Anyone smart with active pickup wiring?

[BeKindRewind]

Hey all, I've been using active pickups in more and more of my guitars, to the point where I'm getting sick of trying to stuff batteries into them. A couple in particular just literally have NO room for the battery so I decided to invest in that EMG 918 pedal that powers the pickups so you don't need a battery in the guitar.

Truth is though, I bought one second hand and it didn't come with those "shorting clips" that you're supposed to install.



ES-18_0230-XXXX 2016 (emgpickups.com) (Here is the full link to the documentation which explains how it works with a stereo cable etc.)

I didn't really *want* to install those clips anyway - I don't care about retaining the option to use batteries in the guitar because there's no possibility of ever fitting one in here.

Can anyone tell from looking at this if I can just bypass this battery clip nonsense and wire that battery lug straight to the battery bus instead? I was thinking that would work, just take that red wire where it goes to the battery clips and cut off that end and solder it to the battery lug on the output jack.

Failing that, could I just short the battery clips myself do you think? Maybe just solder a wire in between them? or something

I've asked EMG as well, but they take a few days to respond, just wondering if anyone here might know how to answer this.. if not, I'll play the waiting game! Hopefully I don't need to buy those shorting clips from EMG and wait for the postage..

Thanks all :bigthumb:

 

[idsnowdog]

Just cut out the clips and solder the two wires together like this.

 

[idsnowdog]

You can build a Phantom Power box using this schematic and running a stereo cable to the guitar. The cable delivers the power and the plug completes the circuit.

 

[solspirit]

Yes


I don't buy them.

 

[El Dunco]

I got one of those nifty adapters to plug two 12v batteries in the space of one 9v because I prefer them at 18v. I don’t know or care if 24v is an improvement but I appreciate the space especially with the push pull for the 89. It was getting cramped in there.

 

[BeKindRewind]

Yes


I don't buy them.

Nice one, solspirit:lmao: I hey, I hope you've been doing well! Glad to see you're still as sharp as ever.

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I forgot thank y'all for your advices. Thanks for chiming in! And I did heavily consider building the pedal myself ! I drew up a wiring schematic in CAD of what I thought it probably must be, and it's the same thing you posted, idsnowdog. I just had a fuse added to mine which probably isn't even necessary, though the EMG pedal states that it has one - and an on\off switch so I can leave the cables plugged in. What I am probably going to do is use this for a little while until I can budget some time for this project, but then build my own, because I think I can build the chassis better for my needs (input and output on opposite sides, and it'd be really nice to have a LED indicator). Anyhow, the EMG pedal is working how it should and at least I can get my dang pickguards to fit on my strats for now. Y'all were right about the wiring, although what I forgot to mention was that I'm using the EMG solderless 5-way switches so those are a little different. Those come with a different green cable where one end goes to the jack and the other plugs into the power ground - if I just take that green cable and plug it into the hot power instead, that delivers the power from the stereo cable and it works like it should :headbang: