Hello, I am curious as to how my bass sounds with no pre amp at all. I looked at EMG's website and I looked up the schematic for my EMG-HZ passive pick ups. I just cant figure out why a switch is needed for when I would be wiring two volume and two tone pots especially since the diagram says that each volume is independent. http://www.emginc.com/downloads/wiringdiagrams/EMGHZ-35-40-45.pdf diagram 6 ^^ If it were a pick up enable switch, then wouldn't just turning down the volume all the way for one pick up be sufficient to do the job?
Looks like Gibson Les Paul style wiring to me. Two volumes and a switch. Not necessary, but another option.
yeah, its to disable either pick up, if you turn down the volume all the way it doesnt mute it. surprisingly, I like the passive direct out with no pre amp best. it has more punch than when the EMG BTS pre amp in it did. tomorrow, i will try the G&B 3 band pre amp. i've recorded my progress so far. anyone interested in the files should let me know.
The BTS always sounds better running on 18V. I haven't used it witht he passive pickups, but it sounds better that way with the actives. You get more headroom which equals more punch.
according to my tests, the purpose of the switch is because when you turn down the volume all the way, the pick up is not completely muted.
My opinion was based on actually using EMG pickups and BTC systems in 4 different basses that I built for the last 10 years. Originally I ran the systems on 9 volts. Later I switched them to 18 V and you could hear more punch. On 9 Volts they are more compressed sounding. Since that time EMG started recommending 18 volt operation for all their bass systems. Don't forget that these devices use op amps, which are not made to run on a single power rail. So after you split the 9 volts in half, you are running on +/- 4.5 Volts. On the other hand I make JFET preamps that run on 9 volts and they are fine, because that's how they are designed. Running them on higher voltages doesn't give you more of anything, except noise. It has nothing to do with "hitting the head". You wont get more output level on 18 volts, you will will get wider voltage swings, because there's more available to the op amps. This is from the EMG instruction sheet:
Go to post #5: So I pointed out that if he was using the BTS on 9 volts, that would be true. Run the BTS on 18 volts and you wont notice a difference. It wasn't for this particular setup, but he did mention a preamp.
Only if you have your volume controls miswired. The switch is to switch pickups as on a Les Paul. Not too many basses are set up that way. Every two volume control bass in the world completely muts the volume when the volume controls are on zero.
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