Emg Problem

[RamboMadCow]

I've got an issue with my EMG 81's. I have two and they're active. At first there was some bleed through between the positions of the pickup selector. If I had it in the bridge position with my neck volume turned up and the bridge volume turned down, I'd get a very faint sound. As soon as I turned the neck down it went away. The same thing happened in the reverse of the pickups.

I talked to an EMG tech and he had me take pictures and try re soldering but it didn't work. He ended up mailing me a diagram of my setup and a whole new set of wires to connect to the pickups and brand new pots. I followed the instructions but I still got some bleed through as before. When I talked to him again he suggested that I move the hot wire from the middle prong to another prong.

Note: For people that don't know about EMG 81's. All the pots have 3 prongs (standard for every pot?). The instructions tell you to bend one of th prongs to touch the pot container and then solder a wire onto that prong.

When I did this I was ecstatic that the bleed through was gone...but another problem happened. When I put my pickup selector in the middle position (3 way Gibson style selector) BOTH volumes have to be up for sound to come out of the guitar. This is a little frustrating because I liked having the ability to dynamically shape my sound with as much or as little bridge/neck sound that I wanted. Now I'm kind of locked into a set sound.

My setup includes 3 pots. 2 pots for independent volumes of each pickup and 1 pot for a tone that's hidden on the inside of the guitar. It's got a Gibson style 3 way selector switch as well. It's also wired to take advantage of 2 batteries. I can't remember if it was parallel or series at the moment. One way gives it a longer battery life, the other gives it a little more head room. My setup is the one that gives it a little more head room.

Any insight into this is appreciated.

[crafty]

Was the bleed happening when you had the bridge volume turned all the way down and the neck turned all the way up?

[RamboMadCow]

Was the bleed happening when you had the bridge volume turned all the way down and the neck turned all the way up?

Yes. When the bridge was turned down and the neck turned up it bled through. Also in reverse, when the neck was turned down and the bridge was turned up it bled through.

[crafty]

So, why does it matter then?

[RamboMadCow]

So, why does it matter then?

?? Maybe I wasn't as clear as I thought I was. Of course you can't really notice the bleed through when the pickup selector is on the neck position and you have the neck volume up. I'm hearing bleed through when I have my pickup selector on say the bridge pickup, my bridge pickup volume is turned all the way down, and my neck volume is turned all the way up. I shouldn't hear any sound in this setup but I'm hearing the neck pick up bleed through a little bit.

[crafty]

Again, why does it matter? Almost every electric guitar does this and if you have the pickup selector on the bridge pickup with the bridge volume turned all the way down, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to invent some new style of playing where you have the guitar completely muted yet going through an amp?

You probably have a ground loop somewhere in your setup that's causing this, but I just don't see why this is an issue.

[RamboMadCow]

Again, why does it matter? Almost every electric guitar does this and if you have the pickup selector on the bridge pickup with the bridge volume turned all the way down, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to invent some new style of playing where you have the guitar completely muted yet going through an amp?

You probably have a ground loop somewhere in your setup that's causing this, but I just don't see why this is an issue.

How does this not matter? If I'm playing at high volume and need to turn my bridge off to talk to the crowd or something and I hit a string, there's no reason why it should make a note. You're saying that it's ok but it's not. It should be completely silent when the bridge is turned off (with neck turned up) and the selector is in the bridge position.

[crafty]

If I had it in the bridge position with my neck volume turned up and the bridge volume turned down, I'd get a very faint sound.

A faint sound on a little bleed through is not going to ruin your "Hello, Cleveland!" moment...like I said, almost every electric guitar will do that to some degree. If you really need uber-silence, install a killswitch or just turn down the neck pickup too.