Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

quoricsant

quoricsant

New member
hello all

I acquired a BC Rich NT Beast with original Floyd bridge a couple months ago. Really really beautiful guitar, but uncomfortable as hell, btw.

The looks on this axe SCREAM metal! But the stock pickups really don't.
Them being passive, I have to change the bridge obviously. The neck, however, sounds surprisingly good to my ears, at least for clean tones.
So my question would be where can I see/get a wiring diagram if I intend to leave the neck passive and change the bridge into a Blackouts2? (already bought it, waiting for it).

I have to drill the back of the guitar to open up a much bigger hole in the pots compartment if I want to accommodate 2 or 3 batteries. This is why I'm taking the axe to a recommended luthier once the pup arrives. Do you have any suggestions for me?
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

How about a DD?

How many pots does this sucker have?
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

I've actually done this before. You have to use a 500K volume pot for the passive and a 25K for the active, use the stereo input jack. I'll see if I can find my diagram on this.
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

Can I mix EMG’s with passive pickups?
It is possible to mix EMG’s with passive pickups. There are three possible wiring
confi gurations; one is better than the other two.
Use the high impedance (250K-500K) volume and tone controls. The problem is that
the high impedance controls act more like a switch to the EMG’s. The passive pickups,
however, will work fi ne. If you have a guitar with two pickups and two volume pots, with
a three-way switch, there is another alternative. Use the 25K pots for the EMG, and the
250K pots for the passive pickup. This way you can use one or the other with no adverse
affects, but with the switch in the middle position the passive pickup will have reduced
3
gain and response.
Use the low-impedance (25K) volume and tone controls provided with the EMG’s. The
problem here is that the passive pickups will suffer a reduction in gain and loss of highfrequency
response.
This is the best alternative. Install an EMG-PA-2 on the passive pickups. There are
two benefits to doing this. With the trimpot on the PA-2, you can adjust the gain of the
passive pickups to match the EMG’s. 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.
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

I remember someone had a thread about this a while ago. I would think the problem would be with having the ground disconnected for the active pickup
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

piranhaguy said:
Can I mix EMG’s with passive pickups?
It is possible to mix EMG’s with passive pickups.
Click to expand...

Actually I'm going to install a SD Blackout, not an EMG (already have 81s on another axe).
As for the volume and tone controls, I was planning on leaving the ones the guitar already has for the neck, and install the ones that should come with the Blackout, to get independent controls for each pup. How the tone selector would end up working, I dunno.

piranhaguy said:
This is the best alternative. Install an EMG-PA-2 on the passive pickups.
Click to expand...

The one thing I like about the passive neck pup is that it delivers a full, yet 100% CLEAN tone.
A preamp booster would totally ruin that!
(If anything, I would place that on the 27v modded bridge Blackout, and melt every amp that dares to come across my metal axe!
:firedevil
 
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Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

This is why I asked how many pots this thing has.
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

I am making a guitar like this. A Dean Cadi with an 81 in the Bridge and a Pearly Gates in the Neck. It comes with 4 POTS, 2 Independent Volumes, and 2 Independent Tones. Anyone have a wiring Diagram for this?
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

SlayerSlaughter said:
I am making a guitar like this. A Dean Cadi with an 81 in the Bridge and a Pearly Gates in the Neck. It comes with 4 POTS, 2 Independent Volumes, and 2 Independent Tones. Anyone have a wiring Diagram for this?
Click to expand...
i would also like to see a diag
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

Sorry guys I am unable to find the diagram I had for this. If you e mail EMG at their website, they will send you one. Just describe exactly what you are trying to do and your control layout and they will send a diagram to you. They respond pretty fast to these requests.
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

quoricsant said:
I don't understand what you mean by DD...
Click to expand...

I think he means "Daddy Dick" ?
:wall:

just kidding, means Duncan Distortion as Perry D said. I bet this guitar has a very distinct sound when both pups are on... hmm...
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

Invader09 said:
I think he means "Daddy Dick" ?
:wall:

just kidding, means Duncan Distortion as Perry D said. I bet this guitar has a very distinct sound when both pups are on... hmm...
Click to expand...

Yea probably like crap : party:
 
Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

SlayerSlaughter said:
Yea probably like crap : party:
Click to expand...

kinda lost track there but if you're talking about mine no, the bridge stock is average, but the neck delivers a beautiful clean bluesy tone. (I've played blues for 8+ years now).
With a heavier gauge I bet it can give me some nice jazz tone as well.
This is why I want to keep it. I see very little use for an overdriven neck active pup, anyways.

NTBSTGO_hrw.jpg


uOpt said:
This is why I asked how many pots this thing has.
Click to expand...

As you can see it has 2 pots (master vol/master tone)
 
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Re: Having a guitar with a passive neck and an active bridge??

I had a guitar luthier change the passive bridge pup with a Blackouts2 yesterday.
I gave him a diagram that the guys at EMG sent me when I asked them for help. Here it is:

diagram1passive1active.jpg

As you can see, the diagram suggests two separate vol pots.

I asked the luthier guy not to put a third pot as to avoid drilling +holes on the gtr.
So he decided to try and have the same circuit for both the active and the passive pup.
He left the original volume pot (500kohm)but now the guitar has some problems:

1. The middle switch position is dead (only active bridge is on). The guy says the bridge simply 'eats up' the passive neck. Not buying.
2. The gain on the bridge is somewhat noticeably higher.
3. The TONE knob does NOT work for the Blackouts bridge! :eek: (only works for the neck).
In this case I guess installing the second vol pot does not help-.

I guess the PA2 would solve the vol difference, but I don't know about the other two problems. Any advice?

..
 
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