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ESP M-II 18v conversion advice

3041 Views 19 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  Leona, 
M
Hi,

Some may have seen my posts looking for an alternative guitar to my Standard HSS Strat. I played an ESP M-II with active EMG 81's bridge and neck.

I liked the feel of this guitar but also liked the EMG's to a point. I've been researching different pickup combinations that other M-II users use and it seems quite common to use an 85 in bridge to give some more 'rounded/smoother' tone.

However, lots of people rave about converting to 18v - so my question is how easy or difficult is it to convert an M-II to 18v and how do you do it?

Thanks!
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ILdÐÆMcº³
Basically you just wire two 9v battery hookups in series, parallel might work too, and plug 2 nine volts in. It's pretty easy, but it didn't give me what I was looking for with my STEF. The 85 in the bridge will give you a slightly warmer, Perhaps more "throaty", tone if that is what you are after. I switched to a blackout bridge and that was pretty much the tone I wanted from that guitar.

Here is a good diagram from Darren, who goes to this forum, of a slightly more complex but better way of doing it.

[Tech] HOW TO: The reversible 18v mod! - Sevenstring.org
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M
Many thanks - very helpful.
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Max
ILdÐÆMcº³ said:
Basically you just wire two 9v battery hookups in series, parallel might work too, and plug 2 nine volts in. It's pretty easy, but it didn't give me what I was looking for with my STEF. The 85 in the bridge will give you a slightly warmer, Perhaps more "throaty", tone if that is what you are after. I switched to a blackout bridge and that was pretty much the tone I wanted from that guitar.

Here is a good diagram from Darren, who goes to this forum, of a slightly more complex but better way of doing it.

[Tech] HOW TO: The reversible 18v mod! - Sevenstring.org
Click to expand...
Parallel will not in fact work, it will just ~double the battery life.
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M
Can anyone tell me if there is enough room in the M-II for an 18v mod. without having to go back to the store next week?
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L
Should be, if both batteries are in the control cavity.

That said, i tried it on my hellraiser back in the day, and was totally underwhelmed. You could hear a slight difference clean, and pretty much nothing under distortion.
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M
Humboldt Squid said:
i tried it on my hellraiser back in the day, and was totally underwhelmed. You could hear a slight difference clean, and pretty much nothing under distortion.
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Yeah the 18v mod. seems to polarize opinions, but as it is simple mod. I'll give it a go.
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jaxadam
Give it a shot. I've done it to all of my EMG equipped guitars except for maybe one or two. I actually notice a huge difference.
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M
jaxadam said:
Give it a shot. I've done it to all of my EMG equipped guitars except for maybe one or two. I actually notice a huge difference.
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Thanks - nothing to loose really.
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F
I found it has a bigger impact on the 81 than any of their other pickups. But that was only my experience.
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fathead
I tried this with a pair of 81's in an SZ320 and it didn't do much for me. Putting an 85 in the bridge on the other hand was great.
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L
F1Filter said:
I found it has a bigger impact on the 81 than any of their other pickups. But that was only my experience.
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could be the case. I only tried it with 707s.
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F
Humboldt Squid said:
could be the case. I only tried it with 707s.
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DOH!!! I meant 81-7.

Didn't really do anything for me either with the 707.
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James
An EMG85 is a much fatter sounding pickup than the 81, the 81 seems to brittle and trebley as a bridge pickup to my ears. Try the 18v mod (never tried it personally) and see, but the beauty of EMG's is the quick connects, so you can swap to another EMG or a Duncan Blackout without having to solder anything.
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PirateMetalTroy
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M
Cheers - a very helpful link!
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Seanbabs
Has anybody tried hooking up a potentiometer in a voltage divider circuit to make it adjustable to any voltage between 9 and 18 by just turning the pot? That seems like it could be a really cool tonal option.
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eleven59
Seanbabs said:
Has anybody tried hooking up a potentiometer in a voltage divider circuit to make it adjustable to any voltage between 9 and 18 by just turning the pot? That seems like it could be a really cool tonal option.
Click to expand...
It the tonal difference was bigger, that would be interesting. As it is, the difference is not huge, so in-between options wouldn't seem to do much.
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M
I picked up on the difference between the 9v 85 and the 18v mod and to be honest preferred the 18v mod, but it was marginal.
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L
All of these seem to be so mildy different that you could probably just adjust the EQ on your amp and come up with the same results...
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