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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2008 : 01:43:55
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| A friend of mine wants to put a set of EMGs into one of his guitars, and I told him I don't think it will be a problem....However, the problem is, I have never installed pickups before...So did I just get myself into something bad? I have a good bit of wiring and electronics experiences making pedals and wiring speaker cabs and stuff like that, so will this be somewhat easy with those skills? Just wondering. Thanks... |
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leonard d rock
Silver Member
Philippines
301 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 07:25:57
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| i dont know if this will help but i think emg pickups are active pickups which means they come with electronic circuits, not unlike passive pups which you can just connect to the existing wiring. why not try to find emg's website? goodluck! |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 07:30:38
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there are some passive EMG's, but the actives will have a harness with the preamp involved.
if they are active, hopefully he'll have enough room in his body cavity for it...
the harnesses usually come pre-wired and are pretty cake to figure out.
make sure you study the existing wiring job on the pickups that are in there and you should be okay. |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 08:34:47
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I have mounted active EMG�s in Strats a couple of times, it was a long time ago�.
As far as I remember the was no problem to get room for the battery in a Strat, and I still think I have the manual, very detailed, at home.
One thing I remember is that you can have the pickups much closer to the strings than standard single coils, without string pull from the magnets.
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 11:00:47
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If your building your own pedals and doing a electronics course jack i can't see it being a problem for you.. .i've managed to do it a few times,without burning myself or the house down...... ...... |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 18:14:35
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| Thanks for all the replies I figured it wouldn't be too hard, but just thought I'd ask because moments after I agreed to do it, I thought,"What the heck did I just get myself into?" |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2008 : 20:11:37
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if you have held a soldering iron and known what it was used for at any point in your lifetime you should be able to figure it out :)
hopefully you'll be installing a wiring harness where basically you just mount all the items where the old ones were.
if it's not, at most you are looking at is about 4-12 solders.
if you do have to solder, you have a digi cam handy it may be easiest to just take a picture of the original wiring before you start removing the old components.
last tip is, if you have to install any capacitors onto the pots, make sure you use a low wattage iron (20 watts or less). for all of the other parts i would still recommend a low wattage iron, but anything 40 watts or below won't pose too large of a risk if you are careful. |
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pawnshop_trash
Gold Member
USA
603 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2008 : 23:09:24
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personally, I would try to talk your friend out of it... I hate EMGs (from personal experience, their passive pickups are generic-sounding, and active pickups create more problems than they solve, IMHO) only slightly less than I hate dimarzio p'ups....
but seriously, it might be worthwhile to replace everything (switches, pots, all wiring) along with the pickups. then if your friend later sells the guitar, he can put the original 'stock' harness in it.
finally, having fried many a cap when I first started screwing around with guitars, heed Zentropa's advice about using too hot of an iron.... |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 14:53:32
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quote:
Originally posted by pawnshop_trash
personally, I would try to talk your friend out of it... I hate EMGs (from personal experience, their passive pickups are generic-sounding, and active pickups create more problems than they solve, IMHO) only slightly less than I hate dimarzio p'ups....
but seriously, it might be worthwhile to replace everything (switches, pots, all wiring) along with the pickups. then if your friend later sells the guitar, he can put the original 'stock' harness in it.
finally, having fried many a cap when I first started screwing around with guitars, heed Zentropa's advice about using too hot of an iron....
You can't talk this guy into our out of anything unfortunately because if Zakk Wylde or Dimebag did it or does it, he wants to do it. I have jammed with this dude for a couple years now, and he has yet to understand that the reason why you can never hear his 150watt 4x12 half stack yet you can always hear my 120watt 2x12 combo amp has nothing to do with wattage or volume, but frequency. But he will never put mids into his EQ because Dimebag didn't and supposedly Zakk doesn't either, and I have tried to explain to him what he is doing and why we can't hear him, but he's not going to change. He's got so much bass and treble in his EQ all that seems to come out of his at times are just speaker cone farts, but yet he still won't touch a knob on his EQ. In fact, one time when I told him he should add mids he looked more pissed off at me than if I told him I just banged his mom. He wants to get the Zakk Wylde set...This is the guy who wanted or still wants to get a setup exactly like Zakk Wylde, and maybe then he'll realize it doesn't matter what equipment you have, Zakk Wylde is the only person who will sound like Zakk Wylde. You'd think after buying 3 Dimebag guitars, a Randall Amp, a Dimebag Distortion, and a Dimebag wah that he would figure out that no matter how much signature gear you get you might not ever sound like that person, but no...I agree though, as he had another EMG outfitted guitar for awhile and I thought they sounded weaker than cheap single coil pickups. I do like EMGs passive PUs though, the H4s... |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 15:27:54
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hehe...
mumble under your breath to him something about picking the wrong ozzy guitarist to try and emulate.
it always baffles me when people try to copy guitarists' tone... who had crappy tone heh.
it's a lost art to copy someone like slash, satriani, or EVH's brown era or even the simplicity of angus young... or yet someone with even better tone.
the one nice thing about going for dimebag's tone is that you can slap a $100 pickup into a $75 guitar and play through any solid state amp with a massive mid-scoop and get it.
i guess it's a step up from someone who is 100% set on playing a rickenbacker through a jazz chorus even though they've never played either one before... nothin quite like losing a layer of tissue off of your eyes by hearing the world's shrillest guitar being cranked through the world's shrillest amp :)
i do actually like EMG select single coils for their price and decent hum-canceling sound for said price. in response to PST, i used to hate dimarzio's as well but i've learned to hate duncans more due to their frequency chopping on most models but the #1 thing i've learned is that there's only about 5 pickups worth using from any manufacturer. there's a handful of dimarzio pickups i've actually grown quite fond of.
p.s. jack: stop hanging out with douchebags :) |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 15:32:24
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
p.s. jack: stop hanging out with douchebags :)
 
Sadly, we probably all know someone like that. |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 15:35:06
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
hehe...
mumble under your breath to him something about picking the wrong ozzy guitarist to try and emulate.
p.s. jack: stop hanging out with douchebags :)
I actually used to like Zakk Wylde, but you can only listen to added pinch harmonics to Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, and Jake E. Lee songs so much before you just get tired of it. It was cool the first hundred times you did it...Actually hanging out with douchebags distracts other people from realizing how much of a douche bag I am Actually he's a pretty nice dude, but when you're 21, like he is, you don't want to listen to what some old guy, me, has to say. Even though I'm only 32, I'm the oldest of the bunch that jams together, and younger people often think that,"The old guy doesn't know what he's talking about." |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2008 : 19:05:57
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i'd be 100% okay with zakk wylde if he spelled his name zach, zack, or zac, or even zak.
hehe, the smart 21 year olds listen intently to music veterans.
i'm 29 but got a job working at a recording studio at 17. i got to learn from many music veterans :)
i think people get moer hung up if they learn what they should have done AFTER they spent the money. then it becomes a battle of wanting to convince yourself that what you spent your money on was right. i remember trying to convince myself hard that the digitech legend processor i bought actually sounded good. luckily the store let me return it. |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 18:50:47
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| Just got back from the weekly jam session with Dimebag Wylde...What year is it? I could swear he was using Chorus (and/or Flange) and delay on everything today as the FX light on the footswitch for hs onboard effects was on the whole time...Now you may understand why in another thread I was saying I wish I could clone myself so I could have a band where everyone is on the same page |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 20:10:02
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hehe.
could move to scotland and train some sheep clones to play instruments :D
btw, he needs to stack at least 3-4 effects on all the time or the actual tone of the guitar might start coming through... he's doing you a favor hehe. |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2008 : 20:17:20
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
hehe.
could move to scotland and train some sheep clones to play instruments :D
btw, he needs to stack at least 3-4 effects on all the time or the actual tone of the guitar might start coming through... he's doing you a favor hehe.
Luckily we're not a serious band or anything, its just more of a friendly jam session. We don't really play any songs, we just riff around till someone messes up enough to where we can't recover from it. If we were trying to do anything more than that, I'd probably already be kicked out  |
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Topic |
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Anyone ever install EMG pickups?
