Some questions on EMG pickups

[Kurt Enslein]

Can't answer your second question, sorry.

About the jack stuff, just unplug your guitar.

[AnalogueRazor]

I've wired up a few EMG pickups before, so I can say from experience you have to use a stereo jack. If you bought the pickups new, they should come with one as well as the batter wires. A mono jack will drain the battery even if you unplug the guitar.

Plugging in headphones isn't a good way to determine the behavior of your pickups, as electric guitars generally get plugged into an amplifier before reaching speakers. A lot of complex electrical stuff happens in there dealing with impedance. Hi-Z and Lo-Z terms get thrown around a lot, but they do make a difference and aren't the simplest things to explain.

As for headroom issues, the EMGs do have limited headroom, which is much more noticeable in many older amp designs. I love my EMGs (81TW and 89R) but don't even bother playing them through my 18 watt clone anymore. The old Marshall design just brings out the worst of the clipping.

The bigger issue is that the headroom gets lower as the battery drains. Always use fresh batteries when recording or performing and it shouldn't be a big issue.

[gingataff]

I'm not an EMG user but I've heard that running them on 2 9v batteries helps with headroom. You might want to google emg 18v mod.

[gammalord]

Originally Posted by gs1creative

Hi - I was hoping to clarify some questions I have with these pickups..

I've bought a new guitar with an EMG 81/85 set, and I've read that you need to use a stereo jack so that when you take the cable out it switches off the preamp.. does that mean with a mono jack the preamp stays on and the battery keeps on draining?

Yes, you need a stereo (TRS) jack to engage/disengage power to the cricuit when the guitar is plugged in/unplugged.

Regarding the preamp clipping you get with EMGs.. I don't hear it at all through my amp or fx unit... but if I plug my headphones directly into the guitar then I can clearly hear the clipping.

There's no preamp clipping going on anywhere in the EMG circuit. If you're plugging your headphones straight into your guitar, I don't know what you're hearing, but it's not preamp clipping. Also, it's weird that you're plugging headphones into the input jack of a guitar. Maybe you're a weird guy shit I don't make the rules around here.

And comparing my other guitar with passive pickups though headphones, I notice volume is lower than the EMGs - but through my amp or fx unit the passives are much louder. How does that happen?

Your passive pickup guitars (likely) have no onboard preamp - so the only thing getting the transducers in your headphones to move is the very small amount of energy transduced by the pickups themselves. The EMGs are preamplified; hence the increased output. The EMGs are capable of being louder than your passive pickups, but that's less of function of design and more likely pickup height, installation, remaining battery life, etc.

I did the 18v mod and it seemed to make a slight difference. Far less drastic than say, switching pickups entirely. But it's cheap, easy, and easy to reverse. EMGs squish out pretty readily - that's just kind of the way they are.

Source: long-time user of EMG pickups.

Enjoy your new guitar

[thebennyd]

Originally Posted by gammalord

Maybe you're a weird guy shit I don't make the rules around here.

[chaosgow]

I love my EMGs but I do get the hate for them. Clean tone? forget about it. Wood makes less and less of a difference. It makes some, but it's negligible.

They do hard, heavy and fast super well though.

Do yourself a favour though. If you're going to plug your headphones directly into your guitars, buy one of those VOX AMPlug things. Or better yet, a pair of those VOX headphones that are meant to be plugged into a guitar. These are pre-amps which alter the sound of a guitar signal (in a favorable way), and then sort out the volume to be played through headphones. You'll also get a bit more variety.

A headphone signal is a different "volume" to a guitar signal. You wont break anything doing it, but it wont sound too good.

[T1M0N]

Originally Posted by gs1creative

I've bought a new guitar with an EMG 81/85 set, and I've read that you need to use a stereo jack so that when you take the cable out it switches off the preamp.. does that mean with a mono jack the preamp stays on and the battery keeps on draining?

How would the guitar know if it's a stereo jack or a mono jack that is not plugged in? When there is no cable plugged in, the preamp is off, no matter if it's a TS or TRS jack that's not plugged in.

[gs1creative]

HI - Thanks for all the replies..

I think it's making more sense now. I'm definitely going to try the 18v mod. I agree they are not much good for clean sounds but I mostly play heavy stuff and they are doing a great job there.

There was a method to my madness, and to prove to gammalord I'm not too weird Lol - is I thought I might be hampering the signal using a mono cable with these pickups (and not having a separate balanced cable) I thought checking it from my headphones might be a good way to see how the output level compared to my other guitar.
But as it was explained this is not a good way to judge whats going on.

That VOX AMPlug thing looks interesting though for practising through headphones- gonna check it out :-p

[PhilR]

Originally Posted by T1M0N

How would the guitar know if it's a stereo jack or a mono jack that is not plugged in? When there is no cable plugged in, the preamp is off, no matter if it's a TS or TRS jack that's not plugged in.

The point of using a TRS jack socket for EMG's is that you have a seperate ground point for the pickup power supply negative which would only be connected to ground when a jack is inserted. Without the seperate ground point you'd have to wire the battery negative to the common ground which would lead to a permanently closed circuit and drain your batteries.

[mikesbootleg]

Hey guy's, I bought a new set of EMG ZW 81/85 the new solderless ones. I installed them in my Left Handed Les Paul. EMG does not make accommodations for us lefties. I read somewhere and can't remember where that you can buy reverse audio taper pots for solderless EMG kits??? Is that right?? The way these solderless connectors are made you can't just re-solder to another lug like normal pots. Can anybody help a bro out? Need to find Left handed reverse audio taper pots to drop in an EMG solderless system....... My search only made more questions...

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by mikesbootleg

Hey guy's, I bought a new set of EMG ZW 81/85 the new solderless ones. I installed them in my Left Handed Les Paul. EMG does not make accommodations for us lefties. I read somewhere and can't remember where that you can buy reverse audio taper pots for solderless EMG kits??? Is that right?? The way these solderless connectors are made you can't just re-solder to another lug like normal pots. Can anybody help a bro out? Need to find Left handed reverse audio taper pots to drop in an EMG solderless system....... My search only made more questions...

Reverse taper pots won't solve your problem, they'll just create more problems by giving you a really screwy gradation from on to off.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by T1M0N

How would the guitar know if it's a stereo jack or a mono jack that is not plugged in? When there is no cable plugged in, the preamp is off, no matter if it's a TS or TRS jack that's not plugged in.

Because what turns it on is plugging a mono plug into the stereo jack, which shorts the ring contact on the jack to ground, connecting the ground on the battery.

With a mono jack you'd have to either keep the battery always grounded (thereby draining it when not in use) or use a switch to turn the preamp off.

[trumq]

How is there any output to the headphones with the EMGs? A headphone plug is TRS, so the preamp wouldn't be getting any power.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by trumq

How is there any output to the headphones with the EMGs? A headphone plug is TRS, so the preamp wouldn't be getting any power.

Is there output to headphones? I've never heard of that. Where did you hear there was?

[trumq]

Originally Posted by John Eppstein

Is there output to headphones? I've never heard of that. Where did you hear there was?

That was part of the original post-

"Regarding the preamp clipping you get with EMGs.. I don't hear it at all through my amp or fx unit... but if I plug my headphones directly into the guitar then I can clearly hear the clipping."

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by trumq

That was part of the original post-

"Regarding the preamp clipping you get with EMGs.. I don't hear it at all through my amp or fx unit... but if I plug my headphones directly into the guitar then I can clearly hear the clipping."

I assume that since he also claims that he gets output from a guitar equipped with standard pickups I assume that he's using some kind of powered headphone device. Such a device may or may not use a two conductor jack instead of a 3 conductor.

If he's talking about normal phones his post doesn't make much sense unless he's got ahold of some antique phones that are really high impedance (like for a crystal radio set). A standard electric guitar will not make audible noise through standard phones.

While it's conceivable that EMGs might (since they're much lower impedance and contain a preamp), I still doubt it. He's either using powered phones of a headphone amp.

If he's plugging a cable with a TRS plug into his EMG equipped guitar it won't turn the guitar on unless he's wired it wrong with a T-S jack instead on a TRS, in which case he's probably making the store that sells him batteries somewhat happier that they otherwise might be. (He's also risking damage to the guitar if he leaves it for any period of time without changing the dead battery, since dead, fully discharged batteries left in circuit can leak.