leesteel Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Just a heads up. I have a few 500s and one of them is the well documented Ghost upgrade that is shown here on the forum somewhere. I did a show last week that was quite hot and sweaty. I think that sweat got to one of the bridge saddles and one of my strings stopped working. After bringing my guitar home and drying it off and allowing it to sit overnight. It worked fine the next day and worked fine all last weekend. I can't find anything online about this happening but I will be keeping a close eye on it before upgrading another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_Watt Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Strange. The Piezo outputs are very high impedance so if any sweat got across the two input connections, it would temporarily short out the signal. The connections are under the bridge though so I would have thought they would be well enough protected. You could probably spray a protective coating over them if it keeps happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leesteel Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 I don't think any sweat got to the electrical connection. Come on, I would have had to dump a glass of water on there to make that kind of impact. I just got the saddle wet. All of a sudden, my high E string just went "plink" and didn't ring at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_Watt Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I don't know what would cause that. The pickups look like they are potted to me so I don't think liquid would get inside. They should be more reliable than the originals. I had intermittent contact problems with my original 500 pickups. It's been solid with the Ghost pickups. I think the sound is a bit "darker" with the Ghosts which is ok with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I had/have this issue with my 300 B string. On really hot humid days it would be dead, then come back after a while. My JTV-59 developed that problem in the first summer I had it - 2011. The issue was that the electrical connection of the piezo is 1 hot lead, and the piezo case is ground. The bridge of my 59 started corroding right away. I discussed it with Rich Renken, and he sent me a new bridge. It had been redesigned (I could tell when I compared the casting marks on the new versus the old), and the World plant in Korea apparently changed their vendor for sourcing them and their design slightly. It was a plating problem in that initial bunch. I installed the new bridge (with piezo's), and have not had the issue since then. I feel the issue is the same with my 300, but since I got my 59, and later my 69S, I don't gig out with the 300 anymore. The solder pads on both the first generation Variaxes and the JTV's have 2 connection points -- 1 for hot and 1 for ground, but the piezo leads are only one per piezo - the hot, so the ground is provided by the case of the piezo connect through the grounded bridge assembly. If it gets salt corroded from sweat, the friction ground connection gets resistance in it, killing the signal return path. I would much prefer if they would use a 2 - lead piezo instead of depending on a case ground. One guy (can't remember who) on the forums gingerly soldered leads to the piezo cases and then to the ground pads on the connection PC board under the bridge and took care of his problem. When I was having the issue with the 59, I would take along my wife's hand-held hair dryer. When it acted up, I would dry it out with the dryer, and it would start working again.Worked one night when the dew came on an outside job... Don't know if the Ghost's have 1 lead or 2, but if they don't have a metal case, I'd guess 2. As I said, I have not remedied my 300, as it does go gigging anymore. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leesteel Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Thanks for posting Dave, the Ghost saddles have 2 leads, hot and ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_Watt Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 The very nice thing about the Ghost saddles is that they do not rely on making the ground connection through contact with the bridge or strings. They each have their own ground lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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