The operation was a success, and the patient is recovering! Made it through completely solder free. Main areas of struggle:
Some sort of backing on the pickups was needed to keep them from falling into the body, ended up reusing the foam that was on the stock pickups. Easy solve.
At first test, bridge pickup was not working. Rechecked the wiring, found the connector on the the pickup wasnt seated all the way. Solved that issue.
Getting the wires pack into the cavity and getting the pickguard back on. This took the longest, I couldnt get the pickguard to line up properly. I put in some screws that did line up and the rest just sort of fell in to place. Easy fix for something that stumped me for about 20 minutes.
Restrung with some Ernie Ball Strings. I used to restring my guitars, but the bass had me nervous for some reason. Got all strings on, seated properly, and tuned up. Setup still seems solid, no fret buzz.
Only issue at completion is a slight static buzz from the amp, goes away if I grab the control knobs or any metal on the guitar. Sounds like a grounding issue, it isn’t noticable when playing. It was late when I got done so i will trouble shoot it more later. Also, as expected, the original knobs don’t fit, so need to order some that will.
Had the same issue and same solution, just forgot to mention it
I’m not really an expert on grounding issues. However, there should be a cable going from the preamp cavity to the bridge. If that one is not connected as it should, that might create some noise issues. But there are certainly more expert people around this place to help you out on that issue.
I did order some Warwick Potiknob Metal 1 C as a replacement, fir perfectly.
The grounding cable from the pickup and bridge was seated properly into the crimping tool, I was very meticulous there. I did notice that the output jack might be a little lose. Not sure if that would cause the issue, going to see if i can tighten it later, I tried briefly last night and the whole thing just spun. Annoying. But, I was tired and knew troubleshooting while tired wouldn’t get me anywhere.
Don’t have a set myself, but I do like their tone. However, my favorite Geezer tone is from the Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules albums with Dio. Turns out he had a BC Rich bass loaded with regular active EMGs for those…
This drives me nuts that pickup manufacturers don’t include foam in their pickups for the 8 cents it would cost them. Seymour Duncan does, FYI.
I always keep a couple sets of P and J foam bits (you can buy at Stew Mac or Amazon) handy for this very reason.
The foam made me itch as well since the poles/connectors will inevetibly have some pressue on them. Be really annoying to adjust the pickup and have one of those connectors come loose because of pressure. I’d say that may be one benefit that soldered hardware has.
I keep some bits of foam for P and Js for this reason too, but you can cut the foam from the top/bottom of the box and use that. Which I use under the strings by the bridge to go Jamerson.
Have a mild amount of static/feedback coming from the amp since I did the swap. Really only noticable when not playing anything. Goes away the lower the tone is set, or if I grab on to the control knobs.
To be thourough, I took everything apart againt to check all connections, grounding, and overall pickup placement. Even improved the foam backings I used. Tigthened the output jack as it was indeed lose. Everything is, per the instructons, the way it is supposed to be. Put it all back together, but the sound is still there. My current theories:
Amp is struggling with the new pickups. Its a rumble 15, not sure if it just can’t handle the new output. I’m not convinced, as there is no issues from my Ibanez which has active pickups, surely that puts out more oomph than these passives.
Problem with the tone control. I find it odd that lowering the tone reduces the issue. Also, adjusting different knobcs for the bass/mid/trteble on amp has an effect too. See point one.
Unknown grounding issue. All connections are hooked up per EMG’s instructions. The fact that sounds goes away regardless of knob settings when I touch them, leads me to grounding. It’s a fix that is alluding me.
