well. i got an EMG 81. so i opened up my guitar and then. i come to the problem #1

.....i have 3 knobs on my guitar and i dont know which is the volume and which is the tone and whether it has two volume and one tone or two tone and one volume? my guitar is a dime2st btw http://washburn.com/products/guitar...es/dime3sth.jpg

another thing is that the new volume and tone pots have got this green thing in the middle thats connected. and on all the diagrams except the one with 3 knobs has not got it on? is it stuck to something else?

and as well the instructions look so confusing? and another thing is that i phoned up a guitar store and they said it will take a week till i can get it back and i have a gig next week and that is my only guitar!!!!

ne one got any ideas. as soon as i can get a better and easily understandable diagam or something then im set as i can solder etc

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Why dont you plug it into an amp and see which knobs do what? Unless you already removed the current pickups in there. Its probably two volume one tone but just to make sure look at the back of the pots. The pot(s) with the capacitor(s) would be the tone control(s) If you dont know what a capacitor is lookHere as for the complicated diagram... what makes it so complicated? And i have no idea what this green thing is on the back of the new pots.

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First off, what wiring diagram are you using? the one that comes with the package where ok for me,

the ones with the thing connected to them where the tone pots as far as I remember.

it didn't look confusing to me, but it just takes a bit of soldering and messing around, I build a circuit with 18v for more headroom, works like a charm.

The green thing is a capacitor as far as i know, by the sound of it you are prob better leaving pickups in for your gig and getting your local guitar store to put new ones in after the gig. I thought it would be easy and it took me and my buddy (very experienced tech) 5 hours, we had 2 to put in. The diagrams are bit of head fuck first off but if you give it a good look itll sink in. Also you can email EMG, I did and they replyed within a day or so tech@emgpickups.com.

O and DEF, where would i get a 18V battery, no one has heard of them here, well that ive asked....

The "green things" I take it are the capacitors, as the caps that came with my EMGs were green too.

I'm kind of worried if you don't know which of your knobs do what, if you don't know how you'd see which knobs are tone knobs and not, and if you find the diagrams that came with the EMG confusing, so I'd say it's better for you to take it to a tech, and get him to do it quickly. It's not more than an hours work for an experienced tech, and a bit of extra money right in his pocket should do some "strange things" with the order in which he deals with the guitars.

But, I'm still going to be of as much help as I can.

The green things are capacitors. They are only supposed to be present on tone knobs, as they are the things that make the tone knob roll off high frequencies, instead of rolling of volume.

To determine which of your knobs that are knobs and which are volume knobs, look for a capacitor (not necessarilly a green thing, but anything that's got two "legs" and is soldered between one of the end "legs" of the pot and ground) attached to the pot.

I think the diagrams that come with the EMG are perfectly understandable. It's difficult for me to understand what it is that you don't understand, but if you can make up any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Keep asking, and good luck!

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took me an hour to build them in and solder the whole mess.

5 hours? what did you do? payed him without cash huh?

the 18v system works with TWO 9v batteries in one line, theres a diagram that comes with your emg's that explains it, put an extra battery holder in, connect red (battery holder) to black (other battery holder) and connect the rest and voila, 18v system...

you can go up to 36v with 4 batteries in a line (need space for that though)



anyways, back to the topic,

I think you'll have to explain a bit more, what have you installed so far and what's the actual bit you don't get at this point?

we're here to help you anyways, if you don't get it fixed, I can probably draw an easier diagram or something.

well the capacitator was only on one of my old ones so that must have obviously been the tone one. so i disconnected that from the volume one and soldered it to the top as it shows in the diagram. then i installed everything liek the pots and the jack and soldered it all as it says on the instructions but it just aint working it seems to pick up the tv electric though....do i have to disconnect my old pickup? maybe thats the problem?

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also a REAL REAL big help would be if someone could tell me what colour wires from the pickup selector go where?? thanks a lot guys

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This is all in the instructions... you know... that came with the thing

well i got the instrutions form their website and the instructions in the pack and there aint no colour coding on them what so ever. i noticed i aint connected one wire which is the main black one coming of the pickup selector. i aint connected it to the top volume pot as i aint gonna be using it but do i still need to do that?

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I can't really understand what you are saying so I'd take apart my guitar but it's too confusing in there for my brain right now

well my pickup selector has got 4 wires coming off a purple,green,red,black im sure i done emmm all right but i dont knwo where to put the black one

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black and red are the main power lines that lead to the battery through the pots. check your wiring diagramm again, it should have a black lead running off to one of the pots / batt / jack input

Funny thing, i had a spare black wire too, i just soldered it to my volume pot and it all works perfectly now.

And Def, as for more batterys i dont have the space ..... So ill just stick with my 9v

Yeah, EMG doesn't use funky colors as far as I know so it is red and black

EMG suggests a max of 27 volts not 36.

on guitar pickups, not on bass pickups

but hell, where would you leave 4 9v batteries?