Can LW-HMET be run at 27v?

[themussel]

Hi all,

I have an LW-HMET (embossed lettering) that sounds like absolute garbage and I love it very much. This is the Livewire pickup that runs at 18v stock. I have it in a one-trick pony single humbucker guitar and I play Metal/Hardcore with it, and love how it smashes the front end of an amp with a crushing amount of output and mid-range in B standard tuning.

The one small complaint that I have about it is that the signal coming from the internal preamp distorts quite a bit when playing hard or digging in. It causes some subtle but weird overtones playing into a dirty amp, and as for clean... well that's not relevant.

I know that increasing EMGs from 9v to 18v increases the headroom available. Does the same principle apply to the LW-HMET if I run it at 27v instead of 18v? I am not aware of how their respective preamp designs compare.

Thanks a lot for any answers you can provide! (pic of my version of pickup below)

https://http2.mlstatic.com/captador...ps-D_NQ_NP_815661-MLB27567078733_062018-F.jpg

 

[Artie]

Re: Can LW-HMET be run at 27v?

The one small complaint that I have about it is that the signal coming from the internal preamp distorts quite a bit when playing hard or digging in.

I have one, and to the best of my knowledge, it was designed with that in mind. I wouldn't chance running it above 18-volts. YMMV.

Edit: Let me expand on this. The internal gain of the preamp will be determined by the value of resistor that they chose in the feedback loop of the opamp. Changing the voltage won't change that gain ratio. If the magic smoke doesn't leak out, you'd simply have more "dirty" headroom. I'd just get Livewire Classic's, and use the pedal du jour. (That's what I did.)

 

[Mincer]

Re: Can LW-HMET be run at 27v?

I can't imagine this would work. I'd probably lessen the output of the pickup and use a pedal to push the amp even harder.