Making the MMB-4 active???

some of the active setups use a stereo plug and use the 3rd wire as a power option so that's a possibility (without looking in depth at it)

Hi Maddogm

This is one option I was also thinking of. Have to buy one if this is the case. The preamp did not come with a jack so this was a disappointment...

If I used a mono jack with some kind of wiring - could this result in a circuit that would keep the preamp active all the time? Meaning consuming the battery dry even with the cable not plugged in? That would be a bummer....

Yep, it's designed to use a stereo jack to act as the power switching for the preamp. Inserting a standard mono plug into the stereo jack bridges the ground and SW via the plug's sleeve, which completes the power circuit turning on the preamp.

If you really wanted to you could use another toggle switch or push/pull pot to act as your power switch, but a stereo jack is the easiest and more standard way of doing it.

Thanks Scott. Will order one and go on from there. :)

Help needed!

I connected everything according to the diagrams here. No sound on the tap test.

The wires on the pickups as they came were:

Bare and green soldered together

Red and white soldered together

Black single

These would indicate that the black is hot, bare and green are ground and white and red are -. Just like the SD pups.

No luck getting any sound. Since I want to coil tap, I soldered the wires exactly like in the photo by Weirdbits.

What to do next? I have the battery in place if anyone wonders.

Arzi maybe check the output Jack connections. Might pay to post some close up pics and wait for Weirdy to chime in. Did you end up using a stereo jack?

Used a stereo jack. Changed the battery now and I get tap from front coils only. No humbucker or rear coils. This happens also when I switch to rear coils - the front ones give a tap.

Post some pics of your toggle switches as that wiring is likely the issue if you're only getting one coil on each pup.

Did you use the upper 'Parallel/Single coil/Series' layout or the lower 'Coil 1/Parallel/Coil 2'?

The latter. Front, parallel,rear

Did you separate the red and white wires?

Yes I did. Tried to switch them too but no luck. Seemed to switch to rear coil when doing that. When the two are joined it gets the humbucking mode.

It sounds like both coils are working, depending on how they are connected, but not working as/when expected. When you can, please post a photo of your toggle switch wiring so we can try to work out what's happening.

Hi

I got it sorted out. For some reason I was fixed on the wire colors until I got out my Ohm meter and checked whitch ones were a pair. Found that red and black + green and white were pairs, switched the locations and everything worked! :)

Tomorrow I get to put on the strings. Home strech...

well done Arzi, coil tapping and correct wire colours can take a bit to work out

Glad you got it sorted out, I wish they'd all stick to a standard colour layout and pairing scheme.

I'd still suggest trying one of the pups with the toggle switch wired as series/single/parallel and see which option you like best. The pickups were already wired as series so it may be that configuration will produce the better sound.

Hi Scott

I might try that. As soon as I get it playing. I've got two pups in stead of one and the preamp so it might give me more growl - espesially with the neck pup. Will tell after I've tried it. Huge thanks to you for helping me out with this. :)

Good job on figuring it out with a meter!
I have a set of Guitar Fetish pickups to put in my kit when it arrives, I should check the wiring diagrams it came with against the multimeter... just to be sure!

Oh great sage's of the forum,
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I also wish to do a similar setup.
But, I would like to use a 5 way switch so with 2 x 2 coil pickups what would be the most popular selections

1. both coils neck
2. both coils Bridge
3. one coil from each
4. the other coils from each
5. ?????

etc.

Also, could I just replace the Balance pot for the 5 way, I have emailed Artec I have not yet received a reply.

any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers
Crusader.

I wonder whether having the coils in series/parallel might be a better option than splitting to single coils. I would think you would want to have each humbucker separately and together. If wanted to have the coils split you would probably just want the outer coils, don't worry about trying to get the inner coils as well.

Neil, is this for an MMB-4 kit? It will depend on the pickups you're using and how they are wired (series or parallel coils, 2 or 4 wire etc), and your overall goal.

Keeping the balance pot will give you a lot more flexibility, but there are ways to wire it so it has no effect in certain positions. Depending on the pickup wiring you will probably need a switch with individual (not shared) lugs, so either a Tele 4-way or Oak Grigsby 2/4 pole 5-way. But again, it comes down to what you want it to do... if you can explain that then we can work out the best way to achieve it.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
I was browsing through some bases and saw the stingray 5, and decided that the MMB-4 would be the kit I would build.
I had been trying to decide for a while which one to build. Woka set me on the Arzi path and so what I am trying to do is.

The Plan,
2 Seymour Duncan Pickups 4 string 1 Alnico Bridge and one ceramic Neck,
MOP Nut supplied by DB,
Artec SE3 preamp
5 way CRL switch from PBG (I just didn't like the balance concept.)

I found this since the last post

Attachment 9468

it appears to show what I was looking for the coil configurations for each switch position.
I am hoping this shouldn't be hard to wire up, I am just not sure about the replacing the Balance pot.

Cheers,
Neil

You won't be able to do the above with a standard CRL 5-way, it'll need to be a 4-pole 5-way like the super switch.

As an alternative you could use two mini-toggle switches to control the coil selection on each pickup (both coils, coil 1, coil 2) and then use a standard 3 or 4-way lever switch for the combinations, more options but more switches and messing around.

Hi WeirdBits, thanks for the advice, I'll have a think about it for a while...

Hi Neil

If I'd do my build again, I'd probably go with a 4-way switch like I did my last build the "Hemi" or "Ol dirty basstard". I did it with a 4-way Grigsby and one humbucker + single coil. Neck, series, parallel and bridge. This is an easy way to do it.

With a preamp you can't use the blend seamlessly with it. What I can tell now the series option boosts the pickups tremendously with the passive option so you get way louder pups if you skip the parallel option. Then again with the preamp you get same kind of effect although the basic sound of the pickups are different in parallel.

For what it's worth I like the sound of chinese pups on mine very much. Paid about 13 AUD each so for the price they rock. And Weirdbits is the voice you should listen on these things. I'll keep an eye on this build. Have fun. :) The Artec is well worth the money.