Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

[80's_Metal]

OK
Buying a bridge Livewire Metal pup. . . .
Need to know how to wire it in, while I still use my plain jane factory pup in the neck.
Any info or links or do I just wire it the same?

Thanks.

 

[Inge Malmstein]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

Uhm, that's a bit difficult, but should be possible.
I'll look for a diagramm.
You know that you can't use both pickups together (middle position) or pos. 4 withz another pickup?
The live wire metal overpowers every other pickup and you won't get an useful clean sound.

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I should have mentioned that the pup will come with new V / T pots and input.

The guitar is my Epiphone Gothic Explorer . . . 2 humbuckers and 2 Volume, 1 Tone pots 3-way toggle standard

I will yank the bridge pup out and install new livewire active . . . . I basically need to know how to wire in the stock passive neck pup into the new setup.

I will keep one volume (neck) in the guitar and replace (bridge) Volume and tone with new Livewire stuff correct?

I am guessing, because I don't know very much about wiring active pups.

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I think you're going to have to do without one of your volumes or tones, unless you can use a concentric pot for the passive pup to control both volume and tone (I don't know if that's possible. I've never messed with one.). You probably won't like the effect of using the pups sharing the same volume or tone. The active pup requires a much lower resistance pot, which probably won't sound good on a passive pup. So, barring any funky wiring tricks, you'll need to move your toggle to the end of the setup, just before the output jack and eliminate one of the pots.

Of course, I could be missing something easy.

 

[Inge Malmstein]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I already used a live wire set in an explorer, and needed to replace all pots.
If you would have a Paula with 4 pots it would be very simple.
With 4 pots i should be EASIER to mix them, because you have an indipendent circuit for each pickup: 500k vol/tone for passive and 100k for active.
In an explorer it won't work, because you need to share at least one pot for both pickups.

Did you get an descriptipn?
There is a schematic how to mix active and passive:
Instead of replacing the pots you can leave the original pots (but you must change the output jack of course) and wire a resistor between the active pickup and the original pot. (500k or 300k). I don't know the value exactly, i think 120 or 130k for a 500k pot.
With this the 500k pot works like the active pickup is wired to a 100k pot.

I don't know why there is no schematic at the duncan page.

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I don't know why there is no schematic at the duncan page.

roger that, there isn't a diagram anywhere on the web so far. . . I keep lookin.

I can do without a volume I suppose. . . . they are always up full anyways.

Maybe I'll just leave the neck out of the picture totally. . . ha ha ha j/k

Am I the ONLY retard in the world who is trying to do this??? Do most people go with twin live pups is that why?

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

Am I the ONLY retard in the world who is trying to do this??? Do most people go with twin live pups is that why?

No, you're just one of the few people who are trying to do it on a guitar with three knobs. Inge is right. With four pots, it would be easy. I think I've heard that about adding a resistor before, too. Have you done a search on here? This is where I read about it, most likely.

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

Do you think I'd be better off just leaving the neck pup out of the equation and replace it when I save up some more money for another live pup????

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

No, you're just one of the few people who are trying to do it on a guitar with three knobs. Inge is right. With four pots, it would be easy. I think I've heard that about adding a resistor before, too. Have you done a search on here? This is where I read about it, most likely.

I did do a lot of searches, came up with a bunch of threads and they all said "well I think you can put something in there to make it work but I don't know for sure" LOL!

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I did do a lot of searches, came up with a bunch of threads and they all said "well I think you can put something in there to make it work but I don't know for sure" LOL!

:laugh2: Yeah, that happens a lot.

You might be better off doing like you said. If you don't mind soldering, you can always try it like I was talking about. Leave the volume or tone pot out for one of the pups and then move the switch to the end. You COULD use the same tone pot for both pups, but I won't make any promises as to how it will sound.

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I've never fitted Livewires, but with EMGs you can mix with others by routing the passives through a PA-2 preamp. I'm sure SD does a similar thing...

You need one PA-2 for each passive but if you don't want the toggle switch you can take it off if you are handy with a soldering iron and have good eyesight (and don't mind voiding your warranty!) and adjust the gain with the trimpot.

 

[80's_Metal]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

I've never fitted Livewires, but with EMGs you can mix with others by routing the passives through a PA-2 preamp. I'm sure SD does a similar thing...

You need one PA-2 for each passive but if you don't want the toggle switch you can take it off if you are handy with a soldering iron and have good eyesight (and don't mind voiding your warranty!) and adjust the gain with the trimpot.

and that means????? HA HA HA HA I don't know what that means .. . .
I'm going to leave the neck pup alone and not hook it up. Then I'll play it that way until I can afford a new neck pup . . .


NEW QUESTION::rocket:
Can I wire an EMG into the neck or should I stay with a livewire classic???

 

[Inge Malmstein]

Re: Wiring Question, Livewire and stock pup

and that means????? HA HA HA HA I don't know what that means .. . .
I'm going to leave the neck pup alone and not hook it up. Then I'll play it that way until I can afford a new neck pup . . .


NEW QUESTION::rocket:
Can I wire an EMG into the neck or should I stay with a livewire classic???

I think THAT would be more complicated, because EMG uses 25k (and 9V)and LW uses 100k pots (and 18V).
YOu should look at ebay for an used Live Wire.
Because LW are not so popular, you can get them cheap.
I sold my LW hot set (3 singles) for only 75Euro! and one LW humbucker for only 40Euro!