Old EMG P/J pickups - help me figure out this mess!

[Josh E]

Hello everyone,

My uncle gifted me his old bass. He can’t remember when he threw in these active EMGs but best guess is in the 90’s or early 2000s. Everything works except for the volume pots. When I lower the volume to “0” it doesn’t completely cut the sound off, it just reduces it.

I could only find one diagram on the internet about wiring old EMGs (which I’ve attached) and I think I followed it. I’m at wits end with these pickups, any advice?

 

[Crater]

Your uncle might have failed to change out the volume controls for lower resistance ones that work with active pickups. Active EMGs use 25 K Ohm pots for volume and tone as I recall. The wiring looks OK, but the other thing that could cause this problem is a poor ground between your volume pots and the output jack; resistance between these two points should be well under one Ohm.