EMG GZR PJ Jazz pickup hums so loudly the bass is quieter than the hum..

I've been trying to get my set of EMG GZR-PJ pickups to work for months now. I purchased them in August. The J hums so bad, Id rather have a single coil. When using the J, the signal seems to almost short out as output drops so bad, and I generally have to boost a ton of highs and lows to cut through with the P and J on. So I just use the P, and its an ***AMAZING*** sounding P, but there is no point to the J pickup for me. On a sound board dB level read out, the bass output drops 3db and the signal to noise ratio is visible on the meter as well, id say maybe 55-60db to 1. A single coil jazz pickup at least gets around 70 db to 1 and has hotter output. Single coils are quieter!

So I E-mailed EMG about this. We went back and forth until they decided to replace the LJHZ from the set. Great, $5-6 in shipping to get it to them and then I got the replacement in, sat on my desk until I had a bass to drop it in because I went back to the active PJ set on my gigging instrument and would not risk going to another gig with bad equipment.

In the new bass, with only EMG's GZR Provided wiring, same issue. Same noise level measurement. Same output drop. everything. The hum is so bad I cant play the bass with the J on at all. All along, I have not replaced the pots or wiring for the pickup. But I know they work, I've swapped the P onto the J pot and its quiet and full sounding. Put the J on either pot, no go, buzz city and bad signal to noise ratio. You cant just swap the pickup lead from the P to isolate the J pickup lead, you have to go find and purchase a new one entirely. Grr.. and I'm not going to be happy with spending more in shipping and buying parts to make a brand new set of pickups work. I already bought them why do I have to buy more stuff to make it work? Why do I have to do an endless RMA cycle.

So I guess this is the question...

DOES YOUR EMG GEEZER J HUM SO BAD YOU NEVER USE IT? DOES IT EAT YOUR VOLUME? DO YOU NOTICE THAT SINGLE COILS BUZZ LESS?

 

That's what I'm thinking. I guess I have to trace down a wire long enough to make the run..I can only find short ones for sale. I can play soft quiet passages with the P, but the hum/noise drowns out harmonics even after a few seconds. Totally useless.

No EMG HZ wires for sale online at all... waa.

 

I just tried this.. Still hums like crazy. There is a way too hook it up out of phase that make it way worse, but it is really just unusable. I'm going to look for a different bridge pickup, this is ********. I do not think this is a split coil pickup I think it is a single coil with a Faraday cage shielding job. It really behaves like one, weak single coil performance just liek you get by wrapping the coil in copper shielding and grounding it.

 

Im so frustrated, I'm going to sell the whole kit. I cant deal with this.. To add another manufacturers pickup on the bridge I essentially have to butcher the pickup wires and make the value of my pickups ******** on the market. I'd rather sell them to someone else right now and count my losses while they still can be sold for around $100 instead of making it worth like $50........

 

Two bad pickups? I mean I am going to try to do what I can with them.. but I'm having a hard time with two pickups being bad, especially when both were factory sealed and one came off the line december 1st, 2014. I'm gonna have to pull my for sale add for now until I can deal with them directly, I could get an exchange but they are sold out. I've got Rick at EMG on email right now but they are out of the office until monday.

 

The P sure does sound a little more open with the J pot and J pickup removed. And completely hum-free.

 

I considered this, so I've tried the P (which is silent) on the J pot, and the P comes off silent all the same on either volume. The J is noisy on either knob or hooked directly to the jack. Clearly the J is the problem, and not even the wires leading to it.

not yet, considering I have isolated the problem by myself. I could just go EMG active and have no problems. Only costs $20 more if I can get an exchange.