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...hey guys, i just finished installing a EMG85 in my beater Peavey, and everything worked well until i plugged it in .

I wired it up very simple, with just an quot;on\offquot; switch on the hot lead of the pickup (red). In the quot;onquot; position, it works awesome, no noise at all. But when i switch to quot;offquot;, cutting the quot;hotquot; of the pickup, i get this crazy hum if i'm not touching the metal on the switch or the jackplate.

I believe this has something to do with the quot;internal shieldingquot; of the EMG, but i need to get this to work anyway!

So here's what i'm thinking of trying:

1. Using a 2 way switch instead which sends the signal to ground in quot;off modequot;.

2. Connecting the switch, metal pickguard and brigde to the quot;groundquot; lug on the jack.

Would this be a smart thing to do? Any other suggestions?

Thanks alot,
-Erlend

I don't know the specifics of wiring, but I thought EMG's did not have, or need, a ground.

Hmm, well, they do have a ground


Originally Posted by Erlend_GHmm, well, they do have a ground

I think I'll have to disagree and refer to this screen shot of EMG's wiring diagram for their humbuckers as provided on their website via PDF file (look at #4). I know I wasn't crazy, they are internally shielded and do not require the ground wire like a passive does.
Yeah, thank you .

I've now solved the problem: I connected a wire from the quot;groundquot; of the EMG's to the metal pickguard i have. Now it's completely silent!

Damn, now it's worse than before!

I don't see what i've done wrong! Just cutting the hot wire shoudn't add tons of noise?! Heeelp?!

Bumpetibump!

Try using the switch to break the ground connection instead of the hot and see if that makes a difference.