Replacing EMG actives with a passive pickup - how much work and ideas replacement?

imalrightjack

I have a Schecter Hellraiser Solo 6 which has EMG active 81tw/89 pickups. Frankly, I've tired of the sound and fancy putting in a new set of passives, something which sounds more real and versatile. First question is: is it a lot of work and how much will I need to replace? The input? Tone and volume pots? Any advice on what brands and where to buy from? I love the guitar - it's mahogany with a maple top, rosewood fingerboard and, much as it is a chunky bastard neck-wise, I just enjoy playing it. Any suggestions on pickups that will allow me to get somewhere into metal tones but can be tamed enough for lighter rock/blues tones? Must be coil-tappable/splittable. As always, thanks.

guitarfishbay

All the wiring, pots, and output jack will need changing. You can keep the 3 way selector if it is a traditionally wired (non EMG quick connect) one.

mike_l

I changed my EMG's for Di Marzio's.

Basically removed the lot, and put all new in. The jack is original (actually not, but the point is, it's the same), I *could* have used the same pots, but one was scratchy and nasty, so I changed the lot. No point in changing pickups and not spending the extra £notmuch for decent pots. I also put in coil splits, on toggle switches. Total was around 4 hours to do (make new loom, solder and fit).

I went with a Fred in the neck, and a Virtual Hot PAF bridge.

If you're unsure, the @Van_Hayden or @TheGuitarWeasel are good blokes who make pickups and will advise you on custom wounds.

guitarfishbay

What tones do you like? I remember some Schecters have come with Duncan JB bridge and 59/Jazz neck pickups (Jazz is brighter) and a lot of people who like metal but also versatility tend to get on with them. They were/are pretty much one of the main standard aftermarket passive sets of rock pickups. There should be plenty of demos on YouTube with those sets in similarly constructed guitars, might be a good start point for looking.

ICBM

Yes, you will need to replace all the electrics apart from the switch. (You can get away with not replacing the jack, but it's best to since it's needed for the EMGs if you want to keep them for something else or sell them on as a kit.)

You will need at least one push-pull pot if you don't want to drill holes for switches, or you could do some fancy wiring if you want to have two tone controls and one master volume - you can have variable coil splits controlled by the knobs, either instead of the normal tone control operation or as well as. (In theory you can do this with one tone control, but you'll need a dual-gang pot.)

CTS, Bourns and Alpha are the best choices for pots. You can get them from any of the major parts suppliers, eg Allparts, or some of the pickup makers (eg Bareknuckle) supply their own better-spec versions.

imalrightjack

Cool, thanks for all the responses. Bareknuckle get tons of great write-ups but I haven't heard any in the flesh. Forgive my ignorance but as a list of what I will need if doing 'the lot', what precisely does that consist of? I intend to use good stuff and not do it on the cheap. It has two volumes that are push-pull (unless I've misunderstood the term) and a single tone.

ICBM

If you want to keep the same system you will need two 500K Log push-pull pots and one 500K Log standard pot, plus a mono Switchcraft jack (don't even think about any other brand, they're all junk by comparison).

It can be tricky to get decent push-pull pots that work really smoothly for volume controls if you use those a lot though.

If you want to do it *really* well you will also need two 470K resistors, which you can use to correctly switch the effective volume pot resistance down to 250K when you're in coil-split mode - you don't need to do that with EMGs, but with passive pickups it does make a real difference and helps offset the shrillness of the split pickups.

Or go further and use two 'PRS DGT' splitting resistors (1.1K and 2.2K) to get an even better split sound as well. I know this is all getting very complicated! Basically there's a lot you can do with passive electronics to make a good thing better.

Nearly forgot - a .022uF tone cap… brand and type irrelevant.

imalrightjack

@ICBM When you say, 'the same system', what do you mean? Also, is LOG a brand? Sorry... I don't use volume a lot but I'm getting into it more. The smooth, the better. Thanks for the info. I shall pass it on to the guy who's going to do it PS - any more pickup comments welcome.

ICBM

imalrightjack said:

@ICBM When you say, 'the same system', what do you mean? Also, is LOG a brand? Sorry... I don't use volume a lot but I'm getting into it more. The smooth, the better. Thanks for the info. I shall pass it on to the guy who's going to do it PS - any more pickup comments welcome.

Same system - two volumes, one tone, push-pulls on the volumes.

Log - logarithmic (taper). There are two basic types, Log and Lin (linear). Don't use Lin for tone no matter what you might read .

Personally, given the poor quality of Log taper push-pulls usually, I might go for a single push-pull on the tone control to split both pickups at once - that does reduce the available switching options a bit, but makes it simpler to use too. It also stops you using the extra 470K resistors though - in which case I would definitely go for the PRS DGT ones, they make a big difference to the quality of the split-coil sounds and take away a lot of the thinnness they can have.

Don't worry if you don't know all this, it's not a requirement to play it .

imalrightjack

Ha, you no doubt know by now I'm an ignoramus who has zero guitar tech knowledge retention... What about wiring? Thanks again!

ICBM

The pickups will come with their own wires, and you should have enough left over when you trim them to length to wire up the coil splits etc. The cable from the switch to the pots and jack can be re-used.

imalrightjack

Ok, to be super-sure, is there a type and length of cable worth picking up? Presuming it's pence.

ICBM

For a humbucker guitar you would traditionally use bare-braided cloth-insulated single core shielded cable, but actually it really doesn't matter!

imalrightjack

Spot on. Thanks again. Now for the pickup selection journey...Nailbombs look interesting.

imalrightjack

@ICBM, I have a different guitar which has always had dodgy electrics.  It has a single tone/volume (Schecter Tele-style), push-pull coil-splitting.  Would I buy pretty much the same components you've mentioned for i

ICBM

Yes. You can either do it with one push-pull to split both pickups, or one for each pickup which would then let you use the extra resistors. Either way you need 500K Log pots or push-pulls.

WezV

You will also need a wire to the bridge. 

On normal passive guitars it's already there. On active guitars its usually there, but taped off somewhere as its not needed with active pickups.     On some its not there at all.

 

Its worth taking a look to see if there is already a wire going to the bridge taped off somewhere in the cavity. Adding one is a bit more tricky if you are not comfortable standing over a guitar with a power drill at an extreme angle

 

ICBM

WezV said:

You will also need a wire to the bridge. 

On normal passive guitars it's already there. On active guitars its usually there, but taped off somewhere as its not needed with active pickups.     On some its not there at all.

Its worth taking a look to see if there is already a wire going to the bridge taped off somewhere in the cavity. Adding one is a bit more tricky if you are not comfortable standing over a guitar with a power drill at an extreme angle

Yes, I forgot that.

Recently I had to replace the one in a '71 Les Paul Custom which had been cut for some reason - too far into the wood to solder a new piece on - and I don't think the guitar had ever had EMGs in, the soldering on the pots looked original.

It's always amusing pulling the tailpiece insert out of the body using a bolt, a softwood packer… and a giant crowbar .

littlethoughts

It'll be a fair bit of work, basically.

On the plus side if you do it carefully you should be able to sell a full EMG wiring kit for a decent whack of cash.

imalrightjack

I'm starting to question this idea...

littlethoughts

imalrightjack said:

I'm starting to question this idea...

Why not just swap them out for other EMG pickups like the 57/66 set?