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EMG wiring problems

B

bigd4207

Apr 28, 2006
380
1
40
In the clouds
#1
Ok, I just bought 3 emg 35 soapbar pups. p,tw,j. yes, 3 soap bass. got it all wired up just like the diagrams show for single volume, tone for each pickup, all the pickups are working, but for some reason the only way to get volume out of any of them is to have both the neck and bridge pup on, which seems to be centered around the bridge, i.e. no pickup will work without it on. all of them work if all volumes are up, but turn the bridge down and everything goes dead. i am pretty adament on keepin all controls, don't want a unused hole in my bass, in theory this idea seemed to work, but no go. wired em all up and joined the grounds and hots to the jack kinda star shielding like, one central point. can anybody id the problem? using 18 volts, and their diagrams, i just can't figure it out, thought about trying the vol, vol, tone diagram, but again would leave a hole in my bass. any suggestions, or help would be much appreciated
 
#2
Just so we're clear, you're wiring the bass up with an individual volume and tone control for each pickup, for a total of 6 knobs?

If so, the wires that leave those 3 separate tone knobs should all go separately to the output jack.

Volume ------ Tone ----------\
Volume ------ Tone ----------Output Jack
Volume ------ Tone ----------/

If you meant an individual volume for each pickup, but all of them sharing a single tone knob (4 knob bass) then the 3 volume knobs should each have a wire heading for the tone knob.

Volume --------\
Volume ------ Tone ----------Output Jack
Volume --------/

What I think you have, and what you do not want, is for a volume pot to be feeding its signal through one of the other volume pots. That will get you in a situation where one knob will seem to control multiple pickups.

(NOT THIS)
Volume ------ Volume ------ Volume ------ Tone ------ Output Jack

(OR THIS)
Volume ------ Volume ------ Tone ------ Output Jack
Volume -------------------------/

(etc...)

These graphs are simpler than the actual wiring of course, but the idea I wanted to convey is basically visual. :)
 
#3
the way i have it is 6 controls, 1 volume and tone per pot, each volume pot is wired only to designated pickup, grounds, off each tone, hot wires and grounds meet only going into jack wire, that's the way i have it for all grounds and hot wires, same at the battery hots. i had it setup in a passive operation before the active pups, except i had a switch on off for a pup, and 2 pups sharing tones, i've double checked the diagrams and everything should be kosher, is there a better way to wire it and still keep all controls that you know of? thatnks for helping - setup like your first diagram
 
#5
100_0457.jpg this is the only picture i could get to upload, but the hots and batt hots are the same way, they only meet at the jack wire, i'm wondering, because there were two different diagrams that emg sends. one is for single vol tone setup the other was vol vol tone, but the 2nd had the volume pots where the inner hot from the pups goes to the middle prong, not the cap side like i have it now, possible this is doin it? i disconnected all hots but one for each pup one by one and they all work so it has to be something with the way i have the hot wires setup or somthing. i see why the way i have it wired would fail now because i guess technically the vol pots are still connected kinda, but how would i isolate them further, i fugured this way seemed pretty simple, i know wiring pretty well, but i don't want to start resoldering any connections if i don't have to. be a shame to mess up another new pot, like i did when i got my bart eq. but again the wires go 3 into 1 to the jack, on all sides just like the grounds above, thanks for the help
:( want that bass up and running
 
#8
i figured it out, like i said, i am pretty good with wiring, i've wired up many pots, as it seems. for some reason when using that many pickups, they had to be wired like vol vol tone format, with inner hots and hot outputs reversed, resoldered em, everything works fine, seems kinda lacking tone though, but i am on fretless with nylons, still think an eq could help but the emgs cost enough as it is, pretty good sounding pups, the tw does have nice variations, thanks anyways guys
 
#9
Jamie_Funk said:
3 EMGs - not a standard type of wiring situation for sure, so likely many here have no experience to offer.

Why not contact EMG? I have found them quite responsive to technical questions/issues - email is on their site. THEY should know how to properly do this :)

Jamie
Click to expand...

yeah i started out playing between the pups on my esp, then started playing right on the neck almost and figured since there's enough room there, rout it out slap another pup there, why not right. defretted the bass, did have the stock esp's with an emg hz in middle pos. with an off on switch. and wired my blend knob so that middle postion is off, not equal mix, so i could solo play the middle without ajusting volume, pretty versatile bass really, now it's 3 vol 3 tone, each tone only affects designated pup, and completely noise free on nylons, gotta love that on fretless, started life as a stock esp ltd b-104, the first b's before they made the 154. my first bass and definetely most heavily modified
 

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