metallisomething Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 hey guys I'm thinking of replacing a single coil on my yamaha pacifica. It has 1 humbucker (bidge) and two single coils (middle, neck), 5 way switch and 1 tone and 1 volume pots. I'm looking at an EMG-SA to replace the neck pickup. My question is with the wiring of the active emg. Can I just replace the input jack with the one supplied with the EMG that has the battery wire? Will everything be okay if I just wire it to the switch and pots the way the current pickup is wired? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 I'm not familiar with the pickups of the pacifica, but I *think* that they are passive. If so the answer is: No, generally not. You will always have problems mixing active and passive pickups. The impedance will not match. The output might be really different. The pots will not work togehter.... There are some products (small PCBs) for combining active and passive pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Kind of a silly "upgrade", but entirely doable if you use the EMG PA-2 on the passive side. Unless you're just overly happy with the stock pickups, I'd replace the whole set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metallisomething Posted July 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 I mostly only use neck pickup on that guitar, and I have no complaints with the other pickups, so I didn't see a reason to spend the money on a whole set. I googled the idea of combining passive and active and some people just wired it no problem.....hmmm I spent so much time deciding on what pickup I wanted based on the description of the sound it output I didn't think about its compatibility with my guitar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim37 Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 if you don't ever combine your birdge pickup with your middle then you could just put a set the selector swtich up so that the bridge middle position isnt active then you wont have to worry about mixing active and passive. just another cheapass idea form me. im full of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metallisomething Posted July 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Well, its not the combining, its switching back and forth, and the volume difference there. So, basically, if I run the EMG using the 500k pots, the impedance of the pickup's output will reach its max quickly, thus making the pots more like a switch than am actual pot? They will also be louder than the passive pups. If this is the only drawback, I think I can live with it..... the EMG PA-2 has a long waiting period from suppliers, and it runs about $45 (in Canada). US suppliers (musiciansfriend, guitar centre) are also not expecting it to be available for shipping for several weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpcrash Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 I have this setup on a Washburn X-Series (cheap guitar, good pickups). I used the PA-2 and a 25k pot for the active/500k for passive and went to just one tone pot. Can send pics of wiring and/or diagram if needed. Oh yeah, and a stereo jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metallisomething Posted July 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 so, if I decided to just install the one active and keep my passive, AND just live with the overpowering active pickup, would I be okay to just use the 500k pots and install the active battery input jack(removing the old input jack)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpcrash Posted July 12, 2008 Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 You can, but you may want to add a treble bleed cap to the tone or the active may have too much treble for your liking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metallisomething Posted July 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2008 just found out the Yamaha's pots are 250k, does this change what pickups i can and can't use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpcrash Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Not really as pots control how much signal is sent to the ground and how much of certain frequencies are sent to ground. The number is a threshold of what frequency at which the pot starts grounding out signal. 250k has a (relatively) low threshold, therefore most of the higher/trebly frequencies are stopped there. A 500k pot lets more treble through, thus providing somewhat sharper highs and not as warm lows as 250k (caps also play a major role here). 1 Meg pots are (IMHO) merely for those that don't like tone with balls. Another thing to consider is that when you use pots, their values accumulate. For example, if you have a 250k V and 2 250k T you have 750k Active pickups are typically connected to 25k pots because their frequencies are usually pretty canned and built in by the manufacturer. This is not a bad thing - as it lends towards consistency. To modify this, different capacitors can be used to shape the tone of the pickups in conjunction with the tone pot. Ok - I'm off the soap box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.