Glyph
New member
So I just recently installed a set of SD Mick Thomson EMTY Blackouts in my Hellraiser, replacing an EMG 81tw/89 combo. I was tooling around with it today and noticed that when not playing the guitar but simply holding it, if it gets bumped even the slightest bit or even the lightest of light brushes against the strings, the beast starts howling back at me like a banshee. NOT COOL!!!! I didn't think anything of it right after I first installed them, but then while playing them today, it started to grind on me a bit, so I thought maybe the pups were too close to the strings (I know that with active pups, you want them as close to the strings as possible), but maybe they were TOO close. So I lowered them a smidgen and tried again, no change. So I decided to mess around with the Noise Reduction and Gate on my amp (Line6 Spider IV 75watt). I turned them both off, and this thing is buzzing like an swarm of angry hornets that just had their nest knocked out of the tree, and feeding back like every soul in the River Styx had been clammed up for the last millenia.
The pups and pots are used. Something of note that MIGHT be important, while prepping the parts, I was trying to remove the old solder from the back of the pots using desoldering braid, but for some unknown reason, I couldn't get the braid to suck up the solder for nothing. Either I couldn't get the back of the pot hot enough or the desoldering braid was starting to burn my fingers. So i ended up melting the solder over a portion of the pot back, on accident. In an attempt to rid the pot of the old solder, I then took a metal file and tried to grind down as much of the old solder as possible. Hindsight has me thinking this may not have been the best method to achieve my goal. Anywho, with what I thought was a clean surface, I was able to successfully solder on the newly cleared ends of the pickup leads to the lugs and pot back. Good clean shiny solder joints, so I know there was enough heat.
I used Schecter's Blackjack ATX wiring diagram, since that is pretty much what my Hellraiser became. I know for a fact that all leads and grounds are securely soldered, including the bridge post ground wire that Schecter was kind enough to include. I double checked all connections before performing final fittings.
Could this little mishap be the cause of this thing shrieking like a Siren trying to lure in lost sailors at sea??
Any help would be greatly appreciated??
The pups and pots are used. Something of note that MIGHT be important, while prepping the parts, I was trying to remove the old solder from the back of the pots using desoldering braid, but for some unknown reason, I couldn't get the braid to suck up the solder for nothing. Either I couldn't get the back of the pot hot enough or the desoldering braid was starting to burn my fingers. So i ended up melting the solder over a portion of the pot back, on accident. In an attempt to rid the pot of the old solder, I then took a metal file and tried to grind down as much of the old solder as possible. Hindsight has me thinking this may not have been the best method to achieve my goal. Anywho, with what I thought was a clean surface, I was able to successfully solder on the newly cleared ends of the pickup leads to the lugs and pot back. Good clean shiny solder joints, so I know there was enough heat.
I used Schecter's Blackjack ATX wiring diagram, since that is pretty much what my Hellraiser became. I know for a fact that all leads and grounds are securely soldered, including the bridge post ground wire that Schecter was kind enough to include. I double checked all connections before performing final fittings.
Could this little mishap be the cause of this thing shrieking like a Siren trying to lure in lost sailors at sea??
Any help would be greatly appreciated??
The SD product descriptions make neither of these claims. 
