500K volume for active pickups?

[idsnowdog]

I bought a used no name active humbucker off ebay to go with the two Dragonfire singles I bought earlier for a new project. I suspect the humbucker is an ARTEC because most Asian import pickups are just rebranded ATEC's. The Dragonfire website says to use 25K or 50K pots for volume and tone which is pretty standard. However, since I can't identify the humbucker I didn't know what value to use with that one? I tried it with 25K pots and the bridge is dark, muffled and lacks resonance. The singles sound ok though. So I wired straight to the jack for the bridge position and it sounds a lot better. What I found odd was ARTEC's website has 500K pots for all of their pickups including actives and singles. So either this humbucker is supposed to use 500K pots or the person who drew their diagrams used the same value pots for everything. Has anyone heard of actives using 500K pots?

http://www.artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf

 

[ehdwuld]

seems like there are other mistakes as well in that document
the first page says all black wires are ground with the exception of the reversed center single coil that has a yellow ground and black signal

the rest of the document uses the yellow as signal and the black for ground each time that pickup is shown

it is not difficult to image they switched pot values as well

 

[idsnowdog]

seems like there are other mistakes as well in that document
the first page says all black wires are ground with the exception of the reversed center single coil that has a yellow ground and black signal

the rest of the document uses the yellow as signal and the black for ground each time that pickup is shown

it is not difficult to image they switched pot values as well

I'm going to try 500K and 250K pots today to see if they work well with that pickup because when wired direct it has the resonance and clarity I'm looking for.

 

[Gtrjunior]

I’m fairly certain that EMG uses 25k pots.
Not certain on other brands.

Edit: that’s 25k not 250k

 

[ehdwuld]

I feel like the 500k will act like an on-off with a very small movement

I too am curious as to what it will do

keep us posted (pun intended)

 

[idsnowdog]

I sent the seller an email and he confirmed that they use 500K pots. Which he agreed is a bit odd for an active pickup but which confirms my suspicion that they are ARTEC OEM's.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Yes, please let us know how the 500k pots worked out.

 

[idsnowdog]

I tried wiring it up today but it doesn't sound right. I wired it as a H/S/S with an import 5-way switch. 500K B volume pot for the humbucker. 25K A volume pot for the neck/middle single coils. The bridge sounds too dark and when I turn down the neck/middle volume it gets even darker. While the neck/middle are too bright like the 500K for the bridge is somehow in play despite it not changing the tone or volume when the bridge is turned up/down.

This is what the diagram looks like. I tried running the output from the switch to the first lug on the pot and the second lug to output like a strat and from the switch to the second lug on the pot and from the first lug to output like a Jazz bass but it made no difference.

 

[idsnowdog]

I don't think I am going to get this humbucker to play nice with these single coils. There's really nothing wrong with either of them other than their choice of pots are incompatible. The humbucker would be better off in a single pickup guitar.

 

[ehdwuld]

try a 250 pot with both
most fenders with HSS use 250 for the volume

there is a trick with a 500k resistor across the hot and ground that makes a 500k pot look like a 250

 

[idsnowdog]

try a 250 pot with both
most fenders with HSS use 250 for the volume

there is a trick with a 500k resistor across the hot and ground that makes a 500k pot look like a 250

I bought a set of these active pickups as seen on Youtube. They did some head to head comparisons and they stack up pretty well. If they are as good as GFS Red Actives or these Dragonfires I will be happy. I will use this ARTEC on a single pickup guitar so I don't have to worry about compatability.

 

[MRTHUD]

I think there is confusion here with reference to 25k pots. That is way too low for guitar in my experience and would be extremely dark sounding. I think that 250k is what was intended. For active pickups I have had success with 250k pots in a rather naturally bright sounding guitar. If you go with 500k that could be ok too if you have a naturally dark sounding guitar. The higher the Ohms the brighter the pickup will sound. (I have tried a 1meg pot in a passive guitar here and it sounded ok, but that was a otherwise dull sounding instrument). I suspect that 250k (not 25K) is what you want.

 

[nexion218]

I think there is confusion here with reference to 25k pots. That is way too low for guitar in my experience and would be extremely dark sounding. I think that 250k is what was intended. For active pickups I have had success with 250k pots in a rather naturally bright sounding guitar. If you go with 500k that could be ok too if you have a naturally dark sounding guitar. The higher the Ohms the brighter the pickup will sound. (I have tried a 1meg pot in a passive guitar here and it sounded ok, but that was a otherwise dull sounding instrument). I suspect that 250k (not 25K) is what you want.

Nope, 25 k is correct:

"CAN I MIX EMG’S WITH PASSIVE PICKUPS?

It is possible to mix active EMG’s with passive pickups. However, we don't recommend it.
Passive pickups traditionally use 250K/500K volume and tone pots. These pots will act like a switch with EMG’s, turning them on and off rather than up and down. If you have a guitar with two pickups and two volume pots, you can use the provided 25K pots for the EMG, and a 250K/500K pot for the passive pickup. This will allow you to use either pickup. However, in the middle position the passive pickup will have reduced gain and response; and the passive pickup by itself will have far less output than the active one. You can use our low-impedance (25K) volume and tone controls provided with the EMG’s on a passive pickup. But the passive pickups will then suffer a reduction in gain and loss of high end response, sounding muffled."

https://www.emgpickups.com/emg-faq

SD Blackouts go with 25 k too, at least according to the SD wiring diagram.

 

[MRTHUD]

Nope, 25 k is correct:

"CAN I MIX EMG’S WITH PASSIVE PICKUPS?

It is possible to mix active EMG’s with passive pickups. However, we don't recommend it.
Passive pickups traditionally use 250K/500K volume and tone pots. These pots will act like a switch with EMG’s, turning them on and off rather than up and down. If you have a guitar with two pickups and two volume pots, you can use the provided 25K pots for the EMG, and a 250K/500K pot for the passive pickup. This will allow you to use either pickup. However, in the middle position the passive pickup will have reduced gain and response; and the passive pickup by itself will have far less output than the active one. You can use our low-impedance (25K) volume and tone controls provided with the EMG’s on a passive pickup. But the passive pickups will then suffer a reduction in gain and loss of high end response, sounding muffled."

https://www.emgpickups.com/emg-faq

SD Blackouts go with 25 k too, at least according to the SD wiring diagram.

Ok, I have just learned something new. Thanks

 

[idsnowdog]

Today I put that ARTEC pickup in a single pickup guitar and do you know what pot I used? 1 meg audio taper! With a 500K audio taper pot it was far too dark and compressed sounding. A 1 meg pot really brought out the resonance, clarity and power.