Emg J Bass Pickups Problem

[johnnytruant]

Hey Guys,

Im trying to install a set of EMG J Bass active pickups on a 4 string Warwick Corvette. Since the Corvette is passive I realize I will have to use the pre-wired pots supplied with the pickups, however the Warwick uses a different shaped jack to the one EMG supply so I wont be able to use the EMG one. The Warwick jack is shaped similar to this:

http://www.guitarpartsusa.com/ccp51/media/images/product_detail/OJ-2.jpg

No problem, im handy with a soldering iron, however the battery clip is connected to the EMG output and is wrapped in what appears to be some sort of Insulation, you can see it here:

http://www.bassemporium.com/images_products/emgjazzcontrol.jpg

I dont see any way to remove the wire from the pot, so im wondering if it would be okay to cut the wire about the insulation and solder it to the Warwick jack? If it helps the Warwick jack has the same connectors as this jack:

http://www.guitarpartsusa.com/ccp51/media/images/product_detail/OJ-1.jpg

Any help would be great. As I said im fine with soldering, I just have no clue about electronics.

[Son of Magni]

Ok, so here's the problem. The wire from the battery connector to the jack is the power-on connection from the jack. Since your bass was passive, the jack that is in it probably doesn't have that feature. How many terminals are on your original jack? If it only has two connections then you will have to get another jack.

In any case, the 'insulation' on the wire you're talking about is called 'heat shrink tubing'. You can just snip the wire off and slide off the tubing to expose the wire.

[johnnytruant]

How many terminals are on your original jack?


Thanks for the quick reply. Im not sure if the jack has two or three terminals so ive uploaded a horrible quality picture.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3224/jacktb8.jpg

It has one small terminal which the blue wire is connected too, one normal sized terminal for the ground and then theres the larger shaped object on the right that might be a terminal but im not sure, if it helps it has 'switch' written on it. As you can tell, I really dont know my electronics, I just tend to follow pictures when I solder so any help would be greatly appreciated :chug:

[Son of Magni]

Hmm, I have some jacks that look a lot like that but on mine the large terminal says "Japan". I wonder if yours is made in a place called "Switch" :p

Actually it sounds like you're in luck. Most likely you just need to just make the same connections for ground and signal that were originally on your bass. Then connect the black wire from the battery to the thing labeled 'switch'. You don't happen to have an ohm meter do you?

[johnnytruant]

Thanks for the help Magni. I dont have an ohm meter but since there woudlnt be much work involved to reinstall the old pickups if neccessary I went for it. Unfortunatly the jack is mono but I have a stereo jack on order direct from Warwick so its all good :thumb:

[CCR90]

Hmm, I have some jacks that look a lot like that but on mine the large terminal says "Japan". I wonder if yours is made in a place called "Switch" :p

Actually it sounds like you're in luck. Most likely you just need to just make the same connections for ground and signal that were originally on your bass. Then connect the black wire from the battery to the thing labeled 'switch'. You don't happen to have an ohm meter do you?

prolly wont work.

for active pups you need a stereo jack iirc. That is mono. Pretty sure it is. Just got off work so i'm tired and cant be arsed to read the entire thread...

[Son of Magni]

You do not need a stereo jack unless you want a stereo output. You want a jack that has a switch to turn off power when the cord is unplugged. (yes you can use a stereo jack to do that but that's not what it's designed for and they're two different things) The electronics being used here are mono so the correct way to wire it is with a mono jack with a power switch. The fact that the third terminal says "switch" implies to me that it's for a power switch, but that's hard to verify without an ohm meter.