Pickup/Preamp Wiring Help

[PRS-Man23]

Hey all,

Wondering if anyone out there can help me with a project I’m trying to do myself. The guy I usually use for things like this is no longer in business, and I’m hoping it’s an easy enough thing to do on my own.

I purchased a set of PRS Gary Grainger pickups, but the preamp they use is a proprietary circuit board. I also have an EMG BQS preamp I’m hoping to use with these pickups. With that being said, I also have the breadboard connector wires that I was hoping to connect/solder onto the pickup leads, and have it like an EMG quick connect system. Not sure if this is possible with the pickups, but if anyone has some insight on the best way I can utilize these pickups with the EMG preamp, any help would be greatly appreciated.. below are the photos of the PRS pickup/preamp diagram, as well as the EMG preamp.

I reached out to both PRS and EMG, but got some really vague responses that didn’t help in the slightest… so here I am, hoping someone here may be able to guide me!

 

[Crater]

The EMG diagram is intended for use with EMG active pickups. The PRS Grainger pickups are passive. If you have the EMG Active Blend Control intended for EMGs active pickups you can swap it out for EMGs version of the ABC that's buffered for use with passive pickups. The B118 model is intended for use with active pickups; the B125 model is used for passive pickups.

From the BQS System installation instructions:

If you are using EMG-HZ Passive pickups, or other passive pickups you will want to use the B125 Active Balance Control which features buffered inputs for passive high impedance pickups.

For connecting the pickups, my suggestion is to buy one or two "connect cables" from EMG's website and cut them in the middle to make "pigtails" with the EMG connector on one end, and plain wires on the other end to solder to your pickup leads. The connect cables are on EMGs website under "Parts --> Wiring Components" and come in three different lengths.

I noticed the PRS preamp has each pickup coil connected directly to the preamp, so it's not obvious if the pickups are wired in series or parallel.

 

[PRS-Man23]

Crater, thank you for the detailed response! I just got a response back from PRS..
I was told they are wired in series, and then they also told me the following:
“Red is Start, Black is finish. Both pickups are the same”
I still am left scratching my head, but that could be just due to my lack of real in depth knowledge of pickups/electronics.
I’ll purchase that B125 ABC, and that’s just a quick swamp with the same wiring scheme of the B115?
Again, thanks so much for all the guidance!