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  #1  
Old 03-21-2019, 10:00 AM
BottledAwesome BottledAwesome is offline
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Default Pickup woes...

I have an Epiphone EJ200. It came with the eSonic2 pickup system that blended the NanoMag with the NanoFlex UST. It sounded great while it worked. It didn't take long for it to crumble.

I bought the Baggs M80. It also sounded pretty great, but I learned quickly that I couldn't avoid hitting the top of the pickup with my pick. What a lovely sound that was!

Then I bought the Session VTC. Thought it would be a winner...unobtrusive, and I get to have some of that fancy compression/saturation effect that sounds so cool in the pedals. It really was a winner...until I started to record with it. Had I a lighter touch, and not ever palm muted or done very percussive things, it would work great. But I finally tracked down the source of unwanted distortion to the preamp portion of the system. It simply doesn't have the headroom for the occasional thrashing I give to my jumbo. Yes, I did turn that compression setting all the way off in my testing.

So what options does a guy like me, who occasionally plays VERY hard, have that doesn't cost an arm, a leg, and my firstborn? For those of you following along at home, I've now cruised through a hefty $700 or so in aftermarket pickups for this thing. I made some back on the M80, and will hopefully do the same with the Session VTC, but this is getting tiresome.

How does the HFN system handle hard playing? What about the Duncan Wavelength, with its 18v system?
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  #2  
Old 03-21-2019, 10:25 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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I believe that Epiphone has a lifetime warranty on their guitars, at least for materials and workmanship. If you were happy with the factory pickup while it worked, why not just get them to fix it?

http://www.epiphone.com/Support/Warranty.aspx
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  #3  
Old 03-21-2019, 10:37 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BottledAwesome View Post
I have an Epiphone EJ200. It came with the eSonic2 pickup system that blended the NanoMag with the NanoFlex UST. It sounded great while it worked. It didn't take long for it to crumble.
What isn’t working on that pickup? The magnetic sound? I find that that pickup produces very low (almost inaudible) sound with Elixer strings. It may seem like it is broken if you use the wrong strings. Coated D’Adderios work well.

Quote:
I bought the Baggs M80. It also sounded pretty great, but I learned quickly that I couldn't avoid hitting the top of the pickup with my pick. What a lovely sound that was!

One of the reasons I like my Schertler AG6/S-Mic so much is that the microphone is well isolated from handling noise so you don’t hear extraneous noises when you accidentally touch it. I don’t know how other mag mics are, but that was a main reason I stopped using the M80.
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  #4  
Old 03-21-2019, 10:48 AM
BottledAwesome BottledAwesome is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkingston View Post
I believe that Epiphone has a lifetime warranty on their guitars, at least for materials and workmanship. If you were happy with the factory pickup while it worked, why not just get them to fix it?

http://www.epiphone.com/Support/Warranty.aspx
Sadly, said warranty doesn't cover electronics past one year. I am well beyond that now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lkingston View Post
What isn’t working on that pickup? The magnetic sound? I find that that pickup produces very low (almost inaudible) sound with Elixer strings. It may seem like it is broken if you use the wrong strings. Coated D’Adderios work well.
I did notice that the mag was weak (I use Elixirs exclusively), but that wound up being the icing on the cake. The initial issue was the wire leading to the UST basically disintegrated. After that I tried using the mag by itself and noticed the very low output. At that point I was ready to move on.

Quote:
One of the reasons I like my Schertler AG6/S-Mic so much is that the microphone is well isolated from handling noise so you don’t hear extraneous noises when you accidentally touch it. I don’t know how other mag mics are, but that was a main reason I stopped using the M80.
Yeah, I think all of that extraneous noise from handling the M80 comes from the floating coil. It was downright fantastic for less exuberant playing.
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  #5  
Old 03-21-2019, 12:23 PM
amsmarle amsmarle is offline
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Default E-Sonic2 Preamp

Hi There,
I have an Epiphone EF 500RCCE Masterbilt with the E-Sonic2 preamp in also. But mine is broke too. Shadow electronics sent me a preamp and a pickup for mine but I have never used it. You are welcome to it for free if you want it.
It is called the E-Sonic 2 HD.. !

Alan
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  #6  
Old 03-21-2019, 01:00 PM
BottledAwesome BottledAwesome is offline
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Cool! PM sent.
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Old 03-21-2019, 04:14 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkingston View Post
I believe that Epiphone has a lifetime warranty on their guitars, at least for materials and workmanship. If you were happy with the factory pickup while it worked, why not just get them to fix it?

http://www.epiphone.com/Support/Warranty.aspx
The eSonic2 pickup/preamp system has a 5-year warranty. I just bought an Epiphone DR-500MCE with the eSonic2 system and I remember seeing in the manual that the system has a 5-year Unlimited Shadow warranty. You have to register the system online with Shadow to validate the warranty.
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  #8  
Old 03-22-2019, 10:13 AM
amsmarle amsmarle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BottledAwesome View Post
Cool! PM sent.
Hi again I replied to your PM

Alan
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  #9  
Old 03-28-2019, 07:11 AM
amsmarle amsmarle is offline
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Hi,
Just to let you know the E-Sonic HD has gone off to someone else. I didn't
here from you either way. So I've let it go to another AGF chap

Regards
Alan
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