tuning my EMG’s (zakk wylde)?

i just got some new emgs for my guitar its an ibanez RG with the floyd rose. i cant help but notice that the emgs sound very dull. there isnt as much pickup power as i used to have. my hammer ons are weak sounding and when i palm mute i dont get that death crunch that i once had. is there a certain tone or effect knob on my amp or pedal that i can tweak a bit to get that sound back. please help im desperate!

Did you put in your EMGs or did someone else? Because there are special pots that come with the EMGs that you must use – you cannot use the guitar’s original tone/volume pots.

(technical – EMG pickups need to see low impedances. The pots that come with them are 25k ohm, while normal pots are between 250 and 500k. That ten to twenty fold difference results in a massive loss of tone and volume)

If this is *not* the issue…. try raising the pickups to as close as possible to the strings without bottoming the strings out. This is another pre-requisite of EMGs.

Finally, have you changed the battery lately?

If it’s not one of these three things, I’d eat my shoe. I won’t, but if that’s the case take it to a guitar tech and have them diagnose the problem.

Saul

How to Tune a Piano : How to Tune a Piano’s Treble Notes