POD XT Live w/EMG 81 85 Dual Battery 18v Cannot Turn Guitar Volume Up. Signal 'Cuts Out'

[GitDD]

As the title says;

POD XT Live w/EMG 81 85 Dual Battery 18v Cannot turn volume up. Signal 'Cuts Out'

 

If I roll back the volume to about 2/3 it works but then the output is low. From what I read this seems to be a known issue.

 

As per what I had found from searching and reading the manual, I tried setting the Normal / PAD switch to PAD, then I can turn the volume on the guitar up all the way however the signal sounds so low, it sucks any life or gain out of it. May as well be playing with a 5k single coil at that point.

 

This is fresh install of the pickups. Everything is wired as per EMG and the Pots are new 25k as per spec. My wiring and soldering is well done and everything checks out with a multi-meter.

 

The guitar works fine in every tube amp I own and it works in 2 Behringer V-Amps, one head and one rack mount, without issue.

 

What's the resolution for this if there even is one?

Thanks.

 

P.S. Here's an odd thing... or maybe not. Just on a whim, I thought, any old BOSS pedal is buffered so it may help the signal before hitting the PODXT Live. Once I ran through any pedal ahead of the PODXT Live, everything became 'Normal'. Now it sounds like it should with full, driven, articulate signal.