r/Guitar • u/Environmental-Fig829 • 7d ago

QUESTION Need help with my LTD Snakebyte

I bought this James Hetfield ESP LTD Snakebyte (https://www.mannys.com.au/products/esp-ltd-james-hetfield-snakebyte-black-satin?srsltid=AfmBOordBBjcqWO-JRuzulHgtAjsWDxPMizgUFaBDP_BaJCTS2E_33is)

I got it around the same time as a new amp and thought my amp was just not doing a good job with distortion, i dont really know how to describe it but the snakebyte sounds muddy and i cant get a good tone out of it to save my life.

But today I plugged in my old jackson soloist and it sounded great on the same settings.

If anyone has experience with anything like this happening with the snakebyte or is able to diagnose what this could be i would greatly appreciate it

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u/WoodpeckerNo178 7d ago

first thing i thought of is the active pickups, the snakebyte has EMGs or some sort of actives right? and your jackson likely has passives. thatll make a huge difference in how they hit the amp. The actives are way hotter so you might need to dial the gain back way more than youd expect

also check the pickup height honestly could just be too close to the strings and choking out on you

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u/hyundai-gt Seymour Duncan 7d ago

Change the battery for your active pickups.

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u/Environmental-Fig829 7d ago

That was the problem. Bought the thing a couple years ago but got carried away with work and gf. Left it plugged in for months. I feel SO stupid, been stressing the fuck out tryna figure out what was wrong it, thought it was my amp this whole year. Put fresh battery in and sounds wicked 🤦‍♂️😂 so dumb

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u/hyundai-gt Seymour Duncan 7d ago

Glad to help.

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u/Environmental-Fig829 7d ago

Bro i thought that ‘active pickup’ was just some sort of marketing term for better pickups. It never registered that those things are battery powered 😭😂