EMG DC40 wiring, 2 pickup 2 tone

[Matt in Jerzey]

Hey guys, I just ordered a set of DC40's for my ESP C305. I'm gutting the HZ's and all the electronics. My question is, can I run both the neck pickup and bridge pickup with their own volume and tone knobs? I assume i can, however I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has done this and how it sounds. The EMG website only has diagrams for 2 pickup 1 tone configurations. Thanks

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by Matt in Jerzey

Hey guys, I just ordered a set of DC40's for my ESP C305. I'm gutting the HZ's and all the electronics. My question is, can I run both the neck pickup and bridge pickup with their own volume and tone knobs? I assume i can, however I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has done this and how it sounds. The EMG website only has diagrams for 2 pickup 1 tone configurations. Thanks

FWIW:

Yes you can - of course you'll need another pothole or get a stacked pot. Get another tone pot/cap of equal K and take whatever diagram you want with that configuration and wire it accordingly - or just patch it into the harness that comes them (takes a little more experience but you can probably figure it out).

[Matt in Jerzey]

Ok, I understand the hookup now. I'm all set with that, thanks for the advice. Has anyone used seperate tone controls for each pickup to any success? I mean, is it worth doing sound wise? I would assume it would give more tone shaping, but in real world use is it just a waste of time, or actually functional.

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by Matt in Jerzey

Ok, I understand the hookup now. I'm all set with that, thanks for the advice. Has anyone used seperate tone controls for each pickup to any success? I mean, is it worth doing sound wise? I would assume it would give more tone shaping, but in real world use is it just a waste of time, or actually functional.

Yeh, I've used it to some success. I wired two tones with two different cap values to two pups so the tones were interactive and worked with both pups. The result was I could use either cap value or blend both caps values with either or both pups.

Obviously it's going to give you more tone shaping - at extremes you could use one pup on the brightest tone setting and the other pup on the darkest tone setting. How would you do that with a singel tone pot?

Will the added tone shaping be of any use to you. The only way to find that out is for you to do them both yourself.

Personally, I would install the stock setup and play it for a while before I even thought about these changes you're considering.