Perry125

I just got a esp ltd viper 300m, it has active EMG 81/85. When I play any chord through the distortion channels on my vypyr modeling amp it sounds terrible. Past guitar had passive pickups and sounded fine through these effects. Playing single notes, it does not sound bad. Do I need a special amp like the manual says for the active pickups?

slapfunk_101

I don't think so. Have you tried turning down the gain on the amp? Perhaps try rolling back the volume knob on the guitar.

K!d_MeTaL

Turn the tone knob on the guitar down

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mattrusso

Make sure you're battery isn't dead. I had an active piezo system in one of my guitars, and for some reason when the battery died it made the magnetic (passive) sound all distorted and shitty.

Perry125

I adjusted the tone and volume and it just goes from muddy to terribly distorted. It does not do this on the clean channels... Gain does not really help, I want gain obviously and with very little gain it sounds muddy. I tried it with a new battery as well.

Thanks

mattrusso

The only other thing I can think of is turning the bass down on your amp. Unless you want your tone super saturated with bass, you shouldn't have your bass control above 5 when playing with any kind of heavy overdrive/distortion.

Perry125

Could it be a problem with the amp?

Also the guitar is not in very good tune because i don't have my tuner with me.

Trivium7

any new guitar you buy you should immediately get it setup with a licensed Guitar Tech. The intonation could be way outta wack and make your overtones/partials/subharmonics go crazy and make gain very chaotic and shitty. Make sure connections on the electronics look solid and the quik-connects under the pickups are fully pushed in.

Huge Guy

If you are going from passives to EMG's you are gonna notice a big difference. What type of music are you playing?

Did you try the guitar on another amp before you bought it? How did it sound?

I've never used a vyper, is it a practice amp you have? This may not be optimal for EMG's (at least that's what it says in the commandments stickied up top here.)

AWACS

Tuning your guitar properly is always a good place to start.

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Perry125

I just tried my old cheap guitar on the amp and it did the same thing, it used to sound good. It seems like an amp problem to me. It seems you are right about the vypyr, it's just a $100 15w modeling amp for my dorm. It seems I am in for another amp anyway as this one is cheap, however i'm not sure what to look for but I was thinking the line 6 pod. I have not used it on another amp, but like I said my old guitar sounds bad through it as well.

Huge Guy

Glad you found the problem! Have fun amp shopping.

ihartfood

a line6 pod with headphones is great for dorm use

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Perry125

I found the problem within my amp. The input jack was supposed to have a support, but mine was either broken off or was never installed. This means that the jack flops about and the connections were loose. Also, the tape which is supposed to hold the ribbons down is ineffectual. What a cheaply made piece of equipment. It's not like I throw the amp up against the walls.

Huge Guy

You still gonna get a replacement?

Perry125

I probably will get a line 6 pod 2.0, seems like it can do everything I need, and more.

W4RP1G

The input jack is literally just stuck through the hole in the chassis and a nut is screwed on. Are you saying the nut is gone? There is no support for it besides the chassis.

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NotTheMessiah30

Get a 6505+ and say metal up ya ass to your dorm buddies.

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MrFlibble

... And get thrown out when every other person in the building calls the police.

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