Frequently Asked Questions / Compatibillity
Please contact if you cannot find an answer to your question.
The 24 Volt Mod™ is a battery replacement for active guitar and bass pickups. It replaces the standard 9 Volt battery. It is very easy to use. Instead of plugging in a 9 volt battery, just replace the battery with the 24 Volt Mod™. It is really that simple and requires no modification to your guitar or bass!
The 24 Volt Mod™ is not a tone mod. While it may affect certain tonal properties such as high gain etc. It will generally not change your tone on its own. It is a dynamic modification. By providing more voltage to the pickups it affects the why you playing feels more than the sound of your pickups, however certain effects may receive some benefit as well.
It provides increased voltage to your active guitar or bass pickups. Whereas a 9 volt battery provides 9 Volts to your pickups, the 24 Volt Mod™ pushes the limits and provides 24 Volts to your pickups. This increases headroom, tonal response and attack. You will immediately notice a difference in your playing.
Using the 18 volt mod or dual 9 volt batteries requires a lot of extra space inside your guitar cavity and you may even have to modify your guitar or wiring. The 24 Volt Mod™ requires no extra space because it is smaller than a standard 9 volt battery and since you just plug it into your guitar like you would a 9 volt, it requires no modifications. Also it provides more voltage so you get even more responsiveness and headroom from the 24 Volt Mod™.
There are a lot of good reasons you may want to increase your voltage. With increased voltage you get better attack and tonal response. Increased voltage also adds extra headroom. Headroom is the normal operating volume your pickups can produce before they begin to distort. Increased headroom is great for clean tones, as Active pickups tend to hit their maximum headroom with clean tones at a lower volume than passive pickups.
The 24 Volt Mod™ is perfectly safe for MOST guitar / bass pickups but use caution if in doubt. You can always verify maximum voltage for your pickups by contacting the manufacture of your pickups or you can contact us as we have a verified list of all the pickups we have ever tested. We are working on testing even more pickups in the future.
The 24 Volt Mod™ has been tested through the years with almost every guitar and bass pickup on the market with the exception of a few newer models or a few more obscure models.
Most guitar and bass pickups are rated up to 27 volts so the 24 volt mod provides voltage under the threshold of the pickups limits.
We have tested it with all EMG, Seymour Duncan, Dragon Fire & Red Active Guitar and bass pickups and most FIshman Fluence pickups.
It is NOT Recommended for Guitars or Basses that have Active EQ, Active Tone Control or Active on board effects (FX).*
Not recommended for acoustic guitars.
Not recommended for use inside effects (fx) pedals.
*EMG PA2 and active preamps are ok to use with the 24 Volt Mod™
Results vary depending on how long and how much you play, but our average calculation seems to be 2-3 months playing a few hours a day.
We sell additional batteries here on our website. You can also find these batteries (type 23A) at almost any place that sells batteries.
We prefer Toshiba batteries.
Really it is more of a personal choice. During our development and testing, we also tested every brand of battery we could find. We compared cost of batteries vs life expectancy and found the batteries we currently offer with the unit to be the best value in terms of price and longevity vs other name brand batteries. However many people do use and prefer specific brands.
There are a lot of reasons the batteries could be draining fast but most revolve around the output jack.
Firstly, if using our replacement batteries be sure to only use them in the GENUINE 24 Volt Mod™ as knock offs may be wired incorrectly.
Also make sure you are not leaving your cable plugged into the output jack when not in use.
The most common issue with batteries draining fast are a faulty or shorted output jack. Sometimes the output jack can be touching shielding inside the guitar or bass cavity causing the circuit to remain active and thus draining the battery even when the guitar cable is removed.
Since 9 volt batteries have a much larger capacity, many may have this issue and not even notice it when using 9 volts.
You may want to ensure that the jack prongs are squeezed in enough to ensure that they are not touching any part of the guitar/bass body.
Less often the jack may be defective or wired incorrectly.
Older jacks are more likely to be defective.
New installations with a new jack sometimes have the cables mixed up so you may want to check any wiring diagrams to ensure the jack has been installed properly.
We purchase our batteries directly from the manufacture(s) fresh and test each and every battery to ensure proper voltage and quality.
No. Not at all. The 24 Volt Mod™ is great for any genre of music and for anyone who uses active electric guitar / bass pickups. Music style does not matter. You will get the same great benefits from any active pickups no matter what style of music you play.
No. We are an independent developer. We are guitar players. We invented, designed and manufacture the 24 Volt Mod ™.
Fishman recommends a maximum of 18 volts.
We have long term tested most of the available Fishman Fluence sets without any issues. The only draw back to using the 24 Volt Mod™ with Fishman Fluence is the battery life. Fishman Fluence draw more than 4 times more power from the batteries than compatible EMG or Seymour Duncan actives. As a result battery life will be greatly diminished.
Although our test have been successful, there is always a small risk associated with increasing the maximum manufacture recommended supply voltage.
If your guitar/bass pickups are rated for up to 24 volts and has two wired 9 volt connectors,
We recommend using (2) of our 12 Volt Mods™ to achieve 24 volts.
We also offer a bridge connector so you can use just one side so you would be able to use a single 24 Volt Mod™.
If you have a double battery box you won't be able to use the mod at this way and would have to use (2) 12 Volt Mods™.
NEVER connect (2) 24 volt mods™ to any 18 volt system!
Yes. The 24 Volt Mod™ has been tested with Seymour Duncan Blackouts and Livewire active pickups.
Yes it works well with most active pickups no matter the string configuration.
Much of the voltage information is outdated. We have confirmed this with EMG and had customers confirm it with EMG. Here is an actual response to one of our customers from EMG:
response from EMG: "I checked in with our chief engineer on this, and he believes that the 18V spec on the SPC and AB220 documents is outdated. We’ve been using a newer preamp chip on those boards for a number of years, and they can handle 27V. So, unless you have some very old versions, the 24V supply should work just fine. "
You can always contact EMG Directly to verify.
Yes the 24 Volt Mod™ is compatible with EMG single coil pickups.
NO. the 24 Volt Mod™ is not compatible with the SUSTAINIAC however if your guitar has an active pickup and a separate battery compartment for the SUSTANIAC you may be able to use the 24 Volt Mod™ with your active pickup if it has its own separate power and does not share power with the SUSTAINIAC system.
We have tested with EMG bass pickups with out any issues. Most EMG bass pickups are rated for a maximum of 27 volts.
However there are a few models of pickups and active preamp systems they rate for only 18 volts.
We have tested these systems with the 24 Volt Mod™ and had no issues.
However since the the 24 Volt Mod™ will exceed the maximum supply voltage of these systems listed for 18 volts, use of the 24 Volt Mod™ may void your warranty with EMG and we advise caution with use as over exceeding the recommended voltage always poses a slight chance that damage may occur.
EMG lists each pickups maximum supply voltage on their site listed under each pickup or preamps instructions. You can verify your pickups voltage if unsure.
Yes. Retro Actives are rated for a maximum of 27 Volts.
Yes. Jim Root Daemonum are part of the Retro Actives line from EMG and are rated for a maximum of 27 Volts.
For pickups that have not been tested by us, we advise against using the 24 Volt Mod™ since the pickups are not tested we cannot guarantee proper performance and use may cause damage.
You can always contact the manufacturer of your pickups to verify maximum supply voltage. Using the 24 Volt Mod™ in pickups not verified by us is done so at your own risk.
Yes the 24 Volt Mod™ has been tested with the Seymour Duncan Blackout Modular preamp BMP1.
The 24 Volt Mod ™ has not been tested with Aguilar active preamps. We have plans to test in the future.
24 Volt Mod™
P.O. Box 754 Gilmer, TX 75644
24 Volt Mod™ Invented, designed and Sold By Jay Young Owner 24 Volt Mod™ Thrifty Bids™
24 Volt Mod™, Just Say No to 9 Volts™ & Unleash The Power™ Trinity Solderless™ & EZ Active Pickup Install™ are trademarks of Jay Young. All content © Jay Young and may not be used without permission.
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OFFICE LOCATION IS MOVING. Order shipping will be delayed.
We are in the process of moving our office location over the next few weeks. During this time orders will be delayed. We expect to be down for a few weeks. You may still place orders, but be aware that they may not ship in a timely manor. We will still try to process orders as we can until we are not able to during the move. Feel free to email us prior to ordering and we will be able to give a better estimate for shipping. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you all for your patience during this move. Jay & Melissa.