Pickup installation question.......

[Mailman1971]

I currently have EMG 81/85 set in my guitar.
I am going over to passive pickups. Do I need to change out the pots?
I really only want to wire up the bridge passive to the volume pot and input jack.
I never use the neck pickup or tone knob.
Can I just pull out the EMG's and wire up the Passive? Or do I need a new pot.
Also...do different pots effect the tone or output?
Yeah......I am a pickup noob!
I used to wire my own pickups in back in the 80's but have since gotten lazy and stupid.
Thanks for any advice!

Dan

 

[moltenmetalburn]

yes youll need new pots start with 500k for a humbucker.

yes pots affect the pickups output . higher resistance pot = less output.

if you don't use the tone knob definitely leave it out.

 

[killertone]

Yes. EMGs use 25K pots and you will need a 500K pot. As far as pots having different tones, some say a 1M pot works well with humbuckers but I haven't used one. I use 500K pots on all my humbucker guitars and they work great. I also do not wire up the tone pot, I just use the volume straight to the jack.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Yes. EMGs use 25K pots and you will need a 500K pot. As far as pots having different tones, some say a 1M pot works well with humbuckers but I haven't used one. I use 500K pots on all my humbucker guitars and they work great. I also do not wire up the tone pot, I just use the volume straight to the jack.

Same here, no tone pot.

I have tried one and two meg pots and I did like what they did for the tone but wound up back at 500k.

one of these days ill try wiring directly to the jack for the purest pickup tone.

 

[Mailman1971]

Awesome! Thanks for the advice guys.
I am pretty sure I can wire in this pickup no biggie.
Just a hot and ground wire right?
I can follow the same colors as the EMG's wires correct?

 

[moltenmetalburn]

BAM!

the little arrow/triangle symbols are where the ground connections are made. they ALL go to ground.

on My MCP's green is north start but i know wade changed them at some point.

 

[Klark]

one of these days ill try wiring directly to the jack for the purest pickup tone.

You can do that with a switch, which is what Neil Young does, and what I believe Suhr's 'blower switch' is all about.

 

[Mailman1971]

So looks like just a couple of solder points then.
I remember it wasnt too hard when I did it as a teen.


Not like I can blow anything up doing it....
worse case I remember was a bad buzzing when I had some wires crossed.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

one of these days ill try wiring directly to the jack for the purest pickup tone.

You can do that with a switch, which is what Neil Young does, and what I believe Suhr's 'blower switch' is all about.

cool info thanks!

 

[killertone]

Yes. EMGs use 25K pots and you will need a 500K pot. As far as pots having different tones, some say a 1M pot works well with humbuckers but I haven't used one. I use 500K pots on all my humbucker guitars and they work great. I also do not wire up the tone pot, I just use the volume straight to the jack.

Same here, no tone pot.

I have tried one and two meg pots and I did like what they did for the tone but wound up back at 500k.

one of these days ill try wiring directly to the jack for the purest pickup tone.

Just a killswitch.

I think Jackson had a Scott Ian model like that.

 

[stephen sawall]

The Hammer pots have a much better tapper. With most pots the volume comes on strong right away. With the Hammer pots it is a lot smoother.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

The Hammer pots have a much better tapper. With most pots the volume comes on strong right away. With the Hammer pots it is a lot smoother.

Link? Never heard of them.

i do like the taper of the CTS I have been using from Guitar electronics:

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/produc ... r-Pot.html

 

[killertone]

So looks like just a couple of solder points then.
I remember it wasnt too hard when I did it as a teen.


Not like I can blow anything up doing it....
worse case I remember was a bad buzzing when I had some wires crossed.

I am pretty sure when I had my Solution that the wiring color code was the same as Duncan's. That would be: red and white solder together (tape them back since they dont get soldered to anything), green and shield (bare) go together then to ground, black is the hot and goes to the pot's first leg.

 

[Mailman1971]

This thread is worth its weight in gold!
I would of been fumbling around the web trying to get this info.
You guys are the Best! *group hug*


Seriously....thanks again!!
Getting pumped about doing this!

 

[Giga]

higher resistance pot = less output.

And this is wrong, sorry....

Giga

 

[moltenmetalburn]

So looks like just a couple of solder points then.
I remember it wasnt too hard when I did it as a teen.


Not like I can blow anything up doing it....
worse case I remember was a bad buzzing when I had some wires crossed.

I am pretty sure when I had my Solution that the wiring color code was the same as Duncan's. That would be: red and white solder together (tape them back since they dont get soldered to anything), green and shield (bare) go together then to ground, black is the hot and goes to the pot's first leg.

I Just double checked my newer ( three months old) MCPS and yes the green is north start and black and shield go to ground. I suspect you had one of the older solutions before Wade made the change.

Danno you should ask Jeff about the Afwayu's wiring something tells me hell know which is which on his pickup.

 

[Motorpud]

You might want to see what pickup you end up since some brands have different wiring configurations. You know what you're gonna get yet?

 

[killertone]

You might want to see what pickup you end up since some brands have different wiring configurations. You know what you're gonna get yet?

He got a MCP Afwayu.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

higher resistance pot = less output.

And this is wrong, sorry....

Giga

oh shit yeah what the hell was i thinking, 1 meg is obviously higher resistance than 500k and higher output. sorry guys brain fart.

 

[Motorpud]

You might want to see what pickup you end up since some brands have different wiring configurations. You know what you're gonna get yet?

He got a MCP Afwayu.

Aaahhhh Nice With just one volume pot you should be able to blow through that job in no time, you know we'll need a full review though