MEC pickups, Aguilar OBP-3 18V conversion (???)

[Spandex]

G'day all,

Just about to add an Aguilar obp-3 to my Corvette (with MEC soapbars, active) and was wondering if anyone has done this conversion and can answer me this:

Will MEC's run at 18V (like EMG's), or should i power the pickups from the series junction between the two 9V batteries (i.e, still power the pickups at 9V and the preamp at 18V).

Many thanks,

Andy.

PS. I've noticed there have been a few posts here by people not being able to find an appropriate potentiometer (500k dual linear) for the sweepable wiring option for their OBP-3's. I managed to find them at the site www.futurelec.com . I haven't recieved them yet but they looks like they'd do the trick.

[cybersnyder]

Will the pot work on a solid top bass? I thought that the problem wasn't necessarily finding the pot, but finding one that had a deep enough shaft for mounting on a bass with a solid top.

Heh, I just realized that I said "deep enough shaft". Size does matter.

Subscribed to see how this works out...

[Spandex]

Originally Posted by cybersnyder

Will the pot work on a solid top bass? I thought that the problem wasn't necessarily finding the pot, but finding one that had a deep enough shaft for mounting on a bass with a solid top.

This is a bit of a problem, however i think i may have a solution.

You are correct, the pot does not quite have big enough equipment to get through the hole, so to speak.

However since these are the old-school bakerlite pots, you can usually take them apart and cannibalize parts from other pots, that is find a pot with a longer thread and pull the two apart to make one 500k pot with a longer shaft. I will post here with pics if i manage to do this, so keep your eyes peeled.

As for the MEC operating voltage quandary, i received an email in broken English from the good people at MEC (they are German so email correspondence is a little hit-and-miss), and from what i can gather the verdict is a resounding...

NO!!!!

You can't operate MEC's active pickups at greater than 9V like you can with EMG's. So if any of you are thinking of running your active MEC's with an 18v preamp, simply pick the 9V for the pickups off from in-between the two 9V batteries, so that the pickups only have one 9V powering them.

I can only assume this will mean your batteries will drain at different rates, so make sure you change the suckers regularly (once every 3-6 months for most of us would be plenty).

Cheers,
Andy.

[cybersnyder]

I have an OBP-3 that is running at 9V and it works fine. Actually, I'm going to swap it out for a Glockenklang 2 band that I picked up recently. I liked the OBP-3 when I first got it, but later came to the realization that it's boosts, especially on the bass, are very drastic. It's difficult to dial in just a little boost. But it's far from a bad preamp, I'm just looking for something a little different.