#167649  by lbpesq
 
So I’m sitting here watching/jamming with Carter-Finley Stadium in North Carolina, 7/10/90, on the weekly Shakedown Stream. Bobby is playing his Casio PG-380 with the modulus neck. These have an on-board synth. I don’t recall him using the synth function on the occasions I saw him play the guitar live, but then again I may have been in a state of mind where I might not have noticed. hehehe. So I was wondering if he ever used the synth on the Casio?

Bill, tgo
 #167652  by playingdead
 
That's the only reason he had it, to be able to use the MIDI function and change patches right from the guitar, mostly during space but during shows as well. He put a Modulus neck on it and I'm sure changed everything else. He played that guitar all the way through 95 as I recall.
 #167653  by lbpesq
 
They are cool guitars. I had a white PG-380 and still have a natural PG-310. I had to re-cap both, but once that was done they were nice instruments with some useable on-board patches. I have a Moses graphite neck I’ve been thinking about mounting on the Casio.

Bill, tgo
strumminsix liked this
 #168869  by canam116
 
This might be a long shot....but does anyone know how you would replace the stock pickups BUT keep the midi volume pot intact? As a stock guitar, it can blend the Midi and guitar....not sure if Bob had it set up this way or not?

I suppose I could remove the midi volume pot and just use it as a midi controller but what fun would that be??
 #168873  by lbpesq
 
I’m not sure I understand the question. If you mean just swapping pickups, there is no reason to mess with the electronics. Changing the pickups shouldn’t effect how the synth works. When I sold my PG-380, I discovered that the bridge pickup wasn’t working correctly. I replaced it with an EMG and everything worked fine.

Bill, tgo
 #168889  by canam116
 
Thanks Bill. There are three pots stock with the guitar as you know...one is tone, one is volume (push/pull) and the center one is the synth volume. Since EMGs have their own harness (attached to the 5 way) I'm wondering how the synth volume stays intact and can still blend the guitar into the mixed output. Or once modified, does the blended output just become the synth output and the guitar output is just guitar?
 #168892  by lbpesq
 
I used an EMG H4A. It’s just a regular passive humbucker. I don’t remember If there was a harness or solderless connector, but if there was I would have just cut it off and used the wires. It was no different than swapping pickups in a Strat or Les Paul. Either cut or de-solder the wires going to the old pickup and splice or solder in the wires from the new pickup. There is no need to modify the synth, volume and tone controls, or anything else.

Just to be sure I understand, we are talking about the three magnetic passive pickups, not the separate synth pickup, right?

Bill, tgo
 #168896  by canam116
 
Yes, the three guitar pickups, not the midi pickup. I'm trying to install the active SA's.

I'm attempting to insert a diagram of what the system looks like these days. Again, just trying to figure out how this new pickup system can interact with the existing synth.

Image
 #168897  by lbpesq
 
So you want to convert it to an active pickup system? You never mentioned that. Now your question makes more sense. I guess my first reaction is to ask why? But it’s your guitar. As for integrating an active pickup system with the synth circuit, I think you are going to have to take it to an electronics pro. Or at least someone that knows more about this stuff than I do. And I suspect it won’t be cheap. You’ll also have to make room for another battery. Personally, I would keep it passive. There are lots of good passive pickups out there that you can easily swap for the stock pickups without effecting the synth or current operation of the guitar.

Bill, tgo