Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

[Mspumperer]

I posted here many months ago asking for help on installing my live wire metal into my guitar, but no one knew for sure, and I got conflicitng advise (told 3 different ways).

Guitar: Jackson JSX 94 Concept (Limted Edition)
H-S-S Config (all stock passives)
Super Strat body with double locking floyd rose.

There is lots and lots of room for the batteries and wires and stuff.

I need to know if I need to tell my guitar tech any special instalation requirments. Some people told me I install the pots, some said defnietly dont. I want to install the humbucker and leave the passives. PLEASE CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO KNOW/DO HERE???

I am having to fork out $90 to get this installed because I can't do it myself and I don't want my over priced guitar tech to **** it up. Damn I hate living in a small town were our ONLY music store has a complete monopoly.

Some please help me I've had this pup for nearly 10 months just gathering dust!!!

~Liam

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

I did this man, you dont even want to bother with the passive. The output of the live wire is so high when you flip to the passive you wont even hear it. Im serious, i have a guitar with a neck single live wire, and a bridge live wire. My guitar is a 3 pickup type so i put the passive in there and hooked it up so there would be no "off" or dead position and it so low you cant even tell its working.

The live wires are like 3 times the output of a regular passive pickup. Its nuts.

I did a weird install on mine. When i got mine it was wired for 18V so i tried the 18V and it was over kill for the single coil, i couldnt get a clean sound from it. WHen i ran the single on 9 it sounded sweet, but then the double was weak. So i put 3 batteries in mine! 18V for the double, and 9 for the single. It sounds awsome! these are great pickups but WOAH! they are LOUD!

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

The Live Wire should have come with the battery clip and pot(s). Here's what you'll need to have done.

Have the TRS input jack installed so that the battery(s) can be connected.

Have the 100k pot supplied installed and use that for the volume pot for the bridge LiveWire.

If your guitar has 3 pots like typical Strats do, you can use those for the volume/tone pots for the passive singles. Tell him to wire the volume/tone section for the passives like a LP.

The switch will probably need rewired. Use one side of the 5 way to send the LWs signal to the new 100k volume pot and the output from that will go straight to the output jack.

The other side of the switch will be used to send the signal from the passives to the volume/tone controls that are wired LP style and that output also goes to the jack.

Your #4 position tone (bridge/middle) will probably sound pretty wacked but it will work. In a perfect world you'd get the Hot Live Wires for Strat and install those as well and cure the impedance mis-match but oh well.

If you only have 2 pots in the guitar you'll have to run 2 volumes and no tone.

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

Where do you get 100K? im using all the stock controls (500K) and the stock cap. Only thing i can see its that its loud as hell, but if you look at the spec charts it even says its off the charts as far as output goes.

What will it hurt using the stock pots?

 

[LambofGod]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

you cant use stock pots !!!!!! doesnt work , you can buy em at any online guitar store like www.martinsixstringcustoms.com for cheap!!!!

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

shall i play a clip of mine with 500K pots? i will if you would like. Ill even take picture witht he stock pots.

 

[Kac]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

shall i play a clip of mine with 500K pots? i will if you would like. Ill even take picture witht he stock pots.

post a clip for us bro!

Rock On!

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

Here is the guitar, steinberger GU standard, maple body. Everything is stock sept the 2 pickups.

Keep in mind i got these like 10 years ago or so. Probobly around 1993 or 94, i remember they came with 2 battery connectors and a couple resistors. Maybe the resistors were to drop the stock pots down. All i know is it sounds good like it is so im not gona change a thing.

Here is the link to the MP3 i recorded of the pickup. I dont even know what model it is. All i know is its an active duncan. The center is the stock EMG select but i dont even use it. Its just there to fill that hole.

 

[Mephis]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

Interesting tone, I have to say I like my EMGs better tho.

Btw, that song you were playing reminded me of a song I can't remember the name of for the life of me.

 

[BowerR64]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

It probobly sounds thin, im recording direct from the modeler into the line in on my computer using guitar tracks. It sounds great with the headphones i use. These have good bass and good midrange, they are the ultimate guitar headphones i love em.

Wana hear the same clip with my swamp ash berger and 85 with the EXG booster thing?

3 different guitars the first guitar sound (in the mp3 file) is a maple body 5150 looking steinberger with a guitar fettish 59/PAF unbucker thing. Second is the swampash GR4R steinberger with EMG 85 and EXG booster tone control, the last is a steinberger GU custom flame top and guitar fettish zebra $25. a set pickups. Ignore the playing i suck but i have fun.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

Nothing to really add, but just for Info purposes:

A Limited Edition JSX, JRR or JDR (Concept series) is like saying a Ford Pinto is rare.... thhy may not be made anymore, but with a total of about 15 thousand guitars in 2 years they´re far from being rare or special, esp. considering that that Concept series were the lowest end models at the time (and the forerunner of the equally short lived Performer series)

 

[Mspumperer]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

It may have been low end but only 200 were ever made. So yes it is Limited Edition. And set up right it is a total shred machine, i've even played it live before. Not all 18 year olds have rich parents or profesional careers...

I should have mentioned I have one volume and one tone pot. I'm not interested in using the two single coils so that's not an issue. So how will my wiring differ in relation to that info?

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

It may have been low end but only 200 were ever made. So yes it is Limited Edition

IM-Possible... I´ll dig out my old records if I can find them, I factually sold over 150 of that exact model myself through my own shop in the mid 90s, and they went like hotcakes over here in europe....Cripes, Zitrone Musik celebrated the 10000th Concept sold in ´95 (can´t understand why, but...).... Trust me, there are certainly at least 5000 of each of the 3 Concept models somewhere out there that were built over the course of the line´s 2 year lifespan. I´m sorry, but whoever told you the 200pcs and/or limited part was misinformed or intentionally misleading. The line was Axed and redesigned into the Performers, which were also killed after 2 years.

Sorry, but being short lived doesn´t automatically mean special

And set up right it is a total shred machine, i've even played it live before. Not all 18 year olds have rich parents or profesional careers...

I never dissed your guitar, so don´t get defensive, my parents were far from rich and I´ve been working full time jobs on the side since I was 15, and my main guitar for years was a plywood strat copy, thank you

But the fact is it was an instrument targeted at entry level players that wanted something other than a cheapo strat or LP copy, and that´s all I said... They´re still very good guitars properly set up, even though the Takeuchi-made trem is a complete POS in my eyes....

I should have mentioned I have one volume and one tone pot. I'm not interested in using the two single coils so that's not an issue. So how will my wiring differ in relation to that info?

If you don´t want the singlecoils, just wire the humbucker directly to the volume pot and forget about the switch

 

[Mspumperer]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Jackson/JSX_94_Concept-1.html

Supposedly only 600 made, not 200. Someone I know emailed jackson about it and apparently they were "discontinued" not limited edition. Something to do with tuss rod trouble (which I had). Not that it really matters though...

Sorry for getting defensive. I hate snobbish guitarists, and it's not my fault I cannot afford that beautiful j custom I have been lusting after for years. My budget for guitars is £200 because I never have any more money than that. I am at college full time.

Anyways...so I just tell my tech to install the pickup with the new stereo jack and the volume pot and to leave the other two?

Incidentally I liked the song on your site Zerberus...

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Desperate for Live Wire Metal Help

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Jackson/JSX_94_Concept-1.html

Supposedly only 600 made, not 200. Someone I know emailed jackson about it and apparently they were "discontinued" not limited edition. Something to do with tuss rod trouble (which I had). Not that it really matters though...

Well, I´m giving you the info straight from a long year J/C Collector who also happened to be a dealer while these guitars were available.... It´s your choice which you lend more credibility to, but as you said, it doesn´t really matter either way :beerchug:

Though I´d be very nterested in knowing when this E-mail happened and with whom (though the info itself is correct), as J/C hasn´t been "openly available" for public communication for a few years and accordingly removed all e-mail addresses when the old "mothership" was replaced by the new site..... can´t even contact the webmaster anymore

Before that they´d even search for your USA axe in the logs and verify it´s authenticity, but ever since there´s not been much in the lines of communications.... Though that´s slowly changing...

Sorry for getting defensive. I hate snobbish guitarists, and it's not my fault I cannot afford that beautiful j custom I have been lusting after for years. My budget for guitars is £200 because I never have any more money than that. I am at college full time.

No problem, I wasn´t insulted or anything... I think you understand that it´s not snobbery, just clearing up misinformation that otherwise gets perpetuated making even more people believe things that simply aren´t true.... BTW I also worked full time thru college to fund it (while still going), I very literally haven´t had a "day off" since about ´94...

Anyways...so I just tell my tech to install the pickup with the new stereo jack and the volume pot and to leave the other two?

Tell him to drop in the new Humbucker and screw the single coils and switch... any tech actually worth that title now has more than enough info, because the rest is standard.

Incidentally I liked the song on your site Zerberus...

Thanks, which one of the 4? BTW there will be a Promo release in the next 2 weeks or so if you´re interested in more