A few miscellaneous questions...

[electric__steve]

[list type=decimal]
[*]Dyed finishes are only available for quilted and flame maple?  Any reason in particular?  Anyone ever order dye on another wood type?
[*]Fire Burst Dye - In some photos it looks like it's black-red-orange, and just red-orange in others.  Is that a function of transparent red burst over, vs clean line?  Or something else?
[*]I was thinking about using the Graphtech Ghost piezo TOM bridge on my Warmoth Jazzmaster body, but, it's drilled for string-through-body ferrules... and the Graphtech saddles are non-conductive, which means there's no immediate way to ground the strings.  Graphtech's FAQ suggests getting clever with grounding the through-body ferrules.  Anyone ever see a good solution to this?
[*]Any EMG fans here?  I believe EMGs don't require the strings or bridge to be grounded, which also solves the above issues.  But what I want from pickups is interesting tone.  I'm a relatively novice guitarist just playing in my basement, don't own any pedals, so I get my sound from my amp and guitars.  The JM body has 3x humbucker routes, any thoughts on filling them with EMGs?
[/list]

Let me add one footnote to the EMG questions: I've got zero interest in any kind of modern Metal, both in terms of playing and listening.  And it's kind of hard to find people talking about EMG in any context except that.

Example images that I found on the fire burst.  Like everyone here, I'm already thinking about my next build before I even finish the last one, hah.

 

[Sadie-f]

2. Maybe not enough people are interested in burst when it's not working against figured maple. I'd call and ask W.

3. The saddles aren't conductive, on my guitar, the strings ground to the bridge structure below the saddles, I don't know the TOM well enough to say about it.

 

[alexreinhold]

4. I'm an EMG fan. Why do you want to go for EMGs though? To me, active pickups have an edge for metal. Other than that, I'll always choose passive because the response is just more natural. Also, for EMGs you'll need a battery box.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

I believe David Gilmour favored EMG actives for a time.

 

[electric__steve]

I do love Gilmour, huge fan of Floyd and Gilmour.  Though that isn’t necessarily even the reason for this usage.  I’ve seen plenty of people commenting that EMGs can be as versatile as any other pickup setup, and I’ve never spent a major amount of time playing them.

 

[stratamania]

I have EMGs in a couple of guitars. It is a common fallacy that they can only be used for metal, although they are often used for that it does not mean they have to be.

1. Dyed finishes work well on maple, less so on other woods.
2. Differences of wood, dyeing process, photo and monitor accuracy you will see differences. And of course each is different to start with.
3. A better solution would be a backplate used for grounding rather than ferrules. With ferrules you would have to ground each string ideally.
4. Perhaps an EMG 57/66 set which are active and PAF like with perhaps an extra 66 for the middle position if you have a three humbucker rout.

 

[alexreinhold]

To me it seems you don't really know why you want Actives. It might be worth to listen to some pickup shootouts on YouTube, going to a guitar store to form an opinion or finding a song you love the tone of and then research which pickups the player was playing. If you read online, you'll always have camps who defend their gear of choice.

Again, to me personally they are a hint more aggressive for metal  but don't stand a chance against the other end of the spectrum which I love, i.e airy clean strat sounds. Needless to say, there are other tones on that spectrum which you might desire. Stratamania is a good example-he found his use cases with EMGs, but I'm pretty sure he knew in advance what he actually wanted the guitar to sound like ;-)

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

EMGs are popular for professional guitarists who have well sorted effects rig, or an awesome sounding amp that provides their tone.  I don't think they have much benefit for hobbyist guitar.  Especially those who play clean or slightly over-driven tones for blues or jazz.  The disadvantage of EMG pickups is they have a obvious emphasis on midrange, so the clean tone can sound a bit one-dimensional.  If you playing in a band, and for playing live it wouldn't be a problem and can be desirable.  However for clean tones, simple guitar rigs, and relatively simple compositions, they generally sound a bit bland IMO.  Not actually bad tone, but only about 80% of the richness in clean tone you can get with well sorted passive pickup setup.

 

[alexreinhold]

I think you might be overanalyzing this.

 

[electric__steve]

I have EMGs in a couple of guitars. It is a common fallacy that they can only be used for metal, although they are often used for that it does not mean they have to be.

This is exactly the perspective that I'm coming from here.

3. A better solution would be a backplate used for grounding rather than ferrules. With ferrules you would have to ground each string ideally.

So I've got the body, with the arched through-body holes drilled.  I was thinking about recessing a small aluminum plate on the back, and installing the ferrules into the aluminum.  It'd be easy to get a grounding wire there.

I'm also wondering if I could connect the ferrules with copper foil tape.  Fold it down into the holes, then insert the ferrule.  But if it tears in the process, it might not give a good electrical connection.

4. Perhaps an EMG 57/66 set which are active and PAF like with perhaps an extra 66 for the middle position if you have a three humbucker rout.

I was thinking something like that, and then maybe go further with the middle and user an 81 or 85, just for more contrast.

Anyone have thoughts on the X vs the orginal series EMGs?

 

[NedRyerson]

I'm also wondering if I could connect the ferrules with copper foil tape.  Fold it down into the holes, then insert the ferrule.  But if it tears in the process, it might not give a good electrical connection.

My gut reaction is that would leave the tape exposed in those minuscule spaces between the ferrules, which -- while unlikely -- is still a vector for damage and broken connection.

 

[stratamania]

The X series would be a good option. Some say they sit somewhat between active and passives. In fact if you looked at an 81 TWX and either an 89X or 89XR you would have a good amount of versatility at your disposal. And without any need to ground the strings via a bridge or other means.

https://www.emgpickups.com/guitar.html?cat=116

 

[BroccoliRob]

i've heard tell of the X series being less compressed sounding which is prob cool for some things

people often forget that Prince used an 81 back in the day. and compared to that guy's aura, I'm as asexual as a Care Bear. #legend

 

[bostjan]

Yes, EMG and similar active pickups do not require grounding.  In fact, the ground being used as negative potential could lead to a mild shock hazard if you wire the strings to "ground" on a 9V/18V/27V/etc. circuit.

If you go with passives, you can ground the ferrules with a piece of copper tape or a wire, or, a metal retainer.  A strip of copper tape can be unsightly on the back of the guitar.  I don't know how much it would bother you.  A retainer would probably require routing, but if it was thin enough, maybe not.  There might be also a way to place a small grounded metal strip between the strings and the body on the top, near the top ferrules, which would do the trick, but it'd still require a hole for the grounding wire.  Drilling holes to string all of the ferrules together inside of the body would probably be too difficult to do, but if you have a really good sense of geometry and some fancy tools, maybe that'd be an option.

Anyway, I have a guitar with a graphtec system and passive pickups and it simply uses a metal string retainer block in place of the ferrules.  The back of the guitar is black and the metal bar is anodized black, so it looks cool and functions well.  That'd be my #1 recommendation, especially if the guitar was yet unfinished.

 

[electric__steve]

I've seen blocks like this: https://reverb.com/item/4150975-de-lisle-mono-ferrule-string-tone-block-aluminum

But I'm a little unsure how well a block like that would line up with the existing holes in the body, which are in the Arched pattern.  I could probably make it work though.

 

[18allthaway]

Country Mega-Star Vince Gill uses EMG single coils.