Hey everyone. I'm new here to the forum, or any forum for that matter. I'll start with some background. I have OWNED and played guitar for about 15 years now. However, I emphasized "OWNED" because realistically I've only gotten serious about it 3 or 4 years ago.
I've always done my best to troubleshoot and fix anything in house, including instruments. On that note, regardless of putting a number on my experience, I am entirely self taught. In turn I strongly believe my knowledge of how everything works or even my knowledge in music theory is limited to say the least, but I do certainly have a basic understanding of most things and will never claim to know more than the next guy.
With that being said I'll get started with the issue at hand. About 2yrs ago I purchased an ESP Ltd ec-401 with emg active pickups. It is the first and only instrument ibe had any first hand experience with that has active pickups. And I have no issues with the guitar until now so I really havnt learned any more than the basics about active pickups.
I keep my big rig in the garage for multiple, and likely obvious reasons. Well it's been pretty cold here recently and I heat the garage with a large salamander, and I keep it a minimum of 60 degrees all the time.
Well the other day, I had just finished stringing the beast and putting a new battery in. I set it on its stand in the garage and went inside for a moment. When I came back out the wife was smoking and she must have been cold cause she had the heater cranked haha. Well, unfortunately she took no notice of the guitar sitting 5ft in front of the flame that wasnt on when i put it there. It couldn't have been there under direct heat more than 90 seconds, just long enough to soften and bubble a small spot of lacquer, upsetting but whatever I can move on.
Then, to my surprise, I plugged in and when to picking and got nothing! Upon playing around with tone, volume on amp and guitar as well as the selector and amp channels I discovered I had the least sound playing on the clean channel if any sound. Yet as I add crunch or go to the overdrive channels it's actually seemingly gain a minute amount of volume. Immediately I also noticed the every channel sounds perfectly clear no matter hj owuch gain or overdrive I throw at it, it had no effect. Also, it would appear that the neck pickup puts out the least, honestly more.like.no output.
So, the heater was actually blowing on the back of the guitar just below the neck next to the selector cavity.
I've got everything opened up and nothing appears melted inside in any way or show any sign of an issue.
Any ideas what could be wrong and/or how I can troubleshoot and diagnose using a multimeter, or any other method? I've t ess sted all the other gear, the amp and cables with my les paul and everything is good there.
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time guys. I love.all my.axes but none hit just right for down and dirty metal like these EMG's. Cznt wait to have it working again so my ADD self can continue to bounce around sounds amd genres!
Hey everyone. I'm new here to the forum, or any forum for that matter. I'll start with some background. I have OWNED and played guitar for about 15 years now. However, I emphasized "OWNED" because realistically I've only gotten serious about it 3 or 4 years ago. I've always done my best to troubleshoot and fix anything in house, including instruments. On that note, regardless of putting a number on my experience, I am entirely self taught. In turn I strongly believe my knowledge of how everything works or even my knowledge in music theory is limited to say the least, but I do certainly have a basic understanding of most things and will never claim to know more than the next guy. With that being said I'll get started with the issue at hand. About 2yrs ago I purchased an ESP Ltd ec-401 with emg active pickups. It is the first and only instrument ibe had any first hand experience with that has active pickups. And I have no issues with the guitar until now so I really havnt learned any more than the basics about active pickups. I keep my big rig in the garage for multiple, and likely obvious reasons. Well it's been pretty cold here recently and I heat the garage with a large salamander, and I keep it a minimum of 60 degrees all the time. Well the other day, I had just finished stringing the beast and putting a new battery in. I set it on its stand in the garage and went inside for a moment. When I came back out the wife was smoking and she must have been cold cause she had the heater cranked haha. Well, unfortunately she took no notice of the guitar sitting 5ft in front of the flame that wasnt on when i put it there. It couldn't have been there under direct heat more than 90 seconds, just long enough to soften and bubble a small spot of lacquer, upsetting but whatever I can move on. Then, to my surprise, I plugged in and when to picking and got nothing! Upon playing around with tone, volume on amp and guitar as well as the selector and amp channels I discovered I had the least sound playing on the clean channel if any sound. Yet as I add crunch or go to the overdrive channels it's actually seemingly gain a minute amount of volume. Immediately I also noticed the every channel sounds perfectly clear no matter hj owuch gain or overdrive I throw at it, it had no effect. Also, it would appear that the neck pickup puts out the least, honestly more.like.no output. So, the heater was actually blowing on the back of the guitar just below the neck next to the selector cavity. I've got everything opened up and nothing appears melted inside in any way or show any sign of an issue. Any ideas what could be wrong and/or how I can troubleshoot and diagnose using a multimeter, or any other method? I've t ess sted all the other gear, the amp and cables with my les paul and everything is good there. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time guys. I love.all my.axes but none hit just right for down and dirty metal like these EMG's. Cznt wait to have it working again so my ADD self can continue to bounce around sounds amd genres!