EMG pickup harmonic interferance causing unnatural note decay?

[Big Daddy B]

Hey guys. I am having an issue with one of my ESP guitars but thought I would post the question here as well since there are probably a lot of EMG owners. I have a 2011 ESP KH-2 SE with a EMG 60 in teh neck and an 81 in the bridge. I recently noticed that notes don't seem to sustain as long as on my other ESPs so I timed it and they seem to die about 3 seconds sooner. It's kind of an unnatural decay in that they ring out strong but then towards the end they decary super fast and die off. I took the guitar to my tech and we fiddled with the neck, and checked the pots to no avail. It is also not a battery or string issue. He believes it may have to do with the spacing of the pickups possibly causing some harmonic interference. Has anyone here encountered a similar problem and if so how did you remedy it? it's not super bad, in fact I wouldn't have even noticed until one day I was playing a solo and trying to hold a note at the 24th fret on the high E string and it kept dying on me.

[paranoid]

do the other esp guitars have emg's? did you compare the sustain unplugged? my emg's seem to have less pull on them then most passive when you hold something metal near them, I would think they would sustain longer but never have tested this. I do how ever have this kinda trouble with a couple of Floyd saddles that for some reason choke the string from ringing, but this can be herd unplugged. kinda buzzes when the note is about to fade out. I have switched the 6th string saddle with the 1st string saddle on one floyd and it cured the problem. not saying this is you trouble but it is something to look at.

[Big Daddy B]

do the other esp guitars have emg's? did you compare the sustain unplugged? my emg's seem to have less pull on them then most passive when you hold something metal near them, I would think they would sustain longer but never have tested this. I do how ever have this kinda trouble with a couple of Floyd saddles that for some reason choke the string from ringing, but this can be herd unplugged. kinda buzzes when the note is about to fade out. I have switched the 6th string saddle with the 1st string saddle on one floyd and it cured the problem. not saying this is you trouble but it is something to look at.

The saddles aren't something I checked but we did seem to notice the problem seemed to be prevalent on the 3 treble strings and not the 3 bass strings. So if it was a bad saddle would need to be three of them. But to answer your questions, yes, I did check the guitar against 2 other EMG equipped guitars. In fact, one of them had the same string gauges and was dropped a full step in tuning identically to the one in question. I have submitted an email to EMG as well. Curious if they might have a useful response.

I vaguely recall checking the guitar unplugged but can't remember if there was a difference or not, and now the guitar is at my tech's.

[xenophobe]

Uh... one guitar sustaining longer than another probably isn't the pickups.

Why don't you remove a pickup and time it. And make sure the guitars you compared have the same string height over the pickups.

It's more likely there is some kind of density change or inclusion in the material that fights resonance? I have no idea.

[paranoid]

I have been in contact with emg several times and they were always very helpful, and fairly quick to respond. they did disappoint me once though. I bought a guitar with emgs (I thought) got it home and played great. went to play live and it squealed like a pig, I could talk in to the pick ups and hear my voice through the amp. well any ways called emg and emailed back and forth a few times sent them close up pictures of the pickups, come to find out they were not emg! they were very good looking clones. sound not so good. I thought emg would want them to try to find the cloner because these things were almost completely identical. I was pissed that I had gotten taken, I wanted some satisfaction but emg said it wouldn't be worth there time and trouble to try and find the copy cat. ever since I only buy my emg pickups brand new!

[Newc]

Were said pickups marked EMG or just covered with a black plastic cover? Was the logo on the top of the cover stamped into the plastic or just an ink label? And what was the guitar?


As for your current issue, not every one is a winner. Everyone makes a shitty guitar on a regular basis. You may have a shitty one.

[Big Daddy B]

Uh... one guitar sustaining longer than another probably isn't the pickups.

Why don't you remove a pickup and time it. And make sure the guitars you compared have the same string height over the pickups.

It's more likely there is some kind of density change or inclusion in the material that fights resonance? I have no idea.

No we tried adjusting the height of the pickups as well and that did not remedy the problem. The problem is present on both the neck and the bridge pickups as well.

[Big Daddy B]

Everyone makes a shitty guitar on a regular basis. You may have a shitty one.

I hope not as it cost $2,200. Aside from that one issue, the guitar is really great. It sounds awesome too, just the unusual note decay. It's not like I don't have plenty of other guitars so can work around its limitation if necessary.

[xenophobe]

Try putting a different pickup in it? Otherwise I'd have to agree, even the best looking custom guitar can still be a turd. And there doesn't necessarily have to be anything wrong with a guitar for it to be a turd.

[Newc]

If natural harmonics (12th fret especially) decay at the same rate as held notes, then it's either the pickups or the bridge.

If the 12th fret harmonics are identical to the other guitars, then it's probably something to do with that one guitar's neck.

Un-bolt the neck and bolt it back down.

[Big Daddy B]

Thanks for the suggestions. That may help us diagnose the problem component! Unfortunately it is a neck thru guitar so can't unbolt and rebolt.

[Nightbat]

Super low action? I've noticed that with too low action, you can strike a note, but can forget it sustaining for long, especially in the higher register
Neck bow has less effect the closer you get to the body

[Big Daddy B]

No not super low. I tend to actually like my action a little bit higher.

[horns666]

That's exactly why I always HATED EMG's. Why would anyone put those in a tits 70's Les Paul. Because a guitar forum told him to. Seriously.

[xenophobe]

That's exactly why I always HATED EMG's. Why would anyone put those in a tits 70's Les Paul. Because a guitar forum told him to. Seriously.

Hahaha... if only you knew what I would do to a 70's Les Paul if I were told I had to keep it and could never get rid of it.