Emgs make sound when plugged in or unplugged but don't pick up anything when fully plugged in

[Frankamodeo3]

I recently built an ibanez rg and put some emgs in it. I hear sound through my Amp when I plug the cable I and when it's unplugged. I tried to play music from my phone through the pickup to see if it would output but nothing came through. I'm not sure what I did wrong

[Bizman62]

First, welcome!

Second, I'm not electronically savvy at all so I can't help you. Sorry.

EMG's are active, aren't they? Thus their amplifier may act as a radio transmitter and something in your amps acts as a radio receiver. The reason why you can't hear your phone through the pickups is that the sound of your phone isn't made by vibrating ferric metal within the magnetic field of the pickup - a microphone that picks acoustic sound works differently. Speaking of amps picking radio signals, back in the day I made all sorts of wire loops from the amp to a pair of cassette decks to record multiple takes on top of each other. Often that mess also caught a Russian AM station!

Why you don't get sound when fully plugged in... Start from the easiest part, the jack. Triple check that the ground really goes to the sleeve and the hot to the tip. Also check that when fully plugged in the hot prong doesn't touch anything grounded, including any copper tape or shielding paint inside the cavity. To test that simply unscrew the jack and pull it out of the guitar, then plug in and see if it works.

[ansil]

Is the connector plugged in properly?

Feel the battery is it hot? If yes its grounded.

Is the battery 9v verified via a meter.

 

Have you tried an audio probe to verify controls are correctly wired.

You can unplug the pickup and use a computer header to plug an audio source into your wiring. If it doesnt come out the jack you use a cap on the end of a guitar cable plugged in to probe each connection to find where it drops off