Members anibawl Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 I ordered some EMG's off of a guy on craigslist (I know, shady...) Once they got here I tried installing them in my Gibson SG Faded. I didn't take it to be professionally installed, me and a friend figured we could do it ourselves. Took us a while but we finally got the pickups to work. Well I thought they would work right, they sound really weak and I compare them to other guitars from work with the 81/85's in them and these are no where NEAR the power that those guys are. Even the passives I had stock are more ballsy than these. When the guy sent them to me he said he'd include the pots, but he thought the pots were shot. I bought some new pots for the volume, but didn't change the tone pots. Used the same ones that were on my guitar already. Also when I turn the volume up and down I can hear the pots scratching hardcore. Did I wire them wrong? Or are the actual pickups messed up? I need to find out since I'm about to buy new ones if these don't work and I really don't have another guitar to use for practice. All help is greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rich-96db Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 A few thoughts: Make sure that you used 25k pots. EMGs don't use 250k or 500k pots like active pickups. Make sure your pickups are as close to the strings as possible without inhibiting your playing. Unlike passives, EMGs generally sound best when closest to the strings. The magnets in EMGs are actually weaker than in passives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members benricci Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 What are the values of the pots you are using? EMG actives don't use standard pots (250's or 500's). Try 25K instead (in fact, this is a must). Using a higher value pot (250, 500) will kill any benefits you hope to achieve from the active system, and you'll have to crank to 10 to hear anything. Even then the sound is gonna be weak and lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mustaine-who? Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 Oh the newberie... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sxyryan Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 Step One: Throw EMGs and included hardware away. Step Two: Hit up BG-pickups.com and get something nice. Seriously, though, I bet it's your pots, especially if you got them from a shop, they seem to always have 250- 500k pots. And actives aren't gonna kick the hell out of your passives. They are really meant to have less noise and handle lots of distortion and long signal chains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hellion_213 Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 Sounds like you've got the wrong pots man. I'd definitely try getting the correct pots. (And an extra battery clip for 18v ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ricksdmf Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 I had a set of EMG's put in my les paul by a guitar tech (the guy was as stupid as you come). Only had the short shaft pots so instead of ordering the long shaft pots he just used the gibson pots. The pickups worked but were way to hot . So after I paid for him to install the pickups wrong I replaced the gibson pots with the correct 25k pots. The pickups were completely fried. If you installed the wrong potentiometer on those pickups you may be screwed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kellanium Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 (And an extra battery clip for 18v ) This is a must! I put the 18v mod in my Schecter, and it is bad ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anibawl Posted January 29, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 29, 2010 Hmmm... no. Your pots dictate signal going to the output jack. Installing incorrect pots will not fry your pickups. To the OP: to see if the problem is your pickup or pot, you need to bypass the pot and use jumpers to connect the pickup output to your cable. Don't know how? Hire a tech. I will do that tomorrow at work. We used the 250's from the shop :/ The dude helping me had gotten the schematic from the EMG website but I think he read wrong. We were actually picking up FM radio on the pickups for a bit. :s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SrDeMaFp Posted January 29, 2010 Members Share Posted January 29, 2010 Yeah, you definitely need 25k pots. Another thing - make sure you plug the jumper underneath the pup in the right way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cross.bones Posted January 29, 2010 Members Share Posted January 29, 2010 Might I suggest contacting EMG for one of these. http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/546100-emg-solderless-conversion-kits.html I understand the kits are only $30. And will be $30 well spent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anibawl Posted January 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 31, 2010 Might I suggest contacting EMG for one of these. http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/546100-emg-solderless-conversion-kits.html I understand the kits are only $30. And will be $30 well spent. I ordered one of those kits off of their website. Should be in either Monday or Tuesday. I'll post if that really was my problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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