pickups instalation questions

[laihojrxo]

so as i dreams about the new pickups to instal on my rhoads pro, i became a bit curious about whats under the pick guard. so i took em off, and find out that while my rhoads pro has a batt, my fusion ex doesnt...now thanks to my curiousity, i wonder...
what does the battery do? does it enhance the pickups? if so, how can i install a batt for my fusion ex (it has a SD SH12)?
i'm planning to get a bill lawrence USA 500 XL since i've heard good stuff abt it, so, does it need a battery? and how good is it (i'm looking for a heavily distorted sound)?
meh, while i'm at it... whats the difference of a passive and active pickups?
is it possible to "convert" a passive pickup to an active pickup (assuming that active > passive)?
and since i've never install a pickup before, how long did it take for you to install one when you were instaling your first pickups?

any help would greatly be appriciated

[metalchurch79]

Bill Lawrences are passive.
Passives dont need a battery unless it's using an active preamp or boost.

Jackson makes the JE-1000 which is a preamp designed for passives and it may work for active pickups as well, I'm not sure?

EMG makes two different things that work for both active and passive pickups.

1) EMG AB - it's an active boost that has a push/pull pot that adjusts from 0 to +20db (decibels)

2) EMG PA-2 - which is basically the same thing as the AB except it's on an on/off toggle and it also works with both active and passive pickups.

Hope this was of some help?
Check EMG's site for more info and you might be able to search this forum for other topics that are similar to your questions that might be of some help.

[metalchurch79]

Active pickups such as EMG's and Seymour Duncan Blackouts require a battery to activate the built in preamp inside of the pickup.

[Aaronharmon]

There are a lot of people who advocate for one over the other. The truth is that which is better depends entirely on the tone you are looking from. If you are looking for Metallica, Slayer, etc, actives are the way to go. If you are looking for The Ventures, there are better choices out there. I recently installed an EMG KFK (81/85 with an AB) on a Warrior. It took me about 2 to 3 hours. I had never changed pups before and had very little experience soldering.

To be honest, the most difficult part was finding a good set of schematics that matched what I was installing. My Warrior has a box type pup selector and all the schematics I found referenced a fender style selector. It was difficult and took a lot of thought. In the end, a few of my solder joints turned out to be a little brittle and the included input would not fit my warrior (and the original was not stereo which you need for active pups). I was able to test it, was satisfied that it worked and I did well, and them took it to a local shop to have them go through everything and re-solder as needed.

Since that time, I have soldered several other things, including some work modding (de-soldering and installing different resistors) on my tube amp. I am glad that I got the experience. I never would have attempted to work on my amp if I hadn’t the experience installing the pups. I say give it a shot. What’s the worst that can happen?

[laihojrxo]

Bill Lawrences are passive.
Passives dont need a battery unless it's using an active preamp or boost.

Jackson makes the JE-1000 which is a preamp designed for passives and it may work for active pickups as well, I'm not sure?

EMG makes two different things that work for both active and passive pickups.

1) EMG AB - it's an active boost that has a push/pull pot that adjusts from 0 to +20db (decibels)

2) EMG PA-2 - which is basically the same thing as the AB except it's on an on/off toggle and it also works with both active and passive pickups.

Hope this was of some help?
Check EMG's site for more info and you might be able to search this forum for other topics that are similar to your questions that might be of some help.

hmm? i thought the rhoads pro original pups are Jackson logoed JH-3 (bridge), and Jackson logoed J-50 (neck) (according to audiozone that is)
great, i'm completely clueless on what you just said about the emg stuff....(google to the rescue!!!)

I had never changed pups before and had very little experience soldering.

hey, you're not the only one bud. thanks for your info guys
oh, since you said that a passive pickup doesnt require a battery, so can i hook up a batt to passive pickups to make it more brutal/to enhance it?

[straycat]

Only if it has a mid boost circuit.I'd say your RR has the jackson JE 1000 mid boost system that has a pre -amp attached to the vol pot.The mid boost system has a vol tone and boost control.The pick ups are passive.Hooking a battery to the pick up will do nothing if you don't have a pre-amp system.
All the brutality you're looking for is in the amp not the pickup.I can take a 1 single coil pickup Gibson melody maker and make it sound brutal if I have the right amp.
Brutal you won't get out of a Marshall MG 15.

[laihojrxo]

Only if it has a mid boost circuit.I'd say your RR has the jackson JE 1000 mid boost system that has a pre -amp attached to the vol pot.The mid boost system has a vol tone and boost control.The pick ups are passive.Hooking a battery to the pick up will do nothing if you don't have a pre-amp system.
All the brutality you're looking for is in the amp not the pickup.I can take a 1 single coil pickup Gibson melody maker and make it sound brutal if I have the right amp.
Brutal you won't get out of a Marshall MG 15.

i already know that "amp part." hey, for me, i'm doing well right now...not the part where i'm still flat broke though.
but apparently, my drummer wants the lead (me) to be more vicious... and for band practice/gigging, i use a marshall mg100dfx, and since i reaaaaaly want to use my rhoads pro instead of our rythem's alexi 600 (it sucks pretty bad,and thats the guitar they wants me to play on cuz it has emg...though it all will change w/ jim777's soloist XL which has emg on). oh, mind explaining more about the "mid boost" you were talking about?

[Aaronharmon]

i already know that "amp part." hey, for me, i'm doing well right now...not the part where i'm still flat broke though.
but apparently, my drummer wants the lead (me) to be more vicious... and for band practice/gigging, i use a marshall mg100dfx, and since i reaaaaaly want to use my rhoads pro instead of our rythem's alexi 600 (it sucks pretty bad,and thats the guitar they wants me to play on cuz it has emg...though it all will change w/ jim777's soloist XL which has emg on). oh, mind explaining more about the "mid boost" you were talking about?

Just buy an EMG After Burner and install it with your passive pups. It will give you 20db of gain.

[Aaronharmon]

Oh and get a better head and a good cab when you can afford it. I have a Randall RM100 and it is the shit.

[straycat]

I would never let a band mate tell me what guitar to play.Thats like telling the drummer to play his drum set with mittens.Hell I take a different guitar everytime I go to jam.My sound stays the same essentially.
Sounds like you drummer is too hung up on having the look as opposed to having substance.

[MartinBarre]

Hell I take a different guitar everytime I go to jam.My sound stays the same essentially.
.

Yep.

Since your questions have been answered I'll just say I have a Lawrence USA 500XL and I like it a lot.
You don't need any battery and it's a hot pickup. I have no idea why you'd need to add a battery to a good medium or high gain pickup like a Seymour Duncan JB or Alnico 2 Pro (or 500XL). Your amp and pedals will get you all the gain you need IMO.

[DonP]

so as i dreams about the new pickups to instal on my rhoads pro, i became a bit curious about whats under the pick guard. so i took em off, and find out that while my rhoads pro has a batt, my fusion ex doesnt...now thanks to my curiousity, i wonder...
what does the battery do? does it enhance the pickups? if so, how can i install a batt for my fusion ex (it has a SD SH12)?
i'm planning to get a bill lawrence USA 500 XL since i've heard good stuff abt it, so, does it need a battery? and how good is it (i'm looking for a heavily distorted sound)?
meh, while i'm at it... whats the difference of a passive and active pickups?
is it possible to "convert" a passive pickup to an active pickup (assuming that active > passive)?
and since i've never install a pickup before, how long did it take for you to install one when you were instaling your first pickups?

any help would greatly be appriciated

It sounds like you are new to guitar electronics. Before tearing apart your guitar, it may be a good idea to research guitar electronics to make sure you aren't making a decision you'll regret later.

That said, I have a 1992 RR1 with the boost, and I have a 1995 RR1 when Bill Lawrence USA pickups were standard on Jacksons. Both guitars sound great.

[sixx_ gunner]

As for the last part of your original question: I had my DK2 about 4 months and decided that I wanted more growl.The Duncan Designed were not cutting it.
I got a used Duncan Distortion from a member here, Firebird V (thank you again).
Read thru the sections on soldering, went down to Radio Shack & for $17 got a nice kit. I took everything apart S L O W L Y, and then removed the old one, and had the new one in about 30 minutes. Again, I did this very carefully, as I had never soldered before. Ask me to change out valve springs on a Chevey 350, or build you a computer, no problem! BUT, I wanted to be sure I got this right. The shop wanted $40 bucks to install the pickup and install a 500k CTS volume pot. I can se the next swap going faster, as the volume pot had alot of wires on it. But for the most part it went fairly easy.

Seems as though everyone answered your active vs passive question.

Hope it helps~

[MartinBarre]

If you're worried about soldering - no need. You can fit a new pickup by just cutting the wires on the old one about halfway, and connect the new pickup's wires. We're only talking about two wires in most cases, barring coil split or anything like that.
I've used both methods (soldering versus just cutting the wires and connecting the new pup) and they both work fine. Again, no doubt someone will think this is a bad way to do things, but seriously, there's no discernible drop in sound quality. Fitting pickups is a piece of piss, dont let anyone tell you it's hard (unless you get into more exotic things like coil split etc).
Don't be afraid to try - it'll save you a lot of money.

[Cuthbert]

so as i dreams about the new pickups to instal on my rhoads pro, i became a bit curious about whats under the pick guard. so i took em off, and find out that while my rhoads pro has a batt, my fusion ex doesnt...now thanks to my curiousity, i wonder...
what does the battery do? does it enhance the pickups? if so, how can i install a batt for my fusion ex (it has a SD SH12)?
i'm planning to get a bill lawrence USA 500 XL since i've heard good stuff abt it, so, does it need a battery? and how good is it (i'm looking for a heavily distorted sound)?
meh, while i'm at it... whats the difference of a passive and active pickups?
is it possible to "convert" a passive pickup to an active pickup (assuming that active > passive)?
and since i've never install a pickup before, how long did it take for you to install one when you were instaling your first pickups?

any help would greatly be appriciated

In general, the difference between active and passive pickups is that a active PU is a lwo indepence generator, the magnet is small and there's a preamp built into the PU that reduce the noise and boost the signal. The battery is used to feed the preamp, aka the PU.

Passive PU are high impedance generators, they have larger magnet and no preamp, therefore no battery is required, but you can use a active preamp AFTER the PUs, like in my Jackson Soloist pro, but the PUs are passive.

I also have a pair of Bill Lawrences, and I can just add my voice to the blessing of these PUs, if you are going to install it, it will be easier for you than the EMGs, you just have to make four solders. Just IMO try to buy the ones from Bill and Becky Lawrence.