Help! what happened to my EMG signal???

[fenders]

ok, so the EMG's in my new guitar have a much higher output than any of the other guitars i have used. They are active, so obviously that will be the case, but the other day, i plugged in, and tried to record and my signal chain looked like this...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2255790/picatures/weak signal EMG.jpg

I replaced the battery thinking that would solve it, but it looks the same. please help!!

when i first got it the signal looked like this
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2255790/picatures/normal signal EMG.jpg

they are 81/85 and i have absoluetly no idea whats going on. I compared jeffs EMG DI's and they look even stronger than when i first got my guitar. please help me

 

[midget donkeys]

I was fooling around with the 18 volt mod one time before and without knowing it partially pulled out the plug in cable on the back of the pickup. I still got output, but it was really weak a crappy sounding. Took me a long while to figure out that was the problem.

 

[AllanD]

It happens to me after being plugged in for a while, I don't understand it either...

 

[deLuther]

Bad or dirty contacts maybe, problems with wiring?
One guy have similar problems with EMGs (weak signal) on ESP Eclipse, he checked wiring and visually all was OK.
Then he decide to switch pickups to AHB-1 set, guitar tech checked his guitar and found that ground wire to output jack was broken

 

[bryan_kilco]

was going to say the battery but I guess you ruled that out.

Pardon me here, but on that second pic.....you actually have a Master Bus track. Is this what people normally do?! I've always been under the impression that your "Master Bus" was the actual MASTER (to the left of the "Master Bus" you have there.

 

[fenders]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm going to give it a good look over with the wiring here in a min. If I can't find anything wrong I guess I will just take it to my neighborhood shop and see if their tech can figure it out. :/

And I don't know if that's what everyone does, but I like to keep my master bus like that. I just use the master bus on the left for spectrum monitoring and rms level checking. I think the reason I started doing that was that that was the only way I could figure out to do any master bus automation lol

 

[CAlexanderParra]

And I don't know if that's what everyone does, but I like to keep my master bus like that. I just use the master bus on the left for spectrum monitoring and rms level checking. I think the reason I started doing that was that that was the only way I could figure out to do any master bus automation lol

Right click the left area space for the horizontal tracks and hit "Show master track." You can add automation that way just like with any other normal track.

 

[fenders]

Lol thanks for the tip man

And I just got done checking all the wires. They all look fine to me. I guess I'll have to go have it checked tomorrow :/

 

[fenders]

It happens to me after being plugged in for a while, I don't understand it either...

so its normal? and it goes back to normal eventually?

 

[AllanD]

so its normal? and it goes back to normal eventually?

It usually does after I disconnect and replug it a few times. I still would like an explanation though!

 

[fenders]

It usually does after I disconnect and replug it a few times. I still would like an explanation though!

hmm weird, i didnt try doing it over and over for fear i might be making things worse lol. I've let it set today and im going to try again tomorrow. If all else fails, tech here i come.

 

[chrisjmp]

Double check and make sure your cable is pushed all the way into the jack in the guitar. With active pickups, the jack can feel like it's in, but it has to click past a certain point. The guitar will still pass a low level signal with the cable not completely in. When I got my first set of EMG's, I thought they were messed up until I figured this out.