Emg help needed

[HANGAR18]

right, i have a guitar with a H S S pickup config , all of the pickups are passive, can i just change out the bridge pickup for a emg 81 and leave the stock passive single coils in? I wont be doing the wiring, i'll leave that to my guitar tech

thanks

[Foulacy]

nope

[Newc]

I'd say yes, you can, but you'll need the 81 wired to its own volume pot (25K) and the singles going to their own pot (250K or 500K).

You'll have to wire the pickup directly to the pot, then the pot to the pickup selector.
You won't be able to any Bridge+single options, though.


Alternatively you can just get a Duncan Distortion and be done with it, or two EMG SAs.

[Spivonious]

Before you do this, are you sure you like the EMG sound? Personally I can't stand it.

Follow Newc's advice and try the Distortion. It's quickly becoming my favorite pickup.

[Grandturk]

Emg single coils sound great. Really chimey, cutting and clear. Exactly How a single should sound.

[toejam]

You'll also need a stereo jack for the EMG, otherwise your battery will drain very quickly.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

the only way to use passives with EMG's is to use the EMG PA-2 preamp. i'm sure emg can send you a diagram for the correct wiring.

you can leave the passive pups in, but disconnected unless you wire in the PA-2 or your EMG's will not sound right.

[HANGAR18]

thanks for the advise

[Dred]

To add on to Dreaming_Rebel, you can also use an Afterburner- it's the exact same principle. If you're wonderin', the Afterburner and PA-2 are the exact same thing, except the Afterburner is readily adjustable, while the PA-2 is only adjustable through its trimpot on the circuit board. Hope that helped any!

[HANGAR18]

thanks very much, but since the new jackson pro neck through kv5fr came out, i think i might save the money towards that:P

[blackendvampire]

Alright, This is a bit old thread, but I just have to tell you the trick unless you already went through all the bullshit of putting an active with passives. Buy an EMG HZ, Their not the low end of EMG's, their a high end pickup, their just passive. If you really want the EMG 81 tone, which yes, many people love, Myself one, then EMG HZ will give you that without the battery. I have an RR24 with the 81, and an ESP MH250 with the HZ's. Seriously, I'm not gunna bother buying actives for that ESP, it sounds the same as my rhoads, only difference, is slight volume, not sure why, the actives just have a slight gain boost, nothing a turn of the gain knob on the overdrive pedal cant do. But honestly, if you have two passive singles, and you dont want to run all actives, just go all or nothing, if you must, run some active dimarzio singles.

[Jacksonguy666]

Well, You could do the Laiho, he has an Hz and one of the active circuits (after burner, or the Pa-2, I think it's the latter though.) So My interpretation is that an Hz plus the Pa-2 sounds EXACTLY like the 81, but you can have passive neck and middles, and have an active OR passive bridge. That is my two cents worth.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

the Pa-2 is just an active preamp booster. just like the afterburner except it has a mini scew on the inside to preset a desired amount of gain with a toggle switch to turn that on and off.