - please explain more about making/buying a small preamp, thanks man! [/img]
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Post by dunkelfalke on Mar 13, 2006 16:09:10 GMT -5
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djhollowman
Apprentice Shielder
7 outta 6 cats preferred it.....
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
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Post by djhollowman on Mar 13, 2006 16:16:38 GMT -5
Thank you again my friend!! How do you post pictures on here by the way? I just get that img/img thing when I try!
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Post by dunkelfalke on Mar 13, 2006 16:19:38 GMT -5
you have to insert the url of the picture inside those img/img brackets
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Post by sumgai on Mar 13, 2006 17:33:45 GMT -5
Hmmmmm......
(image of powered op-amp circuit)
Let's see here:
1) Cut the incoming power in half - check; 2) Connect the results to the input, resulting in a large bias on the non-inverting input - check; 3) Also connect the results through the pickup, making the coil carry current - check.
Yep, looks like it's a good design to me.
dunklefalk, do you mean to tell me that this is how EMG's are wired inside? Stimmt es? From an engineering standpoint, yes, it would work, but I can think of at least half a dozen reasons not to do it this way. This just boggles my mind.
sumgai
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Post by UnklMickey on Mar 13, 2006 18:00:33 GMT -5
derek, yes i was talking about the socket. it's really easy to get the connections wrong there. Thank you again my friend!! How do you post pictures on here by the way? I just get that img/img thing when I try! for instance, when Falke created the line in his post to refer to the image, it looked like this: [img src="http://guitar.ru/articles/pickup/active/image054.jpg"] when you read the post it looks like this: if you want to post images from you own files, you need to upload them to PhotoBucket or the like. more info here: guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=forum&action=display&thread=1114450295
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Post by mlrpa on Mar 13, 2006 19:56:39 GMT -5
Me myself and I, we tend to think that a mistake was made on the 5 way switch wiring. If they don't sound, but the emg does, recheck the 5 way switch. Also, I've used EMG 81/85's and a passive single. Works, but not really. The mid just sounds muddy thru the 25K pots.
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Post by dunkelfalke on Mar 14, 2006 2:43:26 GMT -5
dunklefalk, do you mean to tell me that this is how EMG's are wired inside? Stimmt es? From an engineering standpoint, yes, it would work, but I can think of at least half a dozen reasons not to do it this way. This just boggles my mind. so i've been told.
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djhollowman
Apprentice Shielder
7 outta 6 cats preferred it.....
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
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Post by djhollowman on Mar 15, 2006 8:15:52 GMT -5
Bollocks to this! I tried EMG's suggestion of using two vol pots, but to no great success. It's proving far too difficult to combine actives and passives, so I've ordered two active single coils - thanks for the link dunkelfalke!! (Guitarheads has an eBay store, and accepts PayPal for non-US transactions - I'm in UK) Now that should complete the job nicely! I had the guitar professionally routed for a battery compartment, and I already have the stereo socket and pots etc, so it makes sense to go all actives really! Thank you all for your comments and suggestions, much appreciated!!
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Post by dunkelfalke on Mar 15, 2006 10:55:36 GMT -5
guitarheads has absolutely no problems to overseas shipping - i ordered there, too and i am from germany
had to wait a week or so
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