Advice on an Eclipse

Updated
Durethia
I have a friend who bought an ESP Eclipse, the all white one with Mahogany body and ebony fret board. Beautiful guitar. I believe it's pick up configuration is an 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck. (I have forgotten the logo colors; copper is EMG 89 and silver is 81) There are two things, he claims the guitar always needs to be tuned down (specifically the wound strings) after pulling it from the case. The string gauge is .10s, so the strings might be getting caught on the nut. More disturbingly, the EMGs simply don't feel like EMGs do (I have several guitars with EMGs); for example harmonics seem difficult or muffled. They almost sound as though they aren't active or the battery is dead, so we changed the battery. No difference. Interestingly, the three knobs on the Eclipse, two of them are supposed to be volume and the third one is a tone control, but it does not effect the sound of the guitar at all. Is it possible the EMGs aren't wired correctly?
Ozwepaie

do the volume pots work ?

Durethia

do the volume pots work ?

Yes, each do in fact work with their respective pickup.

Ozwepaie

if it's only the "tone" knob that's not working ? Check this.
Looking at the pot from the inside of the guitar: And the connectors are facing left.
None of the arms should be grounded to the pot. The resistor should be connected
to the middle arm and grounded to the top.
The common from the toggle should connect to the lower arm and slave to the "T"
position (white wire) from the input jack.
The black ground wire should connect to one of the vol. pots and the ground of the
input jack.

if there are any additional connections ? or something missing above ? Correct it
and you should be fine ?

Ozwepaie

Then see see above. I'm sure it's just a short.

Durethia

Then see see above. I'm sure it's just a short.

It's odd. We brought the guitar to the location he purchased it from. I explained the problems with the EMGs I was hearing and the tone knob not working etc. They immediately directed him for a straight swap.

He had the guitar a bit longer than the return policy too, they still gave him a new Eclipse from off the shelf. His new guitar is really attractive, all the knobs work and it does sound better and plays better. Except, he doesn't have an Ebony fretboard as he did on the all white version (ebony seems to often mean a 200 dollar price difference).

So I'm wondering if the Snow White was marked down, and if a problem with it was known? I appreciate what seems to be excellent customer service but they didn't even so much as look at the guitar or play with it to verify our claims.

You'd think any store would like to verify claims and merchandise of a 1,500 dollar item being returned or swapped. Oh well, they were real nice. We showed it to them, stated our concerns. They basically said go pick a new one. So we did.

jack.j

if the strings are need tuned down every time it comes out of the case i would check to see if the truss rod is in the neutral position between the push pull action they are two way rods i have got many guitars that upon arrival the truss rod was like this as far as the pickups is the guitars intonation set and the relief and action i have also got many guitars that had the same pickups as others but did not sound right until i set the relief action and intonation then adjust the height if that does not solve any problems make sure the output jack and pots are wired correctly if it under warranty call esp 1st do not want to void it get and ohms meter and check connections i have heard people say it can hurt the emg if you check them with a multi meter because of the pre amp i do not know how true this is though i dont see how it could but but i do not know that for a fact the relief on these guitars is .10 to .20 the action is low e 5/64 high e 1/16 i think the action spec is what is in there esp book you can look it up i know the relief is right .10 to .20 improper relief can also make guitars sound weird and stiff like if the neck is to tight to loose and it will also make it sound off i would set the guitar up first then set the action and set intonation it adjust the pick ups check the nut slot i have had guitars sound weird because of nut slots being to tight the string would vibrate properly when picking open strings then sound good when picking fretted strings do you notice a change when doing this first thing i would do is check and see if the truss rod is in the slack position then check the necks relief and set it to spec then set the action to esp spec then set the intonation adjust pickups play with the heights can take a while to dial in then if it still does not sound right check connections but call esp before working on it i do not know if setting the guitar up your self if you know how will void the warranty or not some companies it will others will let it slide with in reason

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