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Thought I had a faulty piezo!


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Ok, so on quite a few occasions over the last couple of weeks when I connected and powered up my JTV59 I realised one string (the b )

was not picking up the sound while all others were ok.  

 

I found that after rapidly plucking that b string eventually it would pick up ok.

 

Naturally I thought bad piezo, but being suspicious and curious (I have electronics skills) I decided to open up the the cover plates on the back and poke around (not literally, and with the guitar off) . Nothing obvious could be seen, so I made sure all the connectors were seated properly and popped the covers back on.

 

So, fired up the JTV again and to my surprise the b string was ok BUT the g string had the fault. So putting 2 and 2 together concluded the piezos probably fine but a connector was the culprit. 

 

Covers off again, and fired up the JTV and EXTREMELY carefully moved the wires on the connectors with a wooden toothpick whilst plucking all strings one at a time. 

 

RESULT : fault on one small connector which has 7 wires if I recall that obviously are piezo related.

 

Made sure all 7 were seated in that connector and so far all is well.

 

Now those with common sense and no electronics skills would probably send it back as faulty for a replacement but, as I'd set the guitar up exactly as I wanted including recutting the nut which was shamefully high, I wanted to troubleshoot the problem myself.

 

If any of you have a similar problem I would be happy to post a pic of the offending connector if you wish to look for yourself.

 

Can't believe I have voided the warranty as there is no sign of me touching anything!

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It sounds like one of the crimp-on pins wasn't full seated in the body of the connector.  Good troubleshooting job and I'm sure you haven't voided your warranty!

 

Not sure about the '59 bridge and pickup arrangement, but the '69 has a poor (IMHO) arrangement where they relay on mechanical contact between dissimilar metals to provide ground return from the pickups.  This caused an apparent dead low-E on my guitar and has also bitten several others on this forum.

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It sounds like one of the crimp-on pins wasn't full seated in the body of the connector.  Good troubleshooting job and I'm sure you haven't voided your warranty!

 

Not sure about the '59 bridge and pickup arrangement, but the '69 has a poor (IMHO) arrangement where they relay on mechanical contact between dissimilar metals to provide ground return from the pickups.  This caused an apparent dead low-E on my guitar and has also bitten several others on this forum.

Agree with you there, simple solutions to problems that could have been avoided during production methods - the perils of mass production and lax quality control.

Must say,however, the build quality of all Korean guitars I have had over the years has been excellent, including a Schecter I still have which is flawless.

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The bridge grounding a design issue not a Quality Control issue.  All Variax models have had this design with no actual ground wire from the piezos.

Then it's a design fault, not solved, so still an issue that needs attention. Full marks for defending manufacturing though.

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  • 5 years later...

Steve hi, I just rec'd a used JTV59 as a gift. I charged up the battery and started playing with the emulated instruments and yeah, pretty quickly realized that the G string wasn't picking up.

 

I don't know much about these guitars. Can you please post a pick of which panel on the back you had to open and where the piezo connectors are?

 

thanks,

David

 

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