| If the pickups are stock then it has a DC and a P4 pickup. EMG's can be run pretty close to the strings with no issues. If pickups are too close you will just get weird harmonics, not distortion.
First thing to try is a new battery. Most of the time this is the cause of distortion. If that doesn't do it then remove the pickups an make sure the connections on the back of them is firmly connected. If that doesn't do it then make sure you are not clipping the pre-amp on your rig (active EMG's put out a really hot signal). If that doesn't work then you may have some wiring issues to get checked out.
My bet: battery. | 
