EMG 81tw/89 low output

[JStraitiff]

My hellraiser has a set of EMG 81tw/89 and lately ive been noticing that its got significantly lower output than my 81/85's and 81-7/85-7's. Afaik they are supposed to be the same thing but with the coil tap.

This guitar needs some work on the nut and doesnt play so great so i havent been playing it recently. Thats why im noticing the difference now. I checked the battery and its getting sufficient power. One day a while back i changed the battery and accidentally put it in backwards so the pickup was getting -9v. I went to play it later that day and wasnt getting any output. Thats when i noticed the battery was in backwards. So it was sitting there for a few hours like that. It wasnt plugged in so it shouldnt have been trying to draw power but i remember back then i noticed a difference in output as well.

I asked Rick Hunt from EMG if negative voltage would damage the pickups and he said "-9v may not damage the pickups depending on manufacture date and model but -18v will burn one up". So im wondering if i may have damaged mine.

Does anyone else notice a difference in output between 81tw/89's and 81/85's? Also has anyone else had experience with damaging pickups with negative voltage?

 

[JStraitiff]

Bump

 

[iloki]

Have you tried a different battery?

 

[JStraitiff]

Well i checked the battery with my DMM so i doubt thats it. its possible there was a bad connection in the factory when it was wired up and that would be causing lack of power. I will check all the wiring to be sure.

 

[canneerr]

i have a schecter hellraiser c1-fr and i was searching for the reason why the bridge pickup has low output than the standart 81..

I tested with a small device, the 81's output is around 17.5v and our 81tw's output is around 15.9-16v.

As looking to the information at emg's official site, there should be no difference between them.

 

[asilayamazing]

could be a bad volume pot that happened once to me went bad changed the sound.

 

[Vinchester]

My hellraiser once had a problem of the pickup randomly going silent. Turned out it's the crappy switch. Changed that and it's good as new. I'm not sure what's wrong with yours though... may be the volume pot?

 

[asilayamazing]

the switch in the guitar? im about to send my emgs to emg rick hunt, how would i know if it was my switch should i just try one?

 

[Vinchester]

the switch in the guitar? im about to send my emgs to emg rick hunt, how would i know if it was my switch should i just try one?

Umm I don't know how my tech found out it's the faulty switch lol. It's not like the thing is loose or anything.. he just replaced the thing with a Schaller three way and bang everything's fixed. That said I believe that the stock electronics aren't of very good quality (I had to replace most of them after two years of use, including the jack!) and if something goes wrong then it's probably them, not the EMG itself.

 

[JStraitiff]

I have some free time tonight so ill open it up and rule out any problematic parts. Ill report back.

 

[asilayamazing]

I have some free time tonight so ill open it up and rule out any problematic parts. Ill report back.

lemme know if its the switch i have the same symptoms and my pups boxed up ready to send to emg for inspection.

 

[JStraitiff]

Pulled my pups out just now and sending them off to emg tomorrow. They said if anything is wrong they'll replace them. So I'm hoping there is something wrong cause otherwise back to the drawing board.

Also found out I do have the quick connect. Go figure. I guess they just hard wired all their own pots at schecter. Probably cheaper

 

[asilayamazing]

Pulled my pups out just now and sending them off to emg tomorrow. They said if anything is wrong they'll replace them. So I'm hoping there is something wrong cause otherwise back to the drawing board.

Also found out I do have the quick connect. Go figure. I guess they just hard wired all their own pots at schecter. Probably cheaper

sent mine last week.

+1 for emgs AMAZING customer service!!!

 

[BabUShka]

Usually op amps and small preamp-circuits can handle a lot of crap, but putting a reverse/wrong polarity in them may kill those circuits pretty fast.. 9V or 18V, doesnt matter. It only matter for short periods, but from your description, it sounds like you gave it enough time to fry the preamps.

Keep us updated though.