Expert: Jason Fryer - 10/26/2009

Question
I have a jackson with 2 emg 81. Three way selector switch. Two volume knobs (one for bridge PU and the other one for the neck PU) and one tone knob. There is too much difference in output (gain/volume) when I use the clean channel of the amp. The neck pickup is lower than the bridge one. When I use the other channel (distortion) the difference between neck and bridge is almost nothing, although the tone knob works for the bridge PU only. I've tried different heights for the PUs but no solution. The 9 v battery is ok.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer
Hey William, the way you fix it is by raising & lowering each of the pickups until they match in output on the clean tone. One test you can do is to measure the pickups outputs with a volt meter to make sure they're working properly & also to check to see if the volume pots are using the same impedance. (I think 250K is for active) Which pickup is louder? Start with both pickups level to the pickup rings & see which is louder from there, then raise one of them until the difference is less noticeable. It's a bit hard because neck pickups always pickup more due to the string vibrating more in that are of the guitar. They also have more bass making them seem louder. If you can't get them to match up properly, replace one of the pickups to a higher or lower output. After looking at EMG's site, the 81's are usually used in bridge position & they recommend a 60 for the neck. Here's a link:

http://www.emginc.com/products/index/173/6/1

Hope that helps, if you need anything else, just drop me a line.
Peace - J.