guitarists..

[kmbattle]

Has any1 ever put new pickups in their guitar before. If so, how hard is it to do?
Im looking at putting a set of emg's in my guitar.
Thanks

[stocky]

i put two humbuckers and a single coil in my strat copy. it originally had 3 single coils

what kind of guitar do you have? does it have a scratchplate?

[kmbattle]

I have an esp ltd. It has 2 humbuckers and im only wanting to put 2 humbuckers in so that part should be easy. Is a scratchplate same thing as pickguard? If so then no.
Im looking at the kirk hammet emg's which come ith a pick guard, is it possible to take pickups/volumecontrols out of pickguard and just install them directly into the guitar?
Lastly, the new pickups come with 2 volume controls but my guitar only has one. Could I just wire both pickups to 1 control?

[stocky]

yeah its pretty simple. i replaced my entire wiring setup with ibanez pickups and controls. pickups themselves are easy. just two wires to cut and rewire. since it has no scratchplate, you should be able to just unscrew them and they might come out that way.

to replace the controls, i think you unscrew the plastic part on the back of the guitar. it will be more work. if there is nothing wrong with your current controls, just keep them and wire in the new pickups.

EMG pickups are nice. i take it you play metal?

edit - just saw the bit about one volume control. hmmm i dunno what to do about that. maybe you should just replace the LTD wiring with the KH stuff. probably need to drill a hole in the wood for the extra volume control

[kmbattle]

OK thanks mate. I dont have alot of room for an extra volume control so I was hoping to just use 1. + Im not keen on drilling holes in my guitar but I will if I have too. And I also currently have passive pickups and as the emgs are active ill need to find room for a battery.
And yes, I play metal ( :

[stocky]

oh yeah i forgot about the battery. havent worked with pickups for a couple of years now. there might be a way of hooking it up to one volume control. should be too hard actually. the volume control is just a resistor, so you should be able to hook the pickups to the one control with a little soldering

you can use google to find some more info.

heres a pic of what i did to mine

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...1/IMG0002a.jpg

it used to be a normal samick strat copy with a white scratchplate. when i replaced the electrics i made my own clear one, stuck a picture behind it, and put some new dials on it

[Tasmaniak]

converting a guitar from passive to active can be a little tricky for the inexperienced as there is more then two wires.

You will also need to change over the socket for a stereo socket. Feed the negative wire from the battery to the middle connector and then feed the hegative wire for the pickups to the earth ring on the socket. This acts as a switch for the pickups. When the plug is in the socket the pickups switch on. Remove the plug and shuts the pickups off. Otherwise you will have a dead battery in a matter of hours.

Give me the actual model of your guitar and what pickups you will be putting in and I will create a guide and also a circuit diagram for you.

Did I ever mention to anyone that i used to be a luthier for awhile? LOL

[Tasmaniak]

I'm guessing that although you only have one volume control you will also have a 3 way switch to select between bridge/bridge and neck/neck pick up. You actually wire the pickups to that and not the volume control. The switch is then wired to the volume control so you still only use one volume control.

[stocky]

yeah thats right. havent worked on mine in years so i forgot about that.

[kmbattle]

Thanks mate. Im still not sure which pickups im gonna get but i will post here when I decide. Mostly probly be emg's.
Guitar is an ESP ltd H-50

[MYSS94]

I recently had and EMG 81 & 85 set put in my EX-351.
The battery just sits in the back!

I loved the sound so much that i have also just aquired a set for my ibanez!

[kmbattle]

I recently had and EMG 81 & 85 set put in my EX-351.

Yep, decided I am also going with 81 & 85 emg's.

[semi]

ive got 2 81's and the tones awesome, plus lots of gain, great pickups

[kmbattle]

Did u fit them yourself semi?

[semi]

nope, came with my guitar, an esp ltd f-2005

[helly]

Dude listen to 12voltking, he knows what he is talking about, its obviuos from what he has already said...

I worked for about 7 years on guitars and I hated EMG's, mostly due to the problems with installing them correctly...

Make sure you know how you want them to switch, ie, do you want neck, neck-bridge, bridge or just neck, bridge. Do they coil split, via a virtual single coil circuit or actual coil split. Trust me, not something to dive into wihtout doing you home work first, other wise you'll have no guitar to play and a very big headache.

I'm a bit of a Dimarzio fan and find that they are really easy to install and come with good diagrams with every wiring option you could want. Maybe check out the EMG site and see if they have what you need...

[kmbattle]

Ummm, pretty sure he said they are a little tricky?? Nothing about it being impossible....
Either way I have brought them and im going to have a crack at it myself. Wiring diagrams are on EMG website and if that fails I have people who can help me.

[Tasmaniak]

mmm DiMarzio....accessories for the guitarist in everyone.

[helly]

mmm DiMarzio....accessories for the guitarist in everyone.

Ha Ha...

Ummm, pretty sure he said they are a little tricky?? Nothing about it being impossible....

Wasn't saying it was impossible, just a word of advice to make sure you have it all figured out before you cut up your pride and joy. I've been there, not fun, especially first time around...

Cheers & Good Luck!
Hope it works out nice for you

[kmbattle]

thanks mate I hope so too.
no guitar = no good

[BigDaz]

i had the zakk wylde pickup's put in my Jackson Kelly. I have an 81 on the bridge and the 85 on the neck, make sure u set it up like that, the dood who put mine together put the 81 on the neck and 85 on the bridge, sounded terrible lol

To use the pots that came with them we had to drill a new whole for a 2nd volume control. Its actully the tone control and trust me u will want it. If ur gettin the good pickups u dont wanna cheap out on everything else, total waste of money

[semi]

just wondering how much the emg's were??

[kmbattle]

Payed about $220 for both I think. But got the 85 2nd hand

[BigDaz]

we bought ours from america, brand new cost us about $280 to our door i think, it was a while ago lol, like over 2 years