Attn Marcus: EMG J Pickups

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Hey Marcus,

Just installed my EMG J-X pickups tonight and something strange is going on. The output is extremely low. My DIs peak at like -50dB or some extremely quiet level around there. I'm almost positive everything is wired correctly. What could be going on?

On another note, I had to route my control cavity like crazy. The battery would not fit in that cavity without me routing a good half-inch out of the bottom of the cavity.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Hmm, didn't have to do any routing to fit the battery in my SX, though maybe they route the cavity deeper in 'em - oh well, nothing a bit of dremel work can't take care of As for the output, I never got a chance to compare the output of the EMG's to my last bass with Barts, but I seem to remember there being a recent thread about EMG bass pups just being really low output; the wiring is pretty straightforward, so I tend to think if you got it wrong it'd sound seriously off; when you say your DI's peak that low, hopefully that's not with the preamp gain maxed?

As an aside, the PJ set I got didn't come with a quick-connect for the J pickup, so I had to improvise (using the quick-connect left over from my PA-2, that useless gain booster thing - bought it like 4 years ago before realizing that boosting the gain before the amp wouldn't result in an overall volume increase ); as an experiment, I tried reversing the hot and ground wires, and not only did it sound crappy, the waveform only had peaks, no valleys; thus, if your waveforms look normal (and are just really low), then I think you're good!

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Yeah I don't know, my SX is older (it's an 05 or 06 model.) I literally was in the back for about 45 mins Dremeling away. Finally I got enough out so the battery sits fine and the cavity cover closes comfortably.

I'm a retard. With the old passive pickups that were in this bass, I could have the preamp gain on my Firebox all the way down (-10dB) and it was still bright and clear. I turned that up to around +5-10dB and now everything is fine.

I'll post clips when I change strings, I'm set to start recording in a few weeks (once material is finished being written) and I don't want them to be dead by then. Until then, I'm on my 3 year old D'Addarios haha.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Haha, yeah, I've been there, definitely wanna hold off on the restringing until you're ready to go, and then scramble like mad to track everything while they're still fresh Glad you got it worked out dude, but is your cavity rear-routed, then? Mine is front, which probably explains the difference

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Mine's in the front as well. I have the SJB62-5 fretless model. I'm not sure whether they've changed them recently, but this one had about a 2/3" separating the bottom of the cavity from the bottom of the body itself. I had to route quite a bit out so everything fit comfortably.

 

[JBroll]

I was thinking of picking one of those up myself, since I have a Brice 6 and wanted a Jazz-style bass - how do you like yours?

Jeff

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

I was thinking of picking one of those up myself, since I have a Brice 6 and wanted a Jazz-style bass - how do you like yours?

Jeff

Well I immediately upgraded the bridge, since it couldn't hold a low B for shit. It sounded better, but still felt flubby as hell so I went to a high C instead. The bridge, pickups, and new strings are the only things I've upgraded since I bought it 3 years or so ago (I believe back in late 06 it was.)

The playability, otherwise, is great. Especially on this (being a fretless), the action is really low and smooth. I wish it had an ebony fingerboard (it's unprotected rosewood) but that's about it. It gets a great tone (and it sounds even better with the EMGs in it.)

They're very durable basses, and for the $150 I originally spent on it, it was already almost comparable to a MIM Fender imo.

I was originally going to buy the cheaper Brice 6 string fretless model, but I figured why spend $300 on a third bass when I could spend $180 and upgrade the pickups in one (and eventually upgrade the pickups in my fretted tuned to B)?