fenderiarhs
Active member
.......mixing actives(EMG) with passives using the emg PA2 booster ? What were the results?
Has anyone tried..........
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Edgecrusher
Well-known member
Re: Has anyone tried..........
I've mixed active and passive before... Once in a les paul which worked great as they have their own volume an tone pots just wired at the jack... The other guitar I did was a warlock which orginally only had a single volume knob I used the 500k pot. As the EMG's use 25k pots what happens is only the very first little bit of the knobs sweep makes any difference. You dont have good control of the volume slope... which wasnt a biggy for me at the time it was either all out or nothing. The down fall to both of these is when you use the middle position the EMG washes out the passive pickup it worked a bit better with the les paul there was a noticeable tonal difference. On the warlock it was really hard to hear any difference might as well have just been in the bridge position. As to the original posters question of using the PA2... No i havent done it but it does sound like a good compromise to get be able to run both active and passive and still be able to use the pickups combined. But if your like me and you didnt need that position it may not be necessary.
I've mixed active and passive before... Once in a les paul which worked great as they have their own volume an tone pots just wired at the jack... The other guitar I did was a warlock which orginally only had a single volume knob I used the 500k pot. As the EMG's use 25k pots what happens is only the very first little bit of the knobs sweep makes any difference. You dont have good control of the volume slope... which wasnt a biggy for me at the time it was either all out or nothing. The down fall to both of these is when you use the middle position the EMG washes out the passive pickup it worked a bit better with the les paul there was a noticeable tonal difference. On the warlock it was really hard to hear any difference might as well have just been in the bridge position. As to the original posters question of using the PA2... No i havent done it but it does sound like a good compromise to get be able to run both active and passive and still be able to use the pickups combined. But if your like me and you didnt need that position it may not be necessary.
Last edited:
Kac
Hootersologist
Re: Has anyone tried..........
I've used my seymour duncan livewire 18 volt active pick-up in my strat with single coils, for over a year now, and it's working just fine. All 3 pick-ups use the same volume knob, but I usually use my volume pedal for volume effects. I've never used the Livewire in combination with the middle pick-up, I assume the livewire would over-power it and it would sound similar to the bridge position.
Rock On :13:
I've used my seymour duncan livewire 18 volt active pick-up in my strat with single coils, for over a year now, and it's working just fine. All 3 pick-ups use the same volume knob, but I usually use my volume pedal for volume effects. I've never used the Livewire in combination with the middle pick-up, I assume the livewire would over-power it and it would sound similar to the bridge position.
Rock On :13:
fenderiarhs
Active member
Re: Has anyone tried..........
From what the emg website says the best way to mix actives with passives is to install the PA2 on the passives and use 25k pots for everything....the PA-2 acts as an impedance matching device so you can use the low-impedance EMG controls (25K) without affecting the tone of the passive pickups.
What i was thinking is that since i will never use together the bridge humbucker with the middle single coil,and since i always have my volume at 10, if i could install the emg85 with the stock 250k pots, without the PA2 on the passive singles and still maintain the sound and output of the EMG85.......??????????????????
One other altrnative i was thinking of is to use one volume and one tone(both 250k) on the passives and one volume(25k) on the emg85(no tone pot)....In this case i am using both passives and the active pickup each one with the relative most appropriate pot value......My question is using the emg without a tone pot will affect its sound and output?
From what the emg website says the best way to mix actives with passives is to install the PA2 on the passives and use 25k pots for everything....the PA-2 acts as an impedance matching device so you can use the low-impedance EMG controls (25K) without affecting the tone of the passive pickups.
What i was thinking is that since i will never use together the bridge humbucker with the middle single coil,and since i always have my volume at 10, if i could install the emg85 with the stock 250k pots, without the PA2 on the passive singles and still maintain the sound and output of the EMG85.......??????????????????
One other altrnative i was thinking of is to use one volume and one tone(both 250k) on the passives and one volume(25k) on the emg85(no tone pot)....In this case i am using both passives and the active pickup each one with the relative most appropriate pot value......My question is using the emg without a tone pot will affect its sound and output?
Artie
Peaveyologist
Re: Has anyone tried..........
SD's sister company, D-Tar, makes a product specifically for this purpose:
Duncan - Turner Acoustic Research: Eclipse buffer/mixer
SD's sister company, D-Tar, makes a product specifically for this purpose:
Duncan - Turner Acoustic Research: Eclipse buffer/mixer
Edgecrusher
Well-known member
Re: Has anyone tried..........
Yes that would maintain the sound of the 85 at full bore. You just wouldnt be able to back it off in volume or tone it would be pretty much on or off. The passives would work and sound the same.
The output wouldnt be effected by not having a tone pot on the 85 the sound might change a little just like any other pickup when ran without a tone control. in this case you would have full control over the volume sweep of the 85 and full control over the passives. As a side note when you buy new 85s they come with the 2 pots for volume and tone so maybe use both of those and wire in a push pull 250k pot for the two passives. Like that would give you full control over both pickup sets only downside would be the combined position and if you dont care about that your good. Just another idea to think about.
fenderiarhs said:
Yes that would maintain the sound of the 85 at full bore. You just wouldnt be able to back it off in volume or tone it would be pretty much on or off. The passives would work and sound the same.
fenderiarhs said:
The output wouldnt be effected by not having a tone pot on the 85 the sound might change a little just like any other pickup when ran without a tone control. in this case you would have full control over the volume sweep of the 85 and full control over the passives. As a side note when you buy new 85s they come with the 2 pots for volume and tone so maybe use both of those and wire in a push pull 250k pot for the two passives. Like that would give you full control over both pickup sets only downside would be the combined position and if you dont care about that your good. Just another idea to think about.
