Problem w/t blackouts

A

Andvaka

New member
I'm having a little problrm with them pup's. The thing is that when playing at gig volume the volume knob won't cut off the signal when turned all the way down. I.e. I'm pestered with enormous white noise and a little signal from the guitar is leaking through. So there it is. I'm playing through a HD 147 which is a digital head from line6. I never had this problem with the jb/59 set up. What the hell is wrong here ? Any help will be greatly appreciated and I'm starting to loose patience and am looking to go back to the jb/59.

:33::banghead:
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

It happens when you play with a lot of gain and powerful pickups. You can just force it down all the way, or install a push pull that'd turn it off.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

I haven't had this problem with the Blackouts. A little signal leak is one thing (Metal Livewires do that sometimes), but the noise makes me suspect a wiring issue.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

I had them wired by pro so it's none of my technical disability's at play here. I'm leaving for a two week holiday so he's going to try to figure it out while I'm gone. If nothing happens then I'm going back to the jb/59 set up. Unless there is a convincing alternative. I like the jb/59 but it might be a little more. Anywhoo thanx for the replies guys.

:friday::naughty::14:
 
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Re: Problem w/t blackouts

It's not the Blackouts. Blackouts alone can't cause signal leak through a volume pot. Maybe your tech can figure it out. Sometimes you get a bad pot and it doesn't shut all the way off. But if the pot is truly linking hot to ground then you should be dead quiet when down. Maybe the hot leads are reversed on the pot so when you turn down it shunts the pickup to hot but leaves the output jack open. If you went back to the JB/59 it would be under false pretenses.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

Well the thang is. I love the BO's but hate if something doesn't work properly. The ideal solution to me would be that my guitar tech would figure this out and fix it so I won't have to change the pup's again.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

Take it back to your tech.

It sounds like bad wiring. There's no reason the singal should be leaking thru, or shouldit be making white noise. If the JB combo sounded fine, it leads me to beleive the pots are okay, but have your tech check those too. Its possible that maybe he had the soldering iron on it for too long?
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

You can actually have this phenomenon on any pickup, be it a Distortion, JB, etc. It's just signal bleed. The pot isn't doing it's job of killing the entire signal to ground. There's still some signal bleeding through. It's more noticable under high gain. If you know how to do potentiometer surgery you can carefully go into a pot and scrape away the resistive layer right at the end of the pot's travel, so the pot makes an absolute ground connection.

Aside from that, all the typical pitfalls come into play, like is the ground connection to the pot solid and secure, did you stay on the pot with too much heat for too long, etc. Another one is if you overtighten the nut holding the pot in place, sometimes it can deform the chassis enough to lift the wipers away slightly. It doesn't sound like you have these problems if you used a good tech but it's worth mentioning.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

Yeah I have a very good tech. He was just telling me that he was going to do the scrape thing. So onwards into highgain territory for me. The blackouts rule.......Brutally sweet.

:headbang::headbang:
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

Hope ya get that problem sorted out. I just ordered a Blackout neck which should be here tomorrow. It's going in my bridge though. I hope it's as good as I'm hearing. I'm looking for what an EMG 85 brings to the table, but with some added mojo in the tone department coming from that alnico V mag.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

lex666 said:
...If the JB combo sounded fine, it leads me to beleive the pots are okay, but have your tech check those too. Its possible that maybe he had the soldering iron on it for too long?
Click to expand...

Erm... do the Blackouts (being active and all) use the same pots as passives (like the JB)?
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

KeeperOS said:
Erm... do the Blackouts (being active and all) use the same pots as passives (like the JB)?
Click to expand...

They don't. They come with their own pots especially for actives just like EMGs do. I forget the rating on them.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

Dude,

I had the same problem after installing my Blackouts. The neck vol still had volume on "0"...

I suspected that I over heated or ruined the pot during my soldering. I replaced it with a new pot and that seemed to fix the problem.

If you're guitar is still having problems, try replacing the pot.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

i had that problem with a 300k pot for a passive pickup. just replaced the pot, problem solved.
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

This was rectified by replacing the volume pot which indeed leaked signal at "0". How do I know ?? Cause I did it :omg:
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

the white hiss could be because the strings are grounded; there's a wire from bridge to the grounds.

leaking could also be a result from bad grounding. ground everything to *only* one spot ie back of a pot, swich lug, etc. Just make sure that everything that needs to be grounded is wired with a separate wire to only one place.

I know that star ground is a overkill, but atleast it's quiet! If you have extra wire inside the electronics route, especially if the wires are looped around anything, you are prone to problems. Sometimes shorter is better!
 
Re: Problem w/t blackouts

hey there. try replacing the pot with another 100k or try a 50k or even a 25k.
the pot may have been damaged when the ground connections were soldered to the back of it. if you overheat them, the blade and/or wiper or the pot casing itself get warped and don't make a proper contact, allowing signal to come thru when set to "0".

happy soldering, don't burn yourself, haha

larry melero
 
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