I'm considering changing the pickups on my Silo Special to Seymour Duncans. Would the 'Silent Circuit' in my guitar still work with non-stacked single coils?
This is a discussion on Music Man Silent Circuit with different pickups? within the Music Man Guitars forums, part of the Gear Talk category; I'm considering changing the pickups on my Silo Special to Seymour Duncans. Would the 'Silent Circuit' in my guitar still ...
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I'm considering changing the pickups on my Silo Special to Seymour Duncans. Would the 'Silent Circuit' in my guitar still work with non-stacked single coils?
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I don't think so. I spoke with EBMM endorsed (Hamilton Loomis). He changed one pickup in his MM90 ASS & lost 'silent circuit' capability. I'll bet Dr. Kev knows.
25th Anniversary,Venetian Red Flame,Maple neck,G47629,(9/30/09)
Axis Supersport BFR,Tobacco Burst,All Rosewood neck,G47057,(3/05/09)
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I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on television, but I'm pretty sure it's possible. I have a feeling that Beej may have done it on one of his guitars.
"this place would be a paradise tomorrow, if every department had a supervisor with a sub-machine gun"
Monkey Likey
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The silent circuit takes signal from a coil inside the device. This senses only the noise and not the strings, since there is no magnet to detect string movement. This coil signal is essentially amplified and added into the ground side of each pickup.
Theoretically, if you had access to the gains of all the stages, you could use any pickup you want. The silent circuit only has one gain adjustment screw pot, so you set "the" gain and all of the pickups get the same treatment. If the pickups are all of a similar winding number and area for e fields to cross, then they would be able to use the silent circuit. If not (say an MM90 and a silo spec single coil), I don't think so.
However
You could put in another silent circuit and hook that into the different pickup. The each would have gain adjustments possible.
I can't get the uspto pictures to work for some reason, so am only going by the text of the patent and my recollection when I did look at the schematic.
8/17/04 EBMM Axis SS MM90 trans blue (spaceball 3000)
7/29/04 EBMM Sub1 X11376 oil/wax neck, gloss black body, faux binding, HSS w/5 way and silent circuit
07 Albert Lee SSS Black Cherry Burst
buncha non-ebmm guitars
keep in mind that you are talking about four pieces of wood two pots one switch a trem along with springs two pickups and some wire.....BP
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Beej is the guy who'll know all of this: he'll pipe up when he's awake. But I'm pretty sure that if you have a stacked coils they will already be 'humbucking' and the silent circuit might only add noise to that situation. So, I would think that silent circuit would work best with non-stacked single coils.
Of course if I'm wrong Beej will not only correct me but ruthlessly make fun of me too. Stay tuned for fun!
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The SC will work with any set of noisy pickups. (As Kev said ... you wouldn't need it with noiseless/humbuckers.)
The degree of noise cancellation will depend on the type of coil and how strong the noise is. Some pickups work better than others. As Jack has mentioned, you can tune the strength of the SC via the adjustment screw. There are also two outputs for noise- inverted and non-inverted, so you can use them with regular or RWRP pickups. I've used them with different sets, for coil splits, etc. Usually works like a charm.
Jack- there is actually a trick you can use to set the output levels for different pickups wired to the same SC. Involves wiring up trimpots for each switch position (using another set of poles). Works well.Originally Posted by Jack FFR1846
Hope that helps!
Morse #23, '91 Morse, Y2D, 25th, HH AL, '94 Pinkburst AL, '00 White AL, Axis Sport MM90, Bongo5 HHp
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Thank you all very much for your help
I didn't intend to use the SC with hum-cancelling pickups; I was just wondering whether or not I'd have to look into the market for only hum-cancelling pickups (I don't mind hum, but I'd rather do without).
There is nothing wrong with the stock DiMarzios, they're great. But I think I want a set of warmer/slightly hotter pickups.
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