EMG 18 volt mod DIAGRAM needed please!

[Cleveland Metal]

See now I switched the 85(bridge)/81(neck) setup in my Strat from 9v to 18v and I though it came alive.

That has always been my opinion, and I've always been devout on 18volts...

I'm just wondering a bit sometimes...

[jrnic]

I found that the 18v mod made my Charvel Model 2 sound better. It gave it more sustain than it had before. It's not a very drastic change in sound, more of a "subtle" difference, but definitely better IMO.

[Freyr]

Yeah, I love having the 18 volt mod, but nothing SUPER insane will change with your tone. I just found it was more responsive to the touch, with a hair more sustain and output.

[Cleveland Metal]

I felt it had more headroom / transients or more alive sounding I guess at 18v. Just recently wondering if it feels a bit harsh or tinny... May be my imagination.

Actaually more harsh would be good in my Fusion, as it's a muddy sounding guitar on the low end, but I'm just not liking it.

May be the difference is in bridges. The USA fusion is a newer floyd II with a lot of cast potmetal parts I think and the 475 is an original jackson floyd whatever is is from that era... I know the BC Rich has an awesome Kahler floyd with mostly forged and rolled steel parts that is just excellent sounding. I LOVE that bridge...

[mm2002]

With the 18 volt system intact, you can have some model rocket engine ignitors taped to the top of the body. Paint the body with lacquer and add about 2 oz. black powder to the clear. When you plug in, pyrotechnics baby!!! (disclaimer: I've never done this so please try at your own risk.)
Sounds fun though! Face it, when you're standing on stage on fire, the show is already good enough even if you can't play worth a shit.

[Sunbane]

Now that I've had one of my guitars wired up with selectable 9v/18v, I thought I'd give you my verdict.

My test bed was an 80's japanese Vantage Avenger;
* Swamp Ash body
* Maple neck
* Maple fretboard
* EMG-85 (bridge)
* EMG-58 (neck)
* 1 vol
* 9v/18v switch

I wired an unused push-pull pot to act as my 9v/18v switch. This way, I could change the voltage to the pickups on the fly and do a very direct comparison.

First impression: Not a big difference at all. Most people will probably not notice any difference what so ever. It's the same basic sound.

Second impression: The guitar tone has a little more high end bite to it on 18v. When switching from 18v to 9v, the latter sounds a little dull and flat as a result. There are also deeper bass frequencies come through when hitting the 6th string. It feels like 18v widens the frequency response from the pickups.

Third impression (after noodling for a bit): The tone sound a little more alive on 18v. It's hard to pinpoint why - maybe it's the increase in treble response that makes it feel more "talkative". For a while I could swear that I got more powerful pinch harmonics on 18v, but after some more playing I decided it was just in my head. It is possible that the harmonics do sound a little richer though, due to the extra frequency span.

In conclusion: I will rewire the guitar to use 18v all the time. The difference isn't huge, but given the choice, I would pick 18v over 9v. It does sound a little sweeter and more "rocking" to me.

[Sunbane]

Wiring:

[Carbophos]

Third impression (after noodling for a bit): The tone sound a little more alive on 18v. ...
but after some more playing I decided it was just in my head. .

Overall tone is obviously more or less the same.
But it's not in you head. 18V means less compression so the guitar react more live to your picking. If you push harder you feel the response. If I play 9V in a 10 minutes I feel like smashing the guitar against the floor, because fucking thing doesn't obey me. With 18V it's more or less OK for me. Still not much happy about the tone, but at least I feel I'm in control.

[Sunbane]

Carbophos - I appreciate your input, but please don't quote me so selectively that you change the meaning of what I wrote. The second phrase you quoted was not connected to the first one, but you make it seem like so. You're taking me right out of context, and I don't like it one bit.

[Bengal65]

Gotcha Sunbane! Great write up Thanks for the post. It is very informative

[Carbophos]

Carbophos - I appreciate your input, but please don't quote me so selectively that you change the meaning of what I wrote. The second phrase you quoted was not connected to the first one, but you make it seem like so. You're taking me right out of context, and I don't like it one bit.

Sorry, dude. Just to me it all was connected to overall "liveness" of 18V that you were not quiet sure about. And I reduced the quote tot this.

[jdr94]

or you can do it the jgcable way. and not perminately re-wire the guitar.

take 3 battery connectors, solder each wire to the opposite color wire between all three of them. ex: conn. 1 red to conn. 2 black, conn. 2 red to conn. 3 black, conn. 3 red to conn. 1 black.

then clip one of the connectors to the original connector in the guitar, and attach 2 batteries. done. and easily reversable.

i personnaly don't like the the sound of the 18v config. it just sounds a bit thin to me. but i'm sloppy.

couldnt you just use two battery connectors wire one as you would normally and just connect the the batteries sideways, wire the other battery connector red to black and stick it on the other end?

[nikopapp]

No, then they would just make the battery have double life that way.

[jdr94]

oh yeah i guess it would. forgive my stupidity.

[jdr94]

No, then they would just make the battery have double life that way.

wait a minute. what i'm talkin about is attaching the battery pos side only and the other battery to the neg side then taking another battery connector with it wired to itself ( pos to neg) then attach the neg side of the first battery and the pos side of the second battery to the second battery connector. this is running it in series is it not?