EMG PJX Set Install - Neck pickup not working

[Steve Burke]

So I am installing and EMG PJX active pickup with BQC system in a new bass build. I have checked the diagrams and pickup connections several times. So far, I cannot get the neck pickup to work. I am sure all know how frustrating it can be.
Usually these posts are hard to help with because the pictures don't really tell the story.
I used a multimeter to make sure the connection was live.
If you have the time to opine, please help. Thanks

 

[Max Bogosity]

You may have tried this already, but the first thing I'd do is swap the neck and bridge pickups. That should tell you if it's a pickup problem or something further downstream. If that's OK, then try swapping the leads from the neck and bridge pickups where they plug into the ABC control. That would tell you if one side of the ABC is bad.

 

[Steve Burke]

I will give that a try. Interestingly, the middle pickup (which the neck pickup plugs into) works.
Thanks

 

[dwizum]

When you say "neck pickup" and "middle pickup" are you referring to the two halves of the P pickup, or does the bass actually have three pickups?

 

[Steve Burke]

I am referring to the bottom 1/2 of the 2 halves of the P pickup. The bottom half is working the top half is not. I did connect the bridge pickup to where the neck pickup attached and the bridge pickup works. This leads me to conclude that maybe I have a bad pickup or a messed up connection between the 2 halves (they plug in so this seems unlikely) but having a "bad" pickup is also rare - it's never happened to me.

 

[Beej]

@Steve Burke looking at this pic, I think that connection is not fully connected - it should be pushed onto the pins all the way to ensure solid contact. I could be wrong, but this is the case for most/all EMGs I've used.

 

[dwizum]

I agree, but isn't that the Jazz pickup?

The P pickup in an active EMG set is basically a passive half (EA side) and a half that has a preamp (the DG side). The EA side is dirt simple, it's just a coil with the two pin header soldered on to it. If that's the half that's not working, and the harness looks OK, take a multimeter to the EA coil and make sure you get a resistance reading that's reasonable (should be several thousand ohms). If you get an open circuit, you have a break in that coil. If you get a reasonable reading, you either have a wiring problem or a fault in the DG side.

Beyond that I would reach out to EMG support. They tend to be very responsive and will probably be more helpful in resolving this than we can be.

 

[Steve Burke]

Well, after taking it apart and redoing several times, as is generally the case, the solution was simple. The top half of the neck pickup was attached to the bottom half of the pickup with white where black should be and black where white should be. Never saw this because the pickups connected to each other is not in the wiring diagram.
Thanks for your input. It was a learning experience.

 

[landrybass]

I am referring to the bottom 1/2 of the 2 halves of the P pickup. The bottom half is working the top half is not. I did connect the bridge pickup to where the neck pickup attached and the bridge pickup works. This leads me to conclude that maybe I have a bad pickup or a messed up connection between the 2 halves (they plug in so this seems unlikely) but having a "bad" pickup is also rare - it's never happened to me.

I put a set of Wooten pickups into yin Yang bass and had the exact same problem. Half of the P bass pickup was bad from factory. It picked up radio sounds and that was it. Almost like the internal preamp died somehow. I was able to talk to emg tech support and proved it was bad because the stock pickups worked fine. They sent me a new P set under warranty, nice guys and good company.