# EMGs + Darkglass tone capsule - all solderless??



## lewis (Jun 28, 2019)

Seems the tone capsule is solderless now and emgs obviously are too. They all use the same quick connect style connectors too.
So is this all compatible?
If so im going to pick them up


----------



## Beheroth (Jun 28, 2019)

darkglass uses a quick connect only between the pcb and the eq pots, the rest of the wiring isn't quick connect


----------



## lewis (Jun 28, 2019)

Beheroth said:


> darkglass uses a quick connect only between the pcb and the eq pots, the rest of the wiring isn't quick connect


Suppose i could use those Terminal blocks for the rest that uses screws to hold the wire in?

I have a soldering iron but i hate it and never want to solder again.

Im more than open to alternative methods to soldering


----------



## Beheroth (Jun 29, 2019)

you'd need to cut the connector off the cable and strip the wires for that, rendering the choice of EMGs pointless if you're getting them only for the quick connect


----------



## lewis (Jun 29, 2019)

Beheroth said:


> you'd need to cut the connector off the cable and strip the wires for that, rendering the choice of EMGs pointless if you're getting them only for the quick connect


hmmm yeah 

God sake. I wish all pickup/guitar electronic companies went Solderless now. Not only is it such an obvious dinosaur process in 2019 - but its terrible for your health. People working with soldering as a job, have terrible health problems.

I just refuse to do it anymore


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jun 29, 2019)

lewis said:


> hmmm yeah
> 
> God sake. I wish all pickup/guitar electronic companies went Solderless now. Not only is it such an obvious dinosaur process in 2019 - but its terrible for your health. People working with soldering as a job, have terrible health problems.
> 
> I just refuse to do it anymore



Just install quick connects. They make bullet style connectors that crimp on for 22 and 24 AWG wire. A little bulky, and you'd have to build a harness, but a solid option for pickups. 

There are all kinds of connectors that'll work.

That said, as long as you're not going balls deep on your work piece, and working in a room with decent ventilation, an occasional soldering job won't kill you. Literally.


----------



## lewis (Jun 29, 2019)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Just install quick connects. They make bullet style connectors that crimp on for 22 and 24 AWG wire. A little bulky, and you'd have to build a harness, but a solid option for pickups.
> 
> There are all kinds of connectors that'll work.
> 
> That said, as long as you're not going balls deep on your work piece, and working in a room with decent ventilation, an occasional soldering job won't kill you. Literally.



My work space/studio is literally in a cupboard under the stairs. No ventialtion and a tiny space


Last time i soldered, i got a bad headache through breathing fumes.

No way am i doing that again (got 2 young daughters running around at home too)

Yeah in going to explore the options you said at the start. Like my own quick connect style stuff.


----------



## mpexus (Jun 29, 2019)

lewis said:


> God sake. I wish all pickup/guitar electronic companies went Solderless now. Not only is it such an obvious dinosaur process in 2019 -



Yeap.. Guitar people are some of the most stubborn and can be really obtuse when moving forward with the times. We shouldn't be needing to solder anything for the past 30-40 years, so it's not just being stubborn... it's a stupid need that Pickup manufacturers still impose today.

Before anyone comes saying that Solder is better because of shakings etc... well your car lights get a lot more shaken in 30 min than all your guitars combined in a life time... they aren't soldered are they?


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jun 29, 2019)

mpexus said:


> Yeap.. Guitar people are some of the most stubborn and can be really obtuse when moving forward with the times. We shouldn't be needing to solder anything for the past 30-40 years, so it's not just being stubborn... it's a stupid need that Pickup manufacturers still impose today.
> 
> Before anyone comes saying that Solder is better because of shakings etc... well your car lights get a lot more shaken in 30 min than all your guitars combined in a life time... they aren't soldered are they?



Soldering is just so cheap, easy, and universal. 

Anyone with $20, a free afternoon, and some wire/components can become a skilled "solderer" who can install anything into anything in short order.

As stupid and stubborn manufacturers are, guitarists are worse.


----------



## mpexus (Jun 29, 2019)

I can replace my EMGs in the time to loosen the strings, untight the screws and unplug the connect, plug another one, tight screws, tune again.

5-10Min?

Dont need anothers tools (only a screwdriver).

Also one of the beauties of a quick connect system is the total remove of:

-Hey guys I have these new pickups and dont know what color wire goes where


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jun 29, 2019)

mpexus said:


> I can replace my EMGs in the time to loosen the strings, untight the screws and unplug the connect, plug another one, tight screws, tune again.
> 
> 5-10Min?
> 
> ...



With other EMGs or a couple other active pickups. Not quite universal. 

I'm all for quick connects. I never said I was against them, and I've actually installed them in non-stock wiring setups (see my posts above).

I'm just saying, until folks push for it from certain manufacturers, we're not going to see it as the norm.

I'm hoping EMG's passive pickup push goes well. It was their use of quick connects that helped homogenize within the active pickup market.


----------



## lewis (Jun 30, 2019)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Soldering is just so cheap, easy, and universal.
> 
> Anyone with $20, a free afternoon, and some wire/components can become a skilled "solderer" who can install anything into anything in short order.
> 
> As stupid and stubborn manufacturers are, guitarists are worse.



Thats simply not true.
Ive tried a fair few times to solder now and each time i hate it, i suck at it, and its clearly a ridiculous thing to expect guitarists to have to know how to do - or want to, just to change pickups.

Whenever i look inside a guitar cavity thats soldered, it looks like Chernobyl.


----------



## Avedas (Jun 30, 2019)

The first time in my life I successfully soldered without ever watching a youtube video or anyone showing me how. It wasn't pretty or anything but it worked. That being said it's actually a huge pain in the ass. I hate waiting for the iron to heat up or waiting for it to melt a big chunk of solder, all while trying not to burn other shit in my home. I don't have a dedicated work space or anything. There's really no reason to not use some sort of click-in connect system. They're basic parts you can buy 10000 of on Alibaba for like 5 bucks. But probably some old dude thinks only soldered wires produce an authentic blues tone in his Les Paul so it won't be happening any time soon.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jun 30, 2019)

lewis said:


> Thats simply not true.
> Ive tried a fair few times to solder now and each time i hate it, i suck at it, and its clearly a ridiculous thing to expect guitarists to have to know how to do - or want to, just to change pickups.
> 
> Whenever i look inside a guitar cavity thats soldered, it looks like Chernobyl.



Some folks can't parallel park or recite the ABCs backwards or change their own oil or prepare a proper medium rare steak. Does that mean that those tasks are too difficult for the majority of people? Not at all. It just might take a little bit of practice. 

You don't have to solder. Buy a pre-wired harness with quick connects. If just swapping pickups, splice them in.

It's only as difficult as you make it.


----------



## lewis (Jun 30, 2019)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Some folks can't parallel park or recite the ABCs backwards or change their own oil or prepare a proper medium rare steak. Does that mean that those tasks are too difficult for the majority of people? Not at all. It just might take a little bit of practice.
> 
> You don't have to solder. Buy a pre-wired harness with quick connects. If just swapping pickups, splice them in.
> 
> It's only as difficult as you make it.


The things you mention have no alternative too. Its either learn the one and only way (which may be hard) or never learn...

Thats the opposite of guitar electronics. Other options DO exist. Quick connect is a thing proven by EMG and Fishman. So why not embrace the simplest proven alternative across the board, rather than ignore that and make people have to go the dinosuar route thats extra tedious and tricky?

Guitarists simply shouldnt HAVE to buy a soldering iron and master soldering just to be able to change aspects of the wiring/pickups be it small tweaks or entire overhauls. This idea is made worse by knowing the quick and easy as shit quick connect is a thing but they intentionally choose to ignore it?

For that reason im exclusively EMG. They care enough about my point that they went 100% solderless and thanks to that they get my business.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jun 30, 2019)

lewis said:


> The things you mention have no alternative too. Its either learn the one and only way (which may be hard) or never learn...
> 
> Thats the opposite of guitar electronics. Other options DO exist. Quick connect is a thing proven by EMG and Fishman. So why not embrace the simplest proven alternative across the board, rather than ignore that and make people have to go the dinosuar route thats extra tedious and tricky?
> 
> ...



You don't have to solder. That's the point. 

There are tons of products and methods to swap pickups that don't require a soldering iron. 

Just splice or use crimp-on connectors. 

If going from active to passive or passive to active, when you have to buy new components anyway, get a solderless setup.

You're just making excuses at this point.


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Jul 1, 2019)

Probably 60% of the repair/mod work I receive as I contract for a local music store franchise is passive wiring with a solder iron. It's unfortunate that passive manufacturers haven't uniformly gone to a much more interchangeable arrangement such as solderless. GFS is really the only one outside of what EMG offers for their passive line.
Other than that, Dimarzio, SD, Bare Knuckle, and many of the boutique winders out there insist on the old method.

I actually think that if they did all work together on an all inclusive solder-less setup, that they would sell more pickups as consumers would be more inclined to experiment more now that a solder-less alternative facilitates a quick pickup change.


----------



## lewis (Jul 1, 2019)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> Probably 60% of the repair/mod work I receive as I contract for a local music store franchise is passive wiring with a solder iron. It's unfortunate that passive manufacturers haven't uniformly gone to a much more interchangeable arrangement such as solderless. GFS is really the only one outside of what EMG offers for their passive line.
> Other than that, Dimarzio, SD, Bare Knuckle, and many of the boutique winders out there insist on the old method.
> 
> I actually think that if they did all work together on an all inclusive solder-less setup, that they would sell more pickups as consumers would be more inclined to experiment more now that a solder-less alternative facilitates a quick pickup change.


Absolutely this! /\ x1000

well said!


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Jul 1, 2019)

I mean, look back to the early 80's when a host of synthesizer manufacturers collaborated to bring us MIDI....


----------



## mpexus (Jul 1, 2019)

Its up to to us to start writing them and say does this come in Solderless? Why not? They need to feel the pressure... but.. no one ever does, I already wrote about on Duncan FB Page... of course i get ignored.

And when asking for it other guitar players come "defending" the obsolete system.


----------



## lewis (Jul 1, 2019)

mpexus said:


> Its up to to us to start writing them and say does this come in Solderless? Why not? They need to feel the pressure... but.. no one ever does, I already wrote about on Duncan FB Page... of course i get ignored.
> 
> And when asking for it other guitar players come "defending" the obsolete system.


Its as bad as tube snobs.

How long before people start defending SOldering vs Quick connect citing - "Soldering sounds better"

hahah


----------



## Zoobiedood (Jul 2, 2019)

Companies don't agree on wire colors, much less a solderless system.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jul 2, 2019)

It's not even the pickup manufacturers you need to be hounding. It's the pots and switches that benefit the most from quick connects.

Pickups can be swapped without soldering, pots not so much, at least not without a ton of ugly work.


----------



## lewis (Jul 2, 2019)

looking again at everything, it appears you basically can do everything solderless on these 2 (EMGs and Darkglass TC)?
All it requires is cutting one end of the EMG wires, stripping some bare wire out, and then clamping them down with the screws on the Darkglass preamp?












the other end of the cut EMG wires would then quick connect to the output jack and the battery right?


----------



## lewis (Jul 2, 2019)

MaxOfMetal said:


> It's not even the pickup manufacturers you need to be hounding. It's the pots and switches that benefit the most from quick connects.
> 
> Pickups can be swapped without soldering, *pots not so much*, at least not without a ton of ugly work.



EMG also sell passive solderless kits for their HZ pickups that include solderless Pots with the quick connect pins and use the passive 500k pot values. Surely between EMG offering solderless quick connect passive and active pots, there is enough resources available to solderless install any companies pickups using these EMG kits?


----------



## xwmucradiox (Jul 2, 2019)

mpexus said:


> Yeap.. Guitar people are some of the most stubborn and can be really obtuse when moving forward with the times. We shouldn't be needing to solder anything for the past 30-40 years, so it's not just being stubborn... it's a stupid need that Pickup manufacturers still impose today.
> 
> Before anyone comes saying that Solder is better because of shakings etc... well your car lights get a lot more shaken in 30 min than all your guitars combined in a life time... they aren't soldered are they?



Ever priced the tools required to make automotive crimp connections? They're extremely expensive and the connectors are very bulky. Not a problem in a car where you have a ton of room but in a guitar a solder joint is small and clean without the need for multiple additional capacitance points. 

You can buy terminal blocks to make any wiring harness solderless with ease. Most EMGs come with a PCB that has terminal blocks for interfacing with soldered systems already. You just have to make room for it and mount it. I'd personally rather take 10 seconds to make a clean and simple solder joint rather than fuss with an overly complex workaround.


----------



## Bforber (Jul 12, 2019)

Guys, wire authentic.


----------



## lewis (Jul 12, 2019)

Bforber said:


> Guys, wire *authentic*.


but i enjoy bootleg wiring too much.....


----------



## Merrekof (Jul 16, 2019)

Yeah at first I thought about possible tone loss or noise from solderless joints. But then I thought, "my cable is plugged in my amp and guitar, solderless" Think about that when some purist tells you solderless isn't good 
I have thought about doing it myself or patent some sort of connector system but the connectors out there are just too bulky and designing smaller ones is pricy.

Still, I prefer soldering. While it works well with EMGs, I can't imagine getting two 4-wire connectors or eight 1-wire connectors through those tiny holes. I'd rather solder than widening holes and cavities inside my guitar. I'm currently working on a project with two BKPs, wiring like an Ibanez 5 way switch. That's 8 wires coming from the pickups! But after the woldering is done, I don't think I will solder again any time soon.


----------

