Best preamp to go with EMG's? Aguilar/Barts?

What preamp goes well with EMG's. They are on my spector and ive been looking mostly at the Aguilar and the Bartolini Preamps. How do these two work with the EMG's (i think -35's). Are there other preamps out there that are better?

 

I dont play any metal, pretty much just rock and funk, and some other things that I use my fender for. Im not sure what the preamp was in it before but i didnt like it. It did sound more metal and i wanted to get away from that and sound more rock. Im wondering if its the EMG's that make it sound like that, meaning ill have to swap those out too.
But anyways, I dont have an input gain control on it, so i guess that might be a problem.
It sounds like im leaning towards the barts since i want some more warmth in my highs. It sounds too extreme right now, highs are too high and lows are too low. something a little smoother.
For the Barts, is there any compatibility problems using EMG's pups? and hows the 2band compared to the 3band? i want to put in the 3band but i dont have much room in the cavity and i dont want to deal with making more room

 

i think im sold. looks like im going to get the Bart BT preamp. Anyone know of a good place to get those. Any last minute comments/suggestions before i buy it? Anyone know of a good place where i can get them?

 

Hey guys, I got the Bart preamp the 2band with 4 pots (V-B-T-B), not sure the exact name. I installed it but its not working. Did any of you guys have problems with it. Ive had 2 main problems:
1. Signal, with alot of distortion and interference
2. Very, very, very low signal. Jacked the amp all the way and still is just a whisper.

A couple of things i wasnt real sure about was on the EMG pups, on the wire there is the insulation and then some braided wire then the actual pickup wire with the insulation. I thought that braided wire between the insulation and the actual signal wire was something i have to ground, but its too hard to ground since its braided so tight. I did a sloppy job, but i got it grounded, is that what im supposed to do?

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be???

 

the EMG's have 1 wire and a braid, i think they are 35-DC's. The Bart preamp is the NTBT-918. And im running it 9V.

 

so i should rewire it as a volume volume config instead of a volume blend config. The Bart preamp wasnt prewired, but it came with all the parts that was needed. The old preamp was V-V before but im not sure if they are 25K pots. It was the original EMG preamp system, so im assuming that they are 25K pots.
Should i use both the volume pots from the old preamp or use the one Volume pot from Bartolini and one old pot for the blend.
Also, The diagram didnt say i need to but do i have to ground all the pots?(bass and treble pots?)

 

i should still use a 25K volume pot with the V/B setup with these 25K blend pots. I never had a blend pot before, My old preamp was a VVBT setup. It had this one small little chip attatched to one of the pots, i think the volume one.
Is using 25K pots going to have problems working with the Bartolini preamp. What kind of effect will the 25K pots have on the preamp?
And for grounding the other pots, what is the washer you are talking about joining them together at? where is the washer? Ive only seen them get grounded at the bottom cap, is this a better method?

 

Ill let you know what kind of pots they shipped with them when i get home later on tonight. where would I find what impedence they are, Is it marked on the pots?

 

The Bartolini's came with a 20k pot for the volume control and a 250k pot for the blend knob.
The Pots from my original preamp were 200k.
i emailed bartolini and this was their response:

The gain control should be a 5K trim with a 1.3K-ohm or a 10K trimpot with a 2.7K-ohm - as in .../ntbt_1.gif

If you put ~27K-ohm in <series> with each pickup hot lead (lead > 27K > blendpot lug), then the Blend Pot will work reasonably well. For best blending the resistor value may be a little higher, maybe as high as 47K-ohm. Without resistors, the 250K Blend will work but it will be abrupt. The resistors will also help attenuate the active pickups.


Im gonna just go and buy that 25k blend pot. Do you think i need another volume pot, or stick with the 20k pot?