New user, new guitarist, help!

G

Guitarsean

New member
Well, I been playign for oh... 6-8 months now... And since I have the money, I am totally redoing my guitar. New pickups and hardware. I need some help though.
Looking for a pickup, what do I need to look at? What do the terms mean (output? dc resistance?). What do you recomend for a metal/hard rock guitarist? Also, I know about the hardware I am getting... I know that, but what else 'inside the guitar' do I need? What are pots? What is the difference in changing them.

Also... For your reference, my guitar is an ESP Ltd EC-50, titanium. It will be a birght lime green (with green flake), everything else on it will be chromed. Tuner keys... knobs... everything, chrome.

Sorry if I'm bouncing around too much in the post, all help is wanted!!!
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Is there any particular tone you're going for? For instance, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, In Flames, etc...
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

HI...i am currently doing the same thing, i'm building a guitar too, pots are pretty much volume and treble controls, well the knobs go on top......you will need a pickup selector switch, and chord jack.....in my honest opinion, go get a set of EMG's(81-85). you got an explorer, and those pickups just go with it, and they sound like a million dollers, for hard rock/metal, and clean, keep my posted on how it comes out.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Wow... I don;t know really. Metallica is good i'd say... I like... Boy this is hard. I like basically metal... not real heavy... I also play some punk and hardish rock. I can't pick a band though.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

gianniboy said:
HI...i am currently doing the same thing, i'm building a guitar too, pots are pretty much volume and treble controls, well the knobs go on top......you will need a pickup selector switch, and chord jack.....in my honest opinion, go get a set of EMG's(81-85). you got an explorer, and those pickups just go with it, and they sound like a million dollers, for hard rock/metal, and clean, keep my posted on how it comes out.
Click to expand...
1) I don't want active pickups... that's for sure... I know that much.

2) I don't have an explorer, the esp ec-50 is a LP style guitar.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

ohhh sorry....p.s....everything you will need comes with the EMG pickups...(all the electronics), pots, wires..ect.
but they are active, some people dont like active, i do, the rock. but they will be your best choice 100%.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

gianniboy said:
ohhh sorry....p.s....everything you will need comes with the EMG pickups...(all the electronics), pots, wires..ect.
but they are active, some people dont like active, i do, the rock. but they will be your best choice 100%.
Click to expand...
I actually was looking at those as far as actives. But... if you could, give me some details on actives, what do you cut into?... what does the end product of your guitar look like?... What makes an active better than a ... whats the word?
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Guitarsean said:
1) I don't want active pickups... that's for sure... I know that much.

2) I don't have an explorer, the esp ec-50 is a LP style guitar.
Click to expand...


ohhh sorry, i got ex mixed up with ec....also go to your local music store and listen to emg's...i'm not a huge fan of them, but with your guitar they would be a good choice.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Guitarsean said:
I actually was looking at those as far as actives. But... if you could, give me some details on actives, what do you cut into?... what does the end product of your guitar look like?... What makes an active better than a ... whats the word?
Click to expand...

there are active and passive pickups, active use a 9 volt battery, passive dont use a battery, also you do not have to cut anything, the pickups just go into the old ones place
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Oh, I was sure that you had to make more room or something, so the dimeision are basically the same? And what, mechanically is the difference in the pickups?
How often do you have to change batteries? My friend hates buying batteries all the time so he installed a kill switch so at the end of a song, if turned off the batteries.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Guitarsean said:
Oh, I was sure that you had to make more room or something, so the dimeision are basically the same? And what, mechanically is the difference in the pickups?
How often do you have to change batteries? My friend hates buying batteries all the time so he installed a kill switch so at the end of a song, if turned off the batteries.
Click to expand...
the emg website says twice a year,or 3000 hours, i got a set, i put them in febuary of last year and they are still good with that battery, just make sure you unplug yor guitar when your not playing orelse they will drain faster.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

gianniboy said:
the emg website says twice a year,or 3000 hours, i got a set, i put them in febuary of last year and they are still good with that battery, just make sure you unplug yor guitar when your not playing orelse they will drain faster.
Click to expand...
emg"s and duncans are the same size, they are direct replacements of stock pickups, in the back of your guitar you will notice a cover plate, that covers all the electronics, you just have to stuff a battery in there, no cutting required.....i hope i am a help to you?
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

gianniboy said:
emg"s and duncans are the same size, they are direct replacements of stock pickups, in the back of your guitar you will notice a cover plate, that covers all the electronics, you just have to stuff a battery in there, no cutting required.....i hope i am a help to you?
Click to expand...
Ya, your helping... Few more things, do I need to get 'conductor cables'? New pots? and if so... whats the difference between 500kpot and 250kpot? What other electronics do I need besides the pickups them selves for a active and passive basically?
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

500k- for humbuckers
250k- for single coils

thats basically all i really know, or have heard.
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Armotron said:
500k- for humbuckers
250k- for single coils

thats basically all i really know, or have heard.
Click to expand...

This is not necessarily true. You can use a 250k with any pickup. The lower the value, the darker the tone will be. Lots of people complain that the JB has "icepick" like highs. It was actually intended to be used with a 250k.

EMG pickups actually use 25k pots. As it was mentioned before, each pickup comes with a volume & tone pot, jack & battery clip; everything you need to get going.

As far as EMGs being direct replacement, this is *usually* true. I had a Jackson PS-4 that needed the cavities to be opened up a little more for the pickups to fit. If there is no room in the control cavity for the battery, you will need to route out another cavity for a battery box. They are NOT the same size as Duncans, though.

Now, back to the original question... I would recommend the JB, Distortion, Invader, or Custom. They are all high output, great for metal, rock, punk, basically anything requiring gain. EMGs are great pickups, too, if you should decide to try active. However, that's probably too much money to drop on your first pickup replacement, especially when you can grab one of the pickups I mentioned from the Trading Post for about $50 or so :D
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

Thanks JB, also, metal, why a second guitar? The only guitar I want right now is either a les paul (still deciding which ones) or a few other higher prices ESP. So for right now I wanna spend some money making my guitar better. But if you have something against my guitar let me know... So I totally don't waste any money.

Also, is it worth getting new pickups? I have a 200$ guitar and its not a soild body or set thru neck. Is it worth it? Or should I save my money for a better ESP or cheap gibson?
 
Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

basically you're talking about putting money into replacing the pickups and hardware on a $200 guitar....the money you'd spend on all that would exceed the cost of the instrument itself, and if it were me, i think that money would be better spent by going toward a guitar that starts off better.

replacing the pickups would be one thing, but doing all the hardware too, imo, is more than is worth doing.
 
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Re: New user, new guitarist, help!

I would respectfully disagree with Metal on this one. :)

All the guitars in my sig were under $200, except the Predator, and it was, maybe $250. They all responded well to pup/hardware upgrades. I'd put them up against anything made, at least as far as sound quality goes. The Genny is the only one that has shortcomings, because of the cheap-ish neck. But for sound - the JB and QP's make it outstanding.

I was just looking at your EC-50 on the website. It looks like a nice guitar. If it was me, I'd go with some SD passives, (I'm not a big fan of battery-powered guitars), and just use a master volume and tone. That leaves you one extra "hole" for some interesting options:

Blend control, DPDT on/off/on switch for splitting to inner/hums/outer coils. There's all kinds of things you can do, that will keep the guitar "fun". ;)

Just my 2-cents worth.
Artie

btw - On my Genny, I've modified the volume control to be a variable load control instead. I can dial the pickup load, (ie., the effective pot value), anywhere from 100k to 600k. The affect from one extreme to the other is barely noticeable. Maybe I'll post a clip tonight with a simple chord progression while I dial it from one setting to the other. ;)
 
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