EMGs: A wild feedback-issue appears!

[SnoozyWyrm]

Greetings gents!

As the title implies I recently encountered feedback problems with my EMG-equipped axe, that is a Jackson KV-3. It sports a 85 in the bridge and a 81 in the neck, both gold-capped metalworks. The neck position always had a little hiss but nothing serious.

The guitar has been played and gigged frequently for the last 5 years that it's been in my stable. At the last 2 gigs (and the in-between rehearsals) I encountered feedback of the squealing variety when playing distorted (and loud). It doesn't go away when touching the strings, only when I turn the volume pot to zero. Putting foam under the pick-up helped but only just a little.

It seemed strange that the squeal suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Are the pick-ups getting older and need to be replaced? Can I do something else apart from adding foam underneath?

Thank you

 

[SnoozyWyrm]

Nobody home???

 

[jc986]

Does it happen with both pickups? If it is just one, try swapping the pickups (85 to the neck, and 81 to the bridge) and see if the issue follows the pickup. If so, it's a good bet that the pickup is bad.

If it is occurring in both pickups I think it's unlikely that they both just happened to have the same exact issue at the same time. It would be more likely in this scenario that something in the wiring or perhaps a pot, or output jack needs replacing.

 

[SnoozyWyrm]

That's my main question I think. Can a pick-up go bad from age? And yes it only happens on the 85 (the bridge pick-up). I'll try swapping and see if the squeel persists following the 85.

Thanks for taking the time man!

PS: Now I took in your comment fully. Can a faulty pot or jack cause feedback? Since the guitar is wired with 1 vol and 1 tone wouldn't something like that cause both PUs to reproduce the problem?

 

[jc986]

A pickup shouldn't fail simply due to age, but just like anything else there is a chance a component can fail at any time. I had a brand new guitar show up with a pickup that was just completely ungrounded. The issue followed that pickup when it was moved to different positions or even a different guitar. These issues aren't common but they do happen.

 

[Dawn of the Shred]

I would say wiring but with that said i have had an EMG that was just a dud before