Pot Ω for EMG Actives

[Cowboy from hell]

I've recently made a post asking about the wiring for an EMG 81/85...

After installing them, all i get is a hum from them, there not actually picking up anything, i thought it may be something short circuiting, as my soldering skills need improving just a little.

I've just taken out, and de-soldered my pots and toggle, just to realise that they wasn't what i thought they was.

I thought that with it being an LTD V-350, all the pots and stuff would be the same, WRONG... my Volume is a 'B500K' and the Tone an 'A500k'.

I'm guessing these are the route of my problem, but whats the difference between them, i mean they worked for my passives, is it the resistance values?

Would i be able to use these for both volume and tone?
http://www.allparts.uk.com/mini-audio-taper-split-knurled-shaft-p-3237.html?p=product

thanks


Note: Just to satisfy my curiosity, the capacitor builds up and releases excess energy instead of being grounded to the guitar and you... right?

[rh15951]

The capacitor rolls off treble frequencies.
The pots should be fine, check you haven't wired the battery the wrong way round, the output jack the wrong way round or the switch wrong.
And don't ground anything to the bridge the pickups are built in a way that they shield themselves.

[Cowboy from hell]

Nah, the wirings all correct, so my conclusion is the pots, seeing as its pay day tomorrow and i can't find anywhere on the net where it says 500k's are ok to go with actives (all i see is 25k 25k 25k 25k 25k... and so on).

Less than a tenner so i'm just going to go with that, though i can't go to a guitar shop cause they all basicly suck where i live... nearest place is leeds or donny, n i cba.

Cheers for both topics RH :D

[rh15951]

No problem, let us know how you get on :thumb:

[Son of Magni]

I don't think that's your problem because if you turn the volume all the way up it should work no matter what value pot you use as long as it's over 1k or so.

I think you should triple check all your wiring and make sure your battery and shlt is hooked up properly.

Also you shouldn't get any appreciable hum just from the wrong pots. Hum usually means something's wired wrong.

[Cowboy from hell]

Cheers, well i'll be re-wiring it up when the pots arrive after godamned bank holiday monday (Tuesday), all solder points where i've extended wires have been insulated. Just have to wait now :s.

[rh15951]

I don't think that's your problem because if you turn the volume all the way up it should work no matter what value pot you use as long as it's over 1k or so.

I think you should triple check all your wiring and make sure your battery and shlt is hooked up properly.

Also you shouldn't get any appreciable hum just from the wrong pots. Hum usually means something's wired wrong.

Yeah. Just recheck that stereo jack. I had a nightmare debugging a circuit when all I'd done was wired that wrong...

[Son of Magni]

Yeah, speaking of wiring, I just wired a 7-string with a piezo preamp with piezo and magnetic inputs into a pan control, into a bart preamp. Go to check it out and no sound, just a little wiper noise from the tone controls. Since the instructions for the pan control were a little iffy I tried cutting the ground wire to it, and sure enough I had sound. So I rewired the pan control the other way around (this is where the instructions were iffy to begin with). And when I tried it again, no sound! So this time I did my homework and figured out that it was wired correctly the first time. This really pissed me off because then why didn't it work?

So I rewired it back to the way it started and in the process I realized that possibly the star washer under the pan control could have been touching one of the little rivets that hold the solder lugs on (hence shorting the signal to ground). So I made sure that couldn't happen again and put it together and it all worked.

So just goes to show, mistakes happen. So isolate the problem, fix it, play bass, be happy!

[Cowboy from hell]

Play guitar :P, yup got my pots, wired them all in and i've done something wrong, yea i get volume but it maxes at about 6/7 then quietens when the knobs on full... i'm going to have a look tomorrow, maybe sat (off to see Dream Evil tomorrow)

Apart from that and the angle of the selector alls sorted, major difference to the sound though, sounds great.

Note: soldering guns are really annoying when you gotta fiddle about in small places, my soldering iron broke :(