New EMG-X Series pickups

[jl-austin]

What about if your guitar does not have a tone? The tone control is not required for the circuit is it?

[James K.]

If your guitar does not have a tone you are all set. It's not required at all!

[Claudio Palazzolo]

Are they taller? In the pics, the humbucker one looks like the 81TW housing, the same for the P and J models.
I'm so excited about this pups, I'm writing a mail to Alex Oustromov right now, for info about when to order!

[James K.]

Are they taller?

No, standard thickness.

[slayest]

Then what would happen if I rewire the guitar with the new "active" tone pot come with EMG-X while put in an old EMG model?

[JackANSI]

Will these swap right in with a normal EMG wired guitar or will they require another battery and rewiring?

They will run off the same 9v -- The standard 25k tone pot will not work with X's, they require an "active tone" that will ship with the pickup!

What if I'm using a preamp like a BQC or Aguilar OBP3? Will I have to include the 'active tone' control?

[James K.]

What if I'm using a preamp like a BQC or Aguilar OBP3? Will I have to include the 'active tone' control?

Not sure about the Aguilar preamp, but the BQC will need the tone swapped. Thankfully the "active" tone pot is backwards compatible with standard EMG's, as well as passive pickups!

[kehn]

What is the "active" tone? Does it act as a kind of LPF?
Please let me know the detail.

[James K.]

Does it act as a kind of LPF?

Sure does, its a Variable Low Pass Filter. The VLPF has a buffer on the input and output and can be used for passive pickups.

From Rob Turner: "The X Pickup needs the active tone control because the output impedance of the X is only 2K Ohms. Our normal output impedance is 10K Ohms. 10K Ohms is enough for a passive tone control, but 2K doesn't have enough reactance so you would need a really low value pot and a honking capacitor and it wouldn't be linear. Active is the only way to go."

[kehn]

Thanks, James. But here comes another question.

The VLPF has a buffer on the input and output and can be used for passive pickups.

So these buffers of the VLPF are on either back or side of the pot just like the other EMG Accessories, aren't they?