Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Jump to content

Lots Of Problems Reported, Will Yamaha Help To Correct?


McLenison
 Share

Recommended Posts

I lost confidence with Yamaha when my APX-6 Pre-Amp died (as it did with many others) rendering the guitar useless for anything other than quiet acoustic playing, and Yamaha refuse to give any support - they don't make or stock the circuit board, they don't provide schematics or offer any advice about what is a likely cause.  I have had two luthier's return the guitar to me saying there is nothing they can do.

 

Internet rumour is that it is either a special IC amp that "dies" after a few years or, and I think rather more likely, it is a very cheap electrolytic capacitor failing in which case it is 50p part that can be fixed in minutes by anybody with basic soldering skills.  It would be nice if Yamaha could be bothered to let people know which, especially if the latter is the case.

 

Not going to buy anything else guitar related from them if the expected life is only a few years and from the their silence the attitude "You bought a cheap guitar what did you expect? Go buy another one"

 

[That is related to Guitars - I have admitted elsewhere that I do own a Motif Workstation which is completely different thing, and I would expect that it is completely independent division within Yamaha]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No company wants to do warranty repairs because it screws up the aforementioned ratio, and in my experience will go to great lengths to avoid doing so if they can get away with it.

 

I have to say that this hasn't been my experience. Not just with Line 6 but with other manufacturers, too. I'm not just speaking from personal experience but from working on the retail side of things. Some manufacturers are better than others when it comes to having a good process down, and I have seen a few cases of people getting lost in the shuffle. But I don't believe that most people in the industry are looking for ways to screw their customers.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Phil.  This is BS.  Companies want happy satisfied customers.  They may not all do a great job of doing that but that's what they want because that is what increases sales and profits.  My opinion is that for a Small Company (Yes Line6 is a Small Company) Line6 does a reasonable job.  They sell very complex gear and most don't have problems with it.  This forum is not a good measure of the failure rate since most satisfied customers don't even visit the forum.

  • Upvote 1
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want a Warranty repair for my APX-6, it is too old, but it still sounds great acoustically and plays beautifully -  I just want a way of getting the internal pick-ups out to PA.

 

Best current option is to buy a £100+ stereo standalone pre-amp after rewiring inside so that the bridge and body pickups come out of a replacement TRS jack socket. The Volume, Tone, Balanced knobs are separate around the body so  you can't just plug in a replacement internal pre-amp without getting out a saw to cut a large chunk out of the side of the guitar.  Anyone got a better idea?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I lost confidence with Yamaha when my APX-6 Pre-Amp died (as it did with many others) rendering the guitar useless for anything other than quiet acoustic playing, and Yamaha refuse to give any support - they don't make or stock the circuit board, they don't provide schematics or offer any advice about what is a likely cause.  I have had two luthier's return the guitar to me saying there is nothing they can do.

 

Internet rumour is that it is either a special IC amp that "dies" after a few years or, and I think rather more likely, it is a very cheap electrolytic capacitor failing in which case it is 50p part that can be fixed in minutes by anybody with basic soldering skills.  It would be nice if Yamaha could be bothered to let people know which, especially if the latter is the case.

 

Can you get the circuit board out of the guitar easily and post a photo?  I doubt they are using anything terribly proprietary in an analog preamp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My experience with Yamaha equipment has been very favorable, and I have used a LOT of it. When they bought Steinberg (Cubase), there was very little noticeable change - only some new hardware options and the nice Motif piano added to the sound bank for free. Actually I expected more synergy than I have seen.

In any case, I consider them an ethical company, and am not worried at all about their purchase of Line 6.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  My opinion is that for a Small Company (Yes Line6 is a Small Company) Line6 does a reasonable job.  They sell very complex gear and most don't have problems with it.  This forum is not a good measure of the failure rate since most satisfied customers don't even visit the forum.

This forum is a perfect place to measure failure rate since most people complaining here haven't gotten any good results from tech support so they come here as a last ditch effort to get their problem solved before they give up.

The next good place to check is Ebay & Craig's List - there you can see all the Line 6 stuff being sold by unhappy users - and there are thousands of them.

The sad thing is Line 6 has a lot of good ideas but they never seem to follow through to make the product complete.

Bugs always seem to be left unfixed in lots of cases before they finally stop production and move on to the next idea.

The Variax, the HD 500, the Relay wireless all have on going issues that have never been addressed.

Tracking glitches, software that doesn't work properly, faulty battery compartment doors, etc., etc.

We took our hard earned money and bought this gear and I think Line 6 owes it to us to fix these and other issues (add yours here).

For instance I shouldn't have to use duct tape to keep the freakin' batteries from falling out on the floor every time I use the Relay wireless.

Line 6 should find a fix and make replacement parts available for a reasonable fee or free.

Just because you personally don't have these issues that doesn't make them any less real for us who do.

  • Upvote 1
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Can you get the circuit board out of the guitar easily and post a photo?  I doubt they are using anything terribly proprietary in an analog preamp."

 

Did this yesterday, and there are a couple of boards for structural things like the Pots and Connectors, on one of these is a 24 pin connection to a daughter board that contains the amp stuff which is double sided and surface mount which makes trying to replace things rather difficult - as I gently removed the casing a small capacitor fell loose (3mm x 4mm) which may or may not be the only fault.  First two pictures on this thread show somebody else trying the same: http://www.yamahaforums.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2904 - I have lost the middle silver Cap in the top photo, and while I am capable of working with the larger boards I know that I can't solder on this daughter board without damaging something else - the other side of where the Cap sits is a surface mount resistor (just to the right of the chip marked JY in the second photo).

 

The preamp takes both bridge and body pickups and allows blending between them (so is a dual amp circuit), and the pots all go individually out through the body in an arrangement not seen on any other guitar (apart from those early APX). A copy of the service manual has been found http://www.yamahaforums.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=736 which is a scanned copy of an original that has been scribbled over in Japanese.  I have problems with at least one component on IC1 and while I could fit a replacement IC1 onto the parent board I have to give up on economically repairing IC1 and there are no known replacements for it.

 

My new plan is to join the pickup and jack socket connectors by pushing wires into the sockets.  Assuming that the Jack Socket is a stereo TRS socket where inserting a TS Jack activates the Amp circuit by making a connection between the R and S connections then I can connect Bridge Pickup to T & S and Body Pickups which are already in parallel to R & S allowing the two signals to be sent out on a Stereo Jack.  I will then try splitting that into two inputs on my HD500 and see what I get.  If the socket is not what I expect (how exactly does an adult male get down to the inside of the jack socket when I can barely get my hand thought the sound hole?) then I will just have to replace that, but at least I have a plan.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

This forum is a perfect place to measure failure rate since most people complaining here haven't gotten any good results from tech support so they come here as a last ditch effort to get their problem solved before they give up.

The next good place to check is Ebay & Craig's List - there you can see all the Line 6 stuff being sold by unhappy users - and there are thousands of them.

The sad thing is Line 6 has a lot of good ideas but they never seem to follow through to make the product complete.

Bugs always seem to be left unfixed in lots of cases before they finally stop production and move on to the next idea.

The Variax, the HD 500, the Relay wireless all have on going issues that have never been addressed.

Tracking glitches, software that doesn't work properly, faulty battery compartment doors, etc., etc.

We took our hard earned money and bought this gear and I think Line 6 owes it to us to fix these and other issues (add yours here).

For instance I shouldn't have to use duct tape to keep the freakin' batteries from falling out on the floor every time I use the Relay wireless.

Line 6 should find a fix and make replacement parts available for a reasonable fee or free.

Just because you personally don't have these issues that doesn't make them any less real for us who do.

Here's a GREAT example why the forum site is ruining Line6's reputation.....

Voice your own opinion...and more negitive votes cast from the experts.

That's how it works.  SAD SAD SAD !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I lost confidence with Yamaha when my APX-6 Pre-Amp died (as it did with many others) rendering the guitar useless for anything other than quiet acoustic playing, and Yamaha refuse to give any support - they don't make or stock the circuit board, they don't provide schematics or offer any advice about what is a likely cause.  I have had two luthier's return the guitar to me saying there is nothing they can do.

 

Internet rumour is that it is either a special IC amp that "dies" after a few years or, and I think rather more likely, it is a very cheap electrolytic capacitor failing in which case it is 50p part that can be fixed in minutes by anybody with basic soldering skills.  It would be nice if Yamaha could be bothered to let people know which, especially if the latter is the case.

 

Not going to buy anything else guitar related from them if the expected life is only a few years and from the their silence the attitude "You bought a cheap guitar what did you expect? Go buy another one"

 

Rewolf, you can fix your APX6 guitar preamp.

I've made a preamp repair guide, you can download it in pdf format from here:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-8-tjpvVqN-NG9MNEFMOWVoRzA

 

here is a photo of part of the guide:

 

Yamaha%20APX6%20Preamp%20-%20IC1%20Elect

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 years later...

Old thread but just want to update a link Rewolf48 posted for yamahaforums. It is now https://www.yamahamusicians.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2904

 

The APX issue has been ongoing for some time. Yamaha used to keep spares for these preamps but then they made a decision to only supply the whole unit plus pickup. I am not sure they even do that now. It is usually the caps that fail and as mentioned, these are cheap to replace as long as you are handy with a soldering iron. The other solution is to simply replace the Yamaha preamp for a third-party one from Fishman or LR Baggs. A bit fiddly but it can be done. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...