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So, I'm not sure I get EMG.

#63
The pre-wired plug and play EMG controls are a little harder than normal to modify. If you don't want to screw around with the PCB you can just make your own tone control with a 25k pot and your choice of cap, just like you would in a normal bass.

Their tone control for active pickups uses a .1uF cap, which seems huge, but the thing that matters is essentially the relationship between the cap value and the pot value - and .1uF is kinda small for a 25k pot, roughly equivalent to a 250k pot with a .01 cap on a passive bass. Putting another .1uF cap in parallel with it, or maybe a .047uF in parallel, would be a good experimental place to start.

At any rate, I'd put a PJ with active EMGs near the top of my list if I was looking for versatility including reggae tones! P gives you the hard hitting low end and you can blend in the J to keep it clear. Worst case slip a foam mute under the strings at the bridge if you can't get the rounds tamed with the tone control. Or swap the controls you have for one of EMG's active tone control or EQ preamps.
 
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#64
I've swapped out pups on a few basses but haven't done much serious wiring. Looking in that little cavity is kinda scary. The cap is welded between the tone pot and the jack. Expect I'd have to disassemble that end of the wiring and rebuild it to get access to the tabs. Guess I'd need a deeper understanding of exactly what everything is doing before I attempted that. Still that's what the internet is for. I don't suppose you could recommend a wiring basses for dummies sort of site I could read?

I had rounds on that bass for years. And you're right, it was super versatile. I used to use a pedal to roll off the highs as needed. Obviously I'd prefer to do it all onboard if I can. Only put flats on after reading about them on here cos it was the only working P I own. But I got to think they'd sound better over something a bit more traditional.
 
#65
One simple thing might help me decide. Does a bigger cap just roll off more highs as needed? Or does it lower the tone of the pot overall? And would I be right to assume the answer is the same for active and passive pups?
 
#66
factory presets said:
One simple thing might help me decide. Does a bigger cap just roll off more highs as needed? Or does it lower the tone of the pot overall? And would I be right to assume the answer is the same for active and passive pups?
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It will roll off more highs and, yes, that’s true of both active and passive pickups when using a passive tone control such as yours.
 
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#70
micguy said:
The Geezers, although made by EMG, are a clone of a particular Fender pickup, albeit with different manufacturing techniques. They're not active - they're very much not in EMG's normal wheelhouse.

What a lot of people don't get about pickups is that there are a few important things - the magnets, pole pieces, and their orientation are important. Also important are the windings - wire type, number of turns, whether they're scatter wound, etc. But the other bits - the plastic, or fiberboard, all that stuff does is hold other things in place - so long as it's not conductive or magnetic, it does nothing to or for the sound of the pickup. The wire insulation is also in that category - you may like the nostalgia of cloth wire, but it does nothing to or for the sound of your instrument. What EMG has done with the GZR is take the important stuff of a Fender design (so it sounds like the Fender design), and use modern materials for the non-important stuff.
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While not essential for the tone of the pickups some people might still consider the fact that EMG made the Geezer pickups practically noiseless and not in need of additional shielding by utilizing those modern materials and production techniques essential.

And, if hardly essential to anyone, a lot of people likely appreciate the solderless connectivity too.
 
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#71
Lo-E said:
I got a set of these in a used Kramer fretless P/J that I bought sometime around 1989. Set flat, they sounded pretty similar to the original EMGs to my ear. The dip switches enabled me to dial in a sound I liked with each pickup and I never touched them again.

I used that bass for several years and never had a problem with the electronics but I always questioned the wisdom of having those exposed switches right on the front of the pickups. It’s a good thing I don’t sweat a lot!

I believe SD made those p’ups until the mid-90s and then replaced them with similar p’ups that have the switches on the back. At the time I used these pickups there really weren’t a lot of onboard preamps on the market yet. Nowadays I don’t see a big advantage to having tone control right on the pickups.
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I have an old well-used set of the old SD “Active EQ” PJ pickups with the switches and can verify that they are not really ideal for various reasons. If you actually utilize the switches regularly they will wear out (at least one of the switches on my set is intermittent and a few others have lost much physical resistance to being moved) and it would be no easy feat to replace them (vs something like a DPDT switch attached to a standard cavity-mounted onboard preamp), I have hit/engaged the switches inadvertently while playing quite a bit, and indeed they will be sensitive to moisture, etc (and again can’t easily be replaced when they fail). I love the tone palette of those pickups and the general concept, but think that particular implementation isn’t ideal by any means for a working musician and it’s no wonder to me they stopped making them.

I am surprised there aren’t more pickup/preamp combos like the Alembic where the pickup itself is quite low output (useless without a preamp) but relatively flat and wide-range and then all the buffering/boosting/EQing is tied to the external preamp in the instrument control cavity. I dig EMGs too as a simple solution for wide-range tone, but the Alembic method (whether using their filter preamp or their more generic EQ preamp) can achieve some similar goals as well. I’m often underwhelmed when pairing typical passive pickups with active EQ preamps, but a wide-range pickup like an EMG or Alembic has alot more native frequency range with which to sculpt with an outboard preamp.
 
#73
sunbeast said:
I am surprised there aren’t more pickup/preamp combos like the Alembic where the pickup itself is quite low output (useless without a preamp) but relatively flat and wide-range and then all the buffering/boosting/EQing is tied to the external preamp in the instrument control cavity.
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The problem with that approach would probably be trying to sell it - you're locking customers in to needing your entire system, versus nearly every other aftermarket pickup/eq vendor who builds parts that are generic and interchangable.
 
#74
dwizum said:
The problem with that approach would probably be trying to sell it - you're locking customers in to needing your entire system, versus nearly every other aftermarket pickup/eq vendor who builds parts that are generic and interchangable.
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Yeah you are definitely right, though I do see tons of people on here that see a need to pair X pickups with a preamp also made by X. It probably would have to be sold as a system to avoid unintended use cases, which is how Alembic sells theirs.
 
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