I wish EBMM guitars didn't use a built-in preamp...

[MarkF786]

I love EBMM guitars & basses in most ways - I have about 10 guitars and 3 basses - but I am NOT a fan of the bulit-in preamp (except maybe in the basses). I understand the advantages if I were a professional guitarist playing through a 50 ft cable, but in a home or recording settings it greatly hurts the sound and responsiveness of the guitar. I don't believe the pickups on the guitar are better or worse, but with that preamp in path, it's like having a constantly on low-ratio compressor (and cheaply made at that) and any delicate interaction between the guitar and amp is lost.

Today I received a minty Reflex that I bought, and I love the guitar except for this universal problem with EBMM guitars. In this case, the damn gain on the preamp is too high, requiring me to adjust my amp - so the interaction between the guitar and the amp for the perfect breakup is WAY off - and it also makes the guitar sound like ass compared to what I know it'd sound like without the preamp.

I know I could rip it out, and I used to be the type to mod every guitar I own, but I'm at the point in life where I don't want to have to mod a guitar. And amongst the majority of guitar owners with 99% of the entirely passive guitars, how many are dying to get a preamp or active pickups in their guitars? Almost none.

End rant.

 

[tbonesullivan]

I am... also not a fan of preamps in guitars. Almost all effects pedals and such are designed to work with passive circuitry. There are some pedals that can't even work with any guitars that utilize active preamps, as they need to interact with the passive eletronics. These same pedals also won't work behind any buffered pedal, so they need to be first in the signal chain. I get that they love the idea of the silent circuit, but all of my EBMM guitars are fully passive by design.

 

[mantrarock]

I thought the reflex was passive. The Gamechanger has the wizardry to enable the switching, but (as I understand) the signal path is also passive. I might totally be off, though.

 

[DrKev]

Yeah, the Reflex is passive unless it's the Game Changer version, and I thought that was unity gain.

 

[jodokus31]

There are some EBMMs with just passive pickups:
- Axis
- Valentine BFR Carmelo with custom Ranger pickups
- Stringray RS
- Stringray 2 Cory Wong
- Sabre Rabea Massaad
I also modded my cutlass to use passive, noiseless Dimarzio Area pick ups. Sounds great.

 

[fbecir]

Electric guitar with active electronic is bull**** unless your name is John Petrucci, with 20 backup guitars and a guitar tech ...

For common mortals, so many things can go wrong on stage !
The silent-circuit is active but the guitar can work even if you do not put a battery, thus it's fine. But when I read all the threads on this forum about nice 4000 € guitars that don't work just because a small electronic component broke ...

If you want some electronics in your guitar, just buy a Gibson Firebird X

 

[loocnmad]

I like the idea of a buffered signal but really wish there was a way to simply bypass it. They sound great but I'm a big fan of vintage style fuzz boxes and the two do NOT play well together.

Please, please, please, please, pleeeeease put some kind of dip switch or push/pull on future models. I think I've come up with a few mod ideas for a Cutlass to bypass the buffer but they're all invasive and not easily undone so I probably won't pull the trigger.

 

[beej]

Personally I like the onboard boost in the Lukes, so I appreciate that aspect of the preamp. But the more you have, the more there is to go wrong. Something like the preamp in the Cutlass seems to be pretty reliable. (And is easily defeatable without too much work.)

I usually play with a wireless, so am used to dealing with a buffered signal. There are devices to make dealing with Fuzzes work if that's an issue. But really, unless you want to mod a guitar, it's probably best to avoid anything with a preamp.

 

[beej]

I think I've come up with a few mod ideas for a Cutlass to bypass the buffer but they're all invasive and not easily undone so I probably won't pull the trigger.

If you have a regular Cutlass (non-HT), you can solder across pads on the PCB to make it passive. You could wire that up to a switch if you wanted.

 

[mikeller]

There are some EBMMs with just passive pickups:
- Axis
- Valentine BFR Carmelo with custom Ranger pickups
- Stringray RS
- Stringray 2 Cory Wong
- Sabre Rabea Massaad
I also modded my cutlass to use passive, noiseless Dimarzio Area pick ups. Sounds great.

The non HT Sabre's are passive also. And the standard JP6

 

[MarkF786]

Ooops. Yeah, the Reflex is passive. My ears were off last night

 

[kimonostereo]

The PCB inside many EBMM guitars can be mistaken as a preamp, but if you look carefully in the one in the Reflex, it's just to make the wiring cleaner at the factory.

 

[jodokus31]

The silent-circuit is active but the guitar can work even if you do not put a battery, thus it's fine.

I didn't know that. Maybe, I could have just not modded my Cutlass then, but it's fine now.
Without silent circuit it's probably also noisier, and with the noiseless DiMarzio Areas, it really sounds great, while not noisy at all.

I mainly don't like active pickup, because it makes old fuzz circuits useless (I have a self-built fuzz face with original circuit and I don't know any alternatives, which react the same to guitar volume poti)

 

[fbecir]

The Morses (classic & Y2D) is fully passive, the Albert Lee HH also, the Albert Lee SSS has the silent-circuit.
Steve & Albert are real players who do not need electronic to play, not like these young punks Luke and JP !

Joke aside, it would be interesting to know if brands like Music Man, Gibson or Fender do some marketing research on the fact that guitarists are mostly traditionalists ... The Gibson Robot, Firebird X, the Music Man Gamechanger ... were all disasters.

 

[Phosphene]

Kaizen and regular Sabre (not HT) are passive.

 

[ruger9]

I dislike preamps in guitars, simply because I don't like "making sure the guitar is unplugged when your done"... and I have had issue at rehearsals with that; having to replace the battery. HOWEVER, it's the only way to get a humbucking guitar with coil splits that don't lose volume when using them.

 

[fbecir]

HOWEVER, it's the only way to get a humbucking guitar with coil splits that don't lose volume when using them.

You can use also a compressor pedal.
That what Steve Morse does when he switches from humbucker to single coil

 

[ruger9]

You can use also a compressor pedal.
That what Steve Morse does when he switches from humbucker to single coil

But that's still needing something else in addition to the guitar. I mean the guitar needs no help... that requires an onboard preamp. The Luke guitars have no volume drop when using the splits, thanks to the onboard preamp.

For me, having to choose between a passive guitar and ADDING A PEDAL for the job, I would rather just have the onboard preamp (even tho I dislike them): because it's one action instead of two, and I can take the guitar anywhere and no need to haul a pedal for the splits.

Can't have your cake and it eat it to (passive guitar AND coil splits that don't lose volume). It's just physics.

 

[fbecir]

Can't have your cake and it eat it to (passive guitar AND coil splits that don't lose volume). It's just physics.

On my Morse the bridge humbucker is quite low (like Steve does) but the bridge single coil is quite high. Thus when I switch from humbucker to single coil, the volume is the same. Steve does differently : on his guitar, the bridge single coil is also quite low, because he wants to have a drop in volume : thus when a need a rythme sound he uses the single coil, and for solo he goes full humbucker.

 

[Rbg]

Let’s be honest, for HH guitars, if the pickups have somewhat close DCR and magnets, the drop for in-between positions is not that big if any. Of course if your neck is vintage A2 PAF and the bridge is a ceramic 20k metal monster you will hear tonal and volume differences in 2 and 4.