EMG 85 on Synapse Transcale is distorting clean tone

[Daniel L]

Guitar: Synapse Transcale

Pickup: EMG 85

 

Pickup distorts on clean tone rather noticeably. Appears during the strum. Now - I have made sure about the following things.

 

The battery has been bought today. Brand new one - Duracell.

Sample in the attachment is the clean guitar signal with no amplification or effects recorded through Focusrite Scarlett 2i4.

I have ensured that there's no digital clipping. The indicators remained within "green" the entire duration during the recording of the sample.

Even when the master knob is turned just a bit - enough for at least some sound - and the level of recording is extremely low in the card, the sound is very quiet, but the distortion is there - quiet, but there.

There is no such trouble with either the neighboring EMG 81 or Piezo. The sound on those is perfectly fine. Distortion appears only when using EMG 85 - and that is during the dual regime of using both pickups or just EMG 85.

Distortion is most evident when I strum hard. When I play quietly singular notes - it is not evident. Distortion is below and above 5k hz.

 

I have snooped around Inet for similar troubles. Mostly the solution was to change the battery. Which is not the case here obviously. Distortion is apparent on Focusrite as well as Roland JS-8. Only things I haven't tried yet: trying a different cable, new strings, check for wiring inside.

 

Any advice or pointers then?

[Daniel L]

oops. here's the sample file.

 

Sample (converted).mp3

[Daniel L]

so.. uh.. no advice? It ain't the battery changed it. This happens on both my amplifier and sound card - completely different brands. Only what's left now: change strings, change cable, look inside whether anything might be off, replace the 85 EMG

[Daniel L]

turns out this is just how EMG 85 sounds. Tested a Synape SS-2F - same thing. Problem solved.