Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

[Artie]

As the OP, I'm declaring this post to be about the AB and/or the Duncan Designed HB108. Aka Detonator. Your choice.

I'm installing this into a customers guitar. But there's only room for two pots. Does this thing go down to zero? Or does it go from unity gain to full boost? In other words, if I replace the volume control with this thing, will the guitar effectively have no volume control?

Thanks. The reason I don't just wire it up and try it is because it's a PITA to do.

Artie

As I examine the circuit board, it pretty much appears to be unity gain.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

there will be no volume control. its 0 boost to full boost but still passes signal even when off

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

It's essentially like adding the pickup booster to the guitar.

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

Thanks guys. That's kinda what I was afraid of. And finding dual concentric 25k pots is like pulling hens teeth. Either his vol or tone has got to go. I wish I could talk him out of putting this thing in. There's a million boost pedals available.

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

Instead of the afterburner, you could wire up a pa-2 to a push pull pot and not lose a volume or tone pot. You would have to set the boost amount on the trim pot though.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

it is nice having a boost on the guitar. i just bought a push/pull 25k pot so i can wire up my guitar with blackout singles with an spc control and not lose the two output level options (dpdt switch) and volume and tone controls.

ive wired up a pa2 to a remote switch, its not hard as long as you are careful not to lift the traces of the pa2 when removing the old switch and adding the new one

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

It came out ok. I was kinda sweating bullets a little bit drilling a hole through this body, but I was super careful, and it came out fine. Now, just to wire her up. This axe actually belongs to a cousin of one of the guitarists for Avenged Sevenfold. (The guitar is the Schecter Synyster Gates.)

 

[dave74]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

What did he do with the stock tb8/sh8n set? They're way too good to be sitting in a parts drawer!

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

I'm going to finish it up this morning, so he hasn't done anything with them yet. I'm thinking of asking him if I can keep them as partial payment for the job. They sound killer in this axe. I can't help but wonder if he isn't taking a step backwards tonewise.

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

Well shoot! I gave it back to the customer without taking final pics. But dang, those EMG's sounded good. Super clean and tight. When you cranked the AfterBurner, it was like a bit of built-in distortion. Not a bad setup. I wish I had more time with it, but the customer wanted it back. Like yesterday.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

I'm a little late to the party, but just wanted to say that I put an AfterBurner in one of my LP type guitars and I think it sounds great. It's a very smooth clean boost that gets thick as you turn it up. I wouldn't call it "distortion", but maybe overdrive. Also as the battery gets a little low on juice, the headroom is decreased and you get a really great saturated overdrive that doesn't necessarily sound weak from the lower voltage. It doesn't ever get "tinny" sounding, just very rich-toned boost/OD. You can even use it with 18 volts to get a very clean sound with lots of headroom if that's what you want. I haven't tried that because it isn't why I put it in the guitar in the first place.

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

The distortion I was hearing was probably due to over driving the input to my amp, rather than the AB itself.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

yeah, i dont remember the ab actually having any internal distortion with a good battery but the amount of boost pushed the front end of the amp really hard which was great. with a weak battery i remember getting some internal distortion which wasnt bad either

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

I wonder if the AB is much different than the stand-alone SFX-01? I snagged one back when GuitarElectronis sold the mini circuit-on-pot version. But I haven't actually installed it into anything yet.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

there was a duncan designed firestorm which was pretty much the pup booster on a p/p pot without the resonance controls. worked as youd expect

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

Wheehoo! The customer gave me the HB108 set. Btw, the pole pieces aren't rusty. Not sure why the pic makes them look that way.

I think I'm going to put these into one of my USA Peavey Patriots. (With some cool wiring.)



Neck: 7.22k
Bridge: 16.68k

Anyone know what mags these use?

Interesting forum sidenote: Dave "liked" my post. Then I added more info, and the "like" disappeared. That's a pretty nice auto-safeguard to prevent it looking like someone liked some comment that they might not have.

 

[dave74]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

juicy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,trembucker spacing too! ^^^

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

juicy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,trembucker spacing too! ^^^

No. Sorry. Camera angle.

Better?

 

[Artie]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

I'm guessing this uses the double-thick ceramic mag. Since it's quite a bit thicker than a standard SD HB'er.

(Pic isn't showing.)

 

[rammer69]

Re: Has anyone used an EMG Afterburner?

there was a duncan designed firestorm which was pretty much the pup booster on a p/p pot without the resonance controls. worked as youd expect

Jeremy, anymore info on firestorm you spoke of ? TIA