Has anyone ever blown up an amp with a bad pickup?

[flamike]

I just bought a new 35th anniversary JB, since I put it in I have blown up 3 amps and a headphone amp, I have checked and double checked the wiring and everything seems right. I'm scared to plug it into anything else. HELP Please!

[Edgecrusher]

Urmmmmm... how? by blown do you mean they blew fuses? fried transformers? speakers blew? goats blew? Seems incredibly implausible that just the pickup could do that.

[idsnowdog]

A passive pickup only produces a few millivolts aka less than 1 volt of current so it's unlikely that a bad pickup has "blown" your amp.

[flamike]

Well I'm not sure. The fender hot rod deville is in the shop right now, it was making weird distortion on clean, my marshall jcm900 is making weird distortion sounds trailing the notes, my headphone amp is doing the sme thing that the fender was doing and I used another amp last night for practice and by the end of practice it sounded like my marshall.

[Chris of Arabia]

I'm calling 'troll'...

[Edgecrusher]

Did you try another guitar with the amps and checked if they still sounded odd? Why not put the original pickup back in and see if thats the issue? But I'm willing to bet my favorite wife that you will find its not the pickup that blew anything up.

[flamike]

Yes I have tried 3 different guitars on all but the amp I used last night. all with the same results

[Edgecrusher]

Then I would say its the amp not the guitar.

[flamike]

The original pickups were active emg's I have changed all the pots the only electronics left that were original are the switch and the jack.

[flamike]

Then I would say its the amp not the guitar.

But it has happen with 3 different amps and a headphone amp the only common denominator has been this guitar and it has been since installing the JB.

[Gearjoneser]

I'm assuming all the EMG battery guts were removed before installing the JB.

I'm almost certain that something else is causing your amp problem. Do you plug into the wall, or are you plugging into a regulated power strip?

Did you move from the US to Europe? LOL

[Edgecrusher]

But it has happen with 3 different amps and a headphone amp the only common denominator has been this guitar and it has been since installing the JB.

You have a no specific issue with 3 amps that you have no clue what happened to them. There is no common denominator other than 3 amps need to see a tech. Did some tubes die? Did the transformers go? Did you lose some components on the main boards? Without actually knowing what happened to the amps you cant point it to the guitar.

Trying to say that the guitar like "overloaded" the input and blew the amps up is just plain silly dude. It really is.

[Edgecrusher]

Do you plug into the wall, or are you plugging into a regulated power strip?

This crossed my mind. That hes got bad power at his house. But that doesnt explain the headphone amp.

[flamike]

You have a no specific issue with 3 amps that you have no clue what happened to them. There is no common denominator other than 3 amps need to see a tech. Did some tubes die? Did the transformers go? Did you lose some components on the main boards? Without actually knowing what happened to the amps you cant point it to the guitar.

Trying to say that the guitar like "overloaded" the input and blew the amps up is just plain silly dude. It really is.

I have 4 amps with the same symptoms that all started after I put this pickup in the guitar and played through them, that is the common denominator that I was referring to. I don't know what the problem is that is why I am on here, I didn't think a pickup could blow up an amp that is why i am asking here if anyone else has had this problem, there really is no need to say anything about being silly. If your just going to be that way then please don't bother to read or post Are you really that board?

[flamike]

This crossed my mind. That hes got bad power at his house. But that doesnt explain the headphone amp.

Also it was a different place and a different amp last night. Headphone amp is batteries.

[marvelous_seven]

So JB has a new nickname now: Tube Blaster. I have no idea either this will be a good advertisement or not.

[Edgecrusher]

I have 4 amps with the same symptoms that all started after I put this pickup in the guitar and played through them, that is the common denominator that I was referring to. I don't know what the problem is that is why I am on here, I didn't think a pickup could blow up an amp that is why i am asking here if anyone else has had this problem, there really is no need to say anything about being silly. If your just going to be that way then please don't bother to read or post Are you really that board?

Earlier I said it was highly implausible which is being really nice. Unless something extremely freaky happens and i mean extremely there is nothing that a guitar pickup could do to damage an amp.

My point is you havent checked the amps to see what is actually wrong with them. You say they have similar symptons which is fine but that doesnt mean its the same cause. Your insisting that this pickup killed your amps but what are you going to do when you take the amps to the tech and he says that no AC brown outs caused it or that the tubes were old or any number of things. Your looking for the cause before knowing what the actual result was... just a symptom.

[flamike]

I'm assuming all the EMG battery guts were removed before installing the JB.

I'm almost certain that something else is causing your amp problem. Do you plug into the wall, or are you plugging into a regulated power strip?

Did you move from the US to Europe? LOL

Yes everything with the exception of the switch and the jack was R&R'd with gibson, 2 300k pots on the volumes and a 500k on the tone. Power is not the issue that was the first thing I tested and also the headphone amp is batteries and last night I was in a different place with a different amp and after a couple of hours of playing through it it was sounding like my amps.

[youngthrasher9]

There is no way that the JB did it. Even if it was double in output then what a JB normally is, all you would get is a crappy sound.

[Gearjoneser]

Are you using anything other than the guitar > cable > amp?

A bad pedal or pedalboard power supply would be a more likely culprit.

It's either that or you had a few amps ready to die.