Active Pickups & Push/Pull Pot

[Longhair]

I want to leave my chord plugged into the guitar at all times.

Would it be possible to use a push/pull pot as an on/off switch for active pickups?

[metalmachine]

I want to leave my chord plugged into the guitar at all times.

Would it be possible to use a push/pull pot as an on/off switch for active pickups?

yes. Just wire it into the red lead of the battery. Basic on off switch.

[CTN]

/end thread

[Funkfingers]

By "all the time", do you mean for the entire duration of a live performance? (About two hours.) Do you mean for the duration of a recording session? (Typically, three hours.) Do you mean that it is just too much effort to remove the cable after playing? (Forever!)

The installation instructions provided with most active guitar and bass pickups quote 9v battery life in terms of thousands of hours. Obviously, the more pickups and/or EQ circuitry the instrument has onboard, the fewer hours the 9v battery will power them all.

[dreadguard268]

Emg makes pedal power supplies...

http://www.emgpickups.com/products/category/265/101

[DrNewcenstein]

Do you mean that it is just too much effort to remove the cable after playing? (Forever!)

Statistically speaking, I'd say it was this.

Just unplug it when you're done entertaining your wall posters. It's really not that difficult and it cuts down on room clutter.

That said, the pickups themselves could not be wired to a standard 250/250 or 250/500 or 500/500K passive pickup push pull for volume or tone use. It would have to be used only as an on/off for the battery.
Therefore, you'd have an extra knob on your guitar that you would most likely be tempted to use with the active pickups for volume or tone, and then be right back here asking why it sounds so crappy.

[metalmachine]

Statistically speaking, I'd say it was this.

Just unplug it when you're done entertaining your wall posters. It's really not that difficult and it cuts down on room clutter.

That said, the pickups themselves could not be wired to a standard 250/250 or 250/500 or 500/500K passive pickup push pull for volume or tone use. It would have to be used only as an on/off for the battery.
Therefore, you'd have an extra knob on your guitar that you would most likely be tempted to use with the active pickups for volume or tone, and then be right back here asking why it sounds so crappy.

you can get a 25k push pull. That's what you use with a emg 89

[octavedoctor]

yes. Just wire it into the red lead of the battery. Basic on off switch.

That'd work, but a less complicated solution - as the guitar is almost certainly using negative leg switching - would be to add the switch into the black wire going from battery clip to ring terminal of the socket.

[metalmachine]

That'd work, but a less complicated solution - as the guitar is almost certainly using negative leg switching - would be to add the switch into the black wire going from battery clip to ring terminal of the socket.

touche salesman

[Multi Angle Vise]

Tangent - I remember an article from many (~20+) years ago, may have been Craig Anderton(?), anyway the guy put a mercury tilt switch in his guitar. In playing position the electronics were powered, but vertical (stand) or horizontal (case) the battery was disconnected. I suppose you might want a largish filter capacitor there as well, just in case you got a bit excited on stage and sloshed the mercury around.

[Longhair]

Thanks guys.

"All the time" = forever. I have my wireless transmitter attached to my strap so it is just easier to leave it plugged in when I put the guitar on the stand.

[octavedoctor]

i can see the logic now, however I guarantee that one day you'll forget to switch it off and you'll end up with a dead battery.

The mercury tilt switch sounds like a good idea; or maybe you could rip the accelerometer out of an iPhone and compile an algorithm to detect the exact angle of the guitar relative to the earth's gravitational field which would be able to tell from the guitars motion - or lack thereof - whether it is in use or on it's stand and power off or go in to standby mode...

[metalmachine]

i can see the logic now, however I guarantee that one day you'll forget to switch it off and you'll end up with a dead battery.

The mercury tilt switch sounds like a good idea; or maybe you could rip the accelerometer out of an iPhone and compile an algorithm to detect the exact angle of the guitar relative to the earth's gravitational field which would be able to tell from the guitars motion - or lack thereof - whether it is in use or on it's stand and power off or go in to standby mode...

whoa Betsy! Hold on there gunpowder!

[ItsaBass]

Thanks guys.

"All the time" = forever. I have my wireless transmitter attached to my strap so it is just easier to leave it plugged in when I put the guitar on the stand.

I'd put one of these on your short wireless cable.



It will take ten or fifteen minutes, it will cost five bucks, and you won't have to open up your guitar. If you want to get fancy, splice on 1/4 inch input and output jacks, so it is a standalone switch that you can put in line with any 1/4 inch cable.

This one is also a classic, but it is a bit larger: