EMG Pickups, Accessories, Wiring, Info and Help thread - post it here!!!

[Oneironaut]

Thx everyone for the help it is much appreciated.

[Kamikaze7]

No problem, and will email you the diagram today. Sorry it's not sooner, I've been having serious connectivity issues lately...

[Oneironaut]

No problem, and will email you the diagram today. Sorry it's not sooner, I've been having serious connectivity issues lately...

Its cool. Thanks a ton!

I have another question, so those 808s are actually going in my friends guitar. In my guitar I recently got an 808x in the bridge position with the solderless system. I took before and after samples and in my opinion they sound exactly the same as the 808s. So I'm thinking about putting the 808x in the neck position and if possible using another brand of pickup in the bridge. So my question is, are there any non-EMG pickups that I can use with the EMG solder-less system?

[Kamikaze7]

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Its cool. Thanks a ton!

I have another question, so those 808s are actually going in my friends guitar. In my guitar I recently got an 808x in the bridge position with the solderless system. I took before and after samples and in my opinion they sound exactly the same as the 808s. So I'm thinking about putting the 808x in the neck position and if possible using another brand of pickup in the bridge. So my question is, are there any non-EMG pickups that I can use with the EMG solder-less system?

Hmmm... Funny you say that you find the 808 and the 808X to sound the same... I noticed a huge difference between the two, and found the X to be a lot clearer and more refined than the normal 808 which was muddy to me..

But as far as any other pickups that you could use that work with the EMG solderless system - as well as being a direct-sized replacement - would be the Duncan Blackouts 8-string. The pickup would connect the same way as the EMG's do, with the red power wire on the left side. I don't have experience with the 8-string Blackouts, so I can't speak on behalf of those compared to the 808 and the 808X... But I know another forum member has a Blackout 8 & EMG 8 in the same guitar - would be wrth looking at his post and see what he says and thinks about the mix-matched pairing.

[Purelojik]

i have an 8 string blackout in my homemade fanned 7 baritone. its a great pup. everything rings clear. one thing that i really thought was great about it was that it was a thick tone but not flubby or muddy. its articulate but not as much as say an aftermath or something. (i figure those to be the higher end of the spectrum of being articulate). clean aint bad but dont start crying as to why you dont have Bell like tones cause its def not a pup made for that lol.

[Kamikaze7]

Originally Posted by Purelojik

i have an 8 string blackout in my homemade fanned 7 baritone. its a great pup. everything rings clear. one thing that i really thought was great about it was that it was a thick tone but not flubby or muddy. its articulate but not as much as say an aftermath or something. (i figure those to be the higher end of the spectrum of being articulate). clean aint bad but dont start crying as to why you dont have Bell like tones cause its def not a pup made for that lol.

Am really looking forward to the Custom Shop set I'm scoring soon... With a different preamp and lower gain, it's gonna be really interesting to hear and try out. After all, I do have 4 guitars I will be able to test them on... Pretty much Duncan's version of an 81-7X and 707X but in the Blackouts. Hoping for promising results... Really looking forward to these!

[Oneironaut]

Ok so I've got those pickups installed but the bridge pickup is being really quiet. It sounds clean even when there is distortion on. What would cause this?

[Kamikaze7]

the only things that come to mind that would cause that would be:
-a bad solder joint/connection
-If using the older style wiring (...with the smaller white wire inside the braided bare wire), it's possible the bare braided wire was heated up too much and melted the insulation on the inner wire, causing it to short out
-Connector on the back of the pickup is on backwards or not on fully/all the way.

Did you have plenty of wire from the pickup to the pots & switch? If you cut everything short and had to pull the wire a little bit, you may have pulled the connector off the back of the pickup just enough to cause a weak connection. I'd check the connector on the pickup itself and make sure it's on all the way and not on backwards (which CAN fry your pickup...).

I'd also make sure that the soldered connection of the bare braided wire is good and not weak. If you blew on the solder after you made the connection, you just made a big soldering no-no . Blowing on the solder is the worst thing to do. Blowing on it creates an internal air pocket inside the solder, which in turn creates moisture, and causes the connection to erode from the inside out. I'd also make sure that you didn't heat up the inner wire's insulation when you soldered it to the volume pot casing. I'd done it before and does happen. You may need to re-solder the connection on the volume pot again and to the switch again if that is the case.

If worse comes to worse, it's well worth it for you (or your buddy) to spend the $35 and get the solderless kit. If you try correcting the soldered connections & checking the connector on the pickup and still find the one pickup has a weak signal, I'd take both pickups and swap positions - bridge to neck and neck to bridge. If you find that it's still got a weak signal in the original spot, it may be something in the wiring or the pots. If that's the case, it'd be well worth it to re-do it all with the solderless kit. If you put the new kit in and find it's still the same situation, even with the pickups position swapped, it may be a bad pickup. I had this happen with the 808's in my 8-string after trying to add a 9-18V switch and fried both pickups as a result...

Try the above mentioned first and see if that does the trick. Let me know how you make out.

[Oneironaut]

Can you send me a link to the solder-less kit I didn't see it on the emg site.
Can the inner white wire shorting with the outer braid fry the pickup? The first time around I did melt through the inner wire couple times. I had to trim it like three times before I gave up. This time around i replaced it with 2 separate wires and finally got the neck pickup to work.

[Kamikaze7]

The bare braided coming in contact with the inner wire won't fry the pickup, but it's possible if you put the connector on the back of the pickup on backwards. The trick to doing the older soldered style EMG connections is to have the iron good and hot and pre-melt some solder to the braided wire, then solder it to the pot. It can be tricky as you found out...

But HERE is the link to the solderless kit. When using this system, a few things you'll want to remember when installing it:
-The wires coming from the selector switch you'll want to cut as far away from the switch as possible. This will allow you to have plenty of room and wire to work with when attaching them to the switch buss.
-Also, make sure the buss, and the connector wires aren't bent excessively or anything pushing against the black ends of the connectors as this will cause a weak connection. For example, don't put the battery on top of the switch buss and all the wires going in and out of it.

Also another thing I just thought of while you wait for the solderless kit - try checking the soldered connection for the bridge pickup on the switch itself and where it connects to the pot. If all your connections are good, then it's probably because you wound up melting the insulation on the inner wire like you had previously.

[Oneironaut]

The plug on the back of the pickup was on backwards. Everything works now. Thanks so much for all your help!

[Kamikaze7]

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

The plug on the back of the pickup was on backwards. Everything works now. Thanks so much for all your help!

no problem. glad you got it okay!!! Anytime!

[BabUShka]

So.. I've had my Schecter for a few months now, and I've always been skeptical to the high and kinda scooped output of the SD blackouts..
Today I traded the blackouts away for an EMG 85/81 combo and guess what.. IM SO ....ING HAPPY!! The guitar sounds just perfect now..
Crystal cleans, reaally clear and punchy high gain in Drop C# and lots of dynamics and clearance in the high gain part.

So I finally confirmed to myself that I liek EMG's better. Now i own 3 guitars with different EMG's and they all sound great. Blackouts, never again.. :p

[freshassbrennan]

I'm having some problems with the 707s. My bridge pickup works perfectly fine, but the middle setting and neck pickup don't correspond to the volume knob and is always on full blast? Can anybody please help me out? One volume pot, two actice emg 707s and a three way selector switch. The model is a dean rc7x. Please help.

[AliceLG]

Hey what's up? I have an LTD EC-401FM with 81/60 that sounds just glorious, like I expected. Then I decided to take the stock pickups out of my Ibanez ART120 and put the same EMGs in. If with actives the tonewood has less influence in the tone, and both guitars are mahogany, why would the 60 on the neck of the Ibanez suck ass? For cleans it quite OK, but for leads it just fails. At full volume and full gain on my HT-5 I get a lead that is lacking sustain, and worst of all the tone itself is so weak, not in volume but in punch, it sounds as if I was on a crancked fender (no offense, that's a great tone for blues/rock, just not what I'm after). Since I have 2 guitars with 60s on the neck I will switch them up the next time I change strings on both. What could be causing such a big difference? The Ibanez is slighty more resonant than the LTD, but the bridge sounds pretty much the same on both guitars.

[The Reverend]

Originally Posted by AliceLG

Hey what's up? I have an LTD EC-401FM with 81/60 that sounds just glorious, like I expected. Then I decided to take the stock pickups out of my Ibanez ART120 and put the same EMGs in. If with actives the tonewood has less influence in the tone, and both guitars are mahogany, why would the 60 on the neck of the Ibanez suck ass? For cleans it quite OK, but for leads it just fails. At full volume and full gain on my HT-5 I get a lead that is lacking sustain, and worst of all the tone itself is so weak, not in volume but in punch, it sounds as if I was on a crancked fender (no offense, that's a great tone for blues/rock, just not what I'm after). Since I have 2 guitars with 60s on the neck I will switch them up the next time I change strings on both. What could be causing such a big difference? The Ibanez is slighty more resonant than the LTD, but the bridge sounds pretty much the same on both guitars.

I'd check your connections, first. Check the wires going from the pickup to whatever pots you have, and then from the pots to the output jack. Make sure everything is solid there, even if you're using EMG's quick connect system. I'm not sure about the Ibanez layout, but if you have a tone pot for just the neck pickup, you may want to make sure it's working.

Other than that, it may be the the 60 in your Ibby is just a dud. I haven't seen very many cases here on SSO where that was actually the case with any brand of pickup, but it's always a possibility. Let us know what happens when you switch them out!

[AliceLG]

Quick update, connections have been checked, unplugged, replugged and retested (multimeter and everything), tone still sucks ass. I have the quick connect system on both guitars, and the same layout: 2 vol 1 ton and toggle switch. Everything checks out in both guitars but still one sounds excellent and the other I want smash to a wall

Pickup swap is next, but I haven't read about many 60 duds, or EMG duds in general. I wish it actually is a faulty pickup, that cheaper and easier to fix than a ....ed up guitar.

Thanks for the recommendations Reverend, you have been rep'd.

[metale]

Hi guys. Just to gather some opinions about something that happened

I have a LP with EMG 60n + 81b. 3 way switch, 2 volumes + 2 tones, 18v mod.

One of these days, I plugged in, and the pots were acting very strange:

- Both tone pots would do nothing to the tone.

- Volume on 8-10 would be very quiet, very weak. Once it reached 7 it would kick in, and as I turned it down it would increase (at 0 the volume would be full blast).


I suspected some electrical/impedance problem (I'm not an electronics guy), so I disconnected the cable and connected the guitar directly to one of the amps (bypassing the pedals) and it was ok. But then I connected it as before (with all the pedals) and it was still ok.

I am really confused, and would like to find out so I can fix it if it happens again.

Cheers

[Zeno]

An interesting development in the EMG world - external power supplies! Both in 9 and 18 volt models. Unfortunately, you have to buy a special cable to go between your instrument and the power supply, but I'd say this is pretty cool!

ES-9 | Electric Guitar Pickups & Accessories - EMG Pickups

My apologies if this is a re-post, I searched and found nothing, so, yeah/

[Rojne]

EDIT: Never mind haha, going with DiMarzios instead!

[jymellis]

im having a problem wiring them into a 3 way blade switch. all the diagrams i have are with the poles on 2 sides

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...way-ibanez.jpg

but my switch has the poles all on one side

(3 way economy)

Pickup Selector & Mini Switch Terminal Connections

which lugs to i solder together? where do the wires from the pups go?

[Vostre Roy]

Originally Posted by jymellis

im having a problem wiring them into a 3 way blade switch. all the diagrams i have are with the poles on 2 sides

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...way-ibanez.jpg

but my switch has the poles all on one side

(3 way economy)

Pickup Selector & Mini Switch Terminal Connections

which lugs to i solder together? where do the wires from the pups go?

Not an expert, but if you go down the page, you'll see each switch with each lugs given a name (A0, A1, B0, B1, ect). Look at the diagram you have with pole on each side, note the lugs as they are named in the list and solder everything to the lugs named the same in the economy switch.

Hope you get what I'm trying to explain...

Edit: Just found that. Posting it here for future reference (not for you Jym, its a 5-way lol)

[TheEntheogenEgoKiller]

Ibanez RG7321 with EMG 81-7 in the bridge

5150 II TS-9 Boosted Gain:0 Tone:5 Level:5
gain 5
bass 5
mid 7
treble 4
res 5
pres 5

I need an EMG pickup that can give me more clarity and rawness. The 81-7 plus the amp and the boost makes the distortion too liquid-y and not clear.

any help is appreciated!

[The Reverend]

Perhaps the X series might suit you better?

Originally Posted by TheEntheogenEgoKiller

Ibanez RG7321 with EMG 81-7 in the bridge

5150 II TS-9 Boosted Gain:0 Tone:5 Level:5
gain 5
bass 5
mid 7
treble 4
res 5
pres 5

I need an EMG pickup that can give me more clarity and rawness. The 81-7 plus the amp and the boost makes the distortion too liquid-y and not clear.

any help is appreciated!

[Pav]

Originally Posted by TheEntheogenEgoKiller

Ibanez RG7321 with EMG 81-7 in the bridge

5150 II TS-9 Boosted Gain:0 Tone:5 Level:5
gain 5
bass 5
mid 7
treble 4
res 5
pres 5

I need an EMG pickup that can give me more clarity and rawness. The 81-7 plus the amp and the boost makes the distortion too liquid-y and not clear.

any help is appreciated!

Tried running in 18v? It will really open up your headroom compared to 9v.