Hi there. I have an EMG 81 in the bridge position of my Ibanez RG-560. Whenever I put the 5 position toggle switch into either of the two positions to use that EMG, I hear a loud buzzing sound out of the amp.

I took off the back plate of the guitar to examine the wiring, but it's a rat's nest in there! Rather than mess with it and make the situation worse.

Any thoughts?

Also, if I were to rewire the whole thing, how hard is that?

Sounds like a grounding problem to me. Sometimes it's better to start from stratch when you know where all the wires are and where they go.

makes a good weekend project.

Check out this article at GuitarNuts:

Linkie thingie to technical doodad

Might help you out quite a bit if you decide to rewire(or shield).

thanks,
json

[Edited on 5/28/2004 by schwim]

That is a good article. Would anything be different for my active pickups?

[Edited on 5/28/2004 by gsgleason]

If like others I've seen, yes, but only in added routing. You'll need to write yourself a schematic as you go, and that's about the jist of it.

You should be able to keep the theory of sheilding and cleaning the connections as with the passive pickups.

I think it would help you out greatly. It was an eye opener for me.

thanks,
json

The only real difference between the wiring for a standard humbucker and an EMG 81 is that you have to wire in the power supply, but thats no big deal.
You may want to check out the EMG website because they have some good wiring diagrams.
http://www.emginc.com/support.asp