AFR-P Pick Ups

[METAL Rulez 4ever]

Hi all, hope all is well. I havent seen 3 wires on a P Style pick up before, only 2 or 4. Which i know how to wire them up, but what do i do with the extra white wire please ? I know the bare goes to the back of the pot and the red goes to the centre lug on the pot. There is a pic below to help.

Also too, it states ACTIVE on the pick up, but can i run it as passive without a pre amp and 9 volt battery ?

[Simon Barden]

You can't run active pickups without a battery. The pre-amp is built in and it won't pass a signal without power. Active pickups also use lower value pots, typically 20k, though these may need 50k ones.

Here's a wiring diagram showing how they were originally wired.



But on that, they are connected to an Ibanez EQ PCB, so it's really not a lot of help unless you have that board.

Red is the battery +ve connection, white is the output and the braid acts as the screen and the ground wire.

This is a wiring diagram for a generic EMG passive control set. The pots will be 20k, Volume audio/log, tone probably linear. I'd suggest a 0.1uF tone capacitor, or maybe 0.047uF if you want a slightly brighter sound.

http://www.sonic.net/~emgman/pdf/1EMG1V1T.pdf

But there's no guarantee that these pickups are exactly the same as EMGs, so no guarantee the circuit will work.

You'll certainly need a TRS jack socket, with the battery ground connected to the R(ing) tag on it, the ground to the S(leeve) and the signal to the T(ip) so that plugging in the jack connects the battery ground to the signal ground when you put a normal TS jack in (as the ring connection will also contact the sleeve).

But as I say, there's no guarantee about the pot values required. 20k should work OK. From reading on the web, I'm certain the battery will be a standard 9v one.

But if you are trying to use this with another pickup that's passive, it just won't work.

[METAL Rulez 4ever]

You can't run active pickups without a battery. The pre-amp is built in and it won't pass a signal without power. Active pickups also use lower value pots, typically 20k, though these may need 50k ones.

Here's a wiring diagram showing how they were originally wired.



But on that, they are connected to an Ibanez EQ PCB, so it's really not a lot of help unless you have that board.

Red is the battery +ve connection, white is the output and the braid acts as the screen and the ground wire.

This is a wiring diagram for a generic EMG passive control set. The pots will be 20k, Volume audio/log, tone probably linear. I'd suggest a 0.1uF tone capacitor, or maybe 0.047uF if you want a slightly brighter sound.

http://www.sonic.net/~emgman/pdf/1EMG1V1T.pdf

But there's no guarantee that these pickups are exactly the same as EMGs, so no guarantee the circuit will work.

You'll certainly need a TRS jack socket, with the battery ground connected to the R(ing) tag on it, the ground to the S(leeve) and the signal to the T(ip) so that plugging in the jack connects the battery ground to the signal ground when you put a normal TS jack in (as the ring connection will also contact the sleeve).

But as I say, there's no guarantee about the pot values required. 20k should work OK. From reading on the web, I'm certain the battery will be a standard 9v one.

But if you are trying to use this with another pickup that's passive, it just won't work.

Thank you Simon for your help, much appreciated. I have always used Belcat preamps and never had a problem with them. I may try that if i cant get and Ibanez PreAmp. I have a matching ARF-J pickup, so i will match them up together.



PS...I replied to your comment on my last thread about the Artec Pick Ups on the Cort Artisan Bass.

[fender3x]

I don't know much about ARP pickups, but the wiring diagrams I have see look a lot like the one Simon provided.

If you are committed to using this pickup I'd consider doing a little testing first.

It may work with or without the external preamp like EMGs...but it may not. It doesn't look like these were ever sold except in an Ibanez bass with a 2nd pup and a preamp under the tone controls.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[Simon Barden]

The Belcat preamps are designed for high impedance pickups, not low impedance ones with a built-in preamp. Using the standard 500k balance and volume pots will ruin the pickup's sound. You also have the problem of powering the pre-amp and the pickups from the same battery with output jack power switching.