EMG REV set - no sound

[lssthnzr0]

I just purchased an EMG REV set, and first time using their solderless wiring kit. They are in a BC Rich Warlock 1. I followed the directions and am using the optional EMG 3 way toggle. I get no sound at all. I have two brand new EMG 3 way switches and extra components from my EMG MF set. I've tried swapping out the pots for other EMG pots, I've tried swapping out the bus. I've tried wiring it with just one pickup and one volume. No sound. Ever. Is it possible the pickups are bad out of the box? Both of them?

Any ideas?

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

Hey Issthnzr0 welcome to the forum. A few people have been asking EMG solder free questions lately. For fun try doing the solder free stuff outside the guitar and see if you can do a tap test. I'm glad Robb Turner (founder of EMG) got Monique to do the videos now. You will be able to do the tap test and test the volume and tone controls out that way.

With copper tape I tell guys all the time to go over it with a layer of clear packaging tape to prevent any issues. I have a really complex wiring in a BC Rich beast and what the clear tape does is just ensures if the pots and other parts of the guitar do not touch anything they shouldn't that would lose the signal. Now that that is out of the way do you have a multimeter? I've never had a DOA (Dead on arrival) EMG pickup even a really old "H" (not HZ) pickup set come in. With copper tape by the way make sure to solder a wire from the neck to bridge pickup routing and then to the control cavity and ground it for the best results.

You can test the REV set the same way as the 5 wire HZ set.
I'd suggest with a female servo cable. They are dirt cheap to buy online from ebay or electronics surplus stores. Don't worry if they don't match your color code of your pickup. The female one you can snip the other end off and test with a multimeter. Hopefully the colors of the pickup are on the outside of the end of the pickups cable like the installation instructions of your guitar. Make sure to strip and twist together the ones that represent the black and white EMG REV pickup sets wires. Otherwise you won't get any signal out of the pickup.

This is one of those, they do come in more EMG friendly colors but for now. This is a cheap way to test them. I used to buy a TON of EMG pickups used as everyone sold them cheap locally and had to get creative figuring bits and pieces out.
View attachment 102199

if you're new to guitar electronics and want to learn how to use a multimeter to test your pickups this is what I send people.

for brownie points this is my active pickup tester concept I have, your pickups are passive but for those who have actives and want a cheap tester this is something people can/should make if they buy a lot of used active pickups.
View attachment 102198


good luck with your project

 

[Lovegun]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

I have a Jackson strat that has everything solderless. Have you made sure the wires are all the right way? I mean the cables have the small arrows on them to indicate which side is supposed to be up or down according to the manual. I made the mistake when I first put the wiring together one cable was wrong side up. Emg customer service was quick to help when I emailed them.

Does that switch require the buss? Mine didn't because it was the strat 3-way switch.

 

[lssthnzr0]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

Thank you for the replies!!! I have tried the wiring outside of the guitar (pickups still in the guitar) with no pots, switch or bus touching the copper tape. All the wires are correct according to the instructions. The switch is optional, but it is wired correctly. I do have a multimeter and will get a cable to test the pickups. (I love CSGuitars videos! Colin is the best!) I will also clear tape over the copper to see if that helps. Question - I have heard a ground to the copper is best, but ideally all the grounds should go to the same place - would it not be better to take the ground from the copper to the bridge/bus ground?

 

[greekdude]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

EMG 81 / 60 / 85 need no connection between ground and bridge. Dont know the specifics for your set. "Ground to the copper is best"? you say? Can you elaborate? I cannot understand. Anyways go grab your multimeter and stat testing your pups. IIRC they should read smth in the range of 60-70 Kohm (in contrast to passives which go usually 20Kohm max).
Anyways you want to try and make sound out of your pups. Get them out of any circuitry. Connect the battery correctly, then hot tip and ground. See if by tapping with a metal item you get sound out of your amp.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

you're right, you'd want to connect it to the ground bus. Hopefully you've either got an extra kicking around or a cheap servo or dupont cable (single pin) are useful in this situation. If not there is plenty of ways to approach this.

When you ground to the copper it creates a Faraday cage which creates the protection from RFI and EMI. Otherwise the copper tape isn't as effective. This is why Squiers and Jacksons have an eyelet terminal (looks like a metal loop) screwed into the body. Between Dylan pickups who is new on my radar and Collin of CSGuitars I've learned a ton of stuff the last few years as I was more focused on wiring mods and that sort of thing. I think I've drawn over 100 of them in the old Seymour Duncan style in photoshop.I love copper tape myself but if anything like say a volume pot touches the wall of the guitar poof there goes the signal. I remember watching someone in stewmac kill the signal in a guitar in a video with a piece of wire the size of human hair. Why I tell people clear tape is because when you pop the guitar open you still see the tape so a potential sales pitch if you ever got bored of the guitar. Really any tape will work that isn't conductive.

With the REV set I was assuming it was active but it's a passive set. I had no idea even what a REV was but I made sure to read the installation instructions. When I put pickguards together for instance I loved how I could test them out. Start with any potential way to test them. Right now for starters see if the pickups work. From there we'll help you there. I know how to test them because I got a set of EMG-HZ out of two Alexi Laiho signature guitars. The 5 wire kind and had to source a cable for them to work and test them.

One idea. Is the cable connecting the pickups going with the pin in the right orientation. Notice the little triangle? Another idea I have. When I made my solder free connection "system" I made either way work. If you flip the color code the pickups out of phase. But with this looking at the pickups connector it's very specific.

to reduce hum power bars with EMI , RFI filter and similar protection help. I had a customer with really sensitive ears when I used to work on guitars and his guitar was grounded properly and all. We went to my friend who also did guitar works house as I don't do fret work. We plugged into his power bar and the guitar was clearer. Where as my amp was directly into the wall.

With the purple cables this is a quick conversion I've done
View attachment 102204

 

[PDC]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

FWIW - I had an issue back when I was using all EMGs when I had zero signal. I went over the wiring 5 times and it was perfect. Out of pure desperation, I swapped the leads on the input jack and the guitar came to life. Just for the heck of it, flip the pickup plugs around the ‘wrong’ way and see if you get a signal (?) Also, I have a current thread on this forum where I found that the copper shielding in my control cavity was grounding out the volume pot when the pot was installed in the cavity. An extra washer spaced the lugs of the pot away from the copper shielding and the guitar came back to life.

 

[lssthnzr0]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

I haven't had a lot of time lately due to the holiday. However, I have had all the wiring hanging out of the guitar not touching any copper and it doesn't work. However, shadowfire90 got me thinking...what if the pickups are touching the copper? Next step, is that I will pull all the electronics, pickups and all out of the guitar but leave the ground connected. See if I get noise. Then, I have plenty of different non conductive tape - I'll go over the cavities again and add the extra ground.

I appreciate the advice. Hopefully I can get to it tomorrow. I have a test I've been trying to study for and a lot of stuff I had posted on Reverb for months, just all sold all of a sudden, so lot of packing and shipping. Hopefully tomorrow!

 

[lssthnzr0]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

My amps run through Furman PST-8D Power Station Series AC Power Conditioners. I was amazed at how much cleaner the amps got with greatly reduced noise! When I can save a bit more money, I'm going to buy a couple more.

 

[lssthnzr0]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

Problem solved! With all of the wiring and components out of the guitar and only connecting the bridge ground to the wiring, I get sound! The input jack was grounding out against the copper shielding. Thank you all very much for the help! I'm off to put it back together now, making sure to shield everything from the copper!

 

[lssthnzr0]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

Ok. Everything is back together. It sounds terrible. Like someone put a blanket over the speaker. It buzzes horribly and gets worse when I touch the 3 way switch. Buzz goes away when I touch the bridge, strings or ground. Tone knob does nothing. Ground is tied to the bridge ground and to a wire soldered to the copper.

I'm thinking ground issue, but everything is where it is supposed to be, so ???

 

[PDC]

Re: EMG REV set - no sound

I played this game for at least an hour and a half with one of my guitars - see prior post in this thread. I was relieved when I saw that it was your input jack grounding against the copper shielding. If the guitar has full sound and everything works correctly while the components are hanging out if the control cavity and only acts up when everything is installed, then you can (likely) narrow it down to something touching the shielding somewhere. I ended up covering the lug attachments on the top side of be volume pot with black tape and it solved the issue. Maybe try insulating the tabs of your input jack with black tape? Copper shielding really does make a huge difference on RF interference, but does require a bit more troubleshooting along the way.