Still unsolved piezo problems...

**Guitartwine** · 03-24-2008, 06:06 AM

Hi Everyone,

A while ago a made a post about having trouble with my JP7's piezo...
Now I am back with a long story and an unsolved problem.
I have contacted support a couple of times (they were cool and helpfull) but still the problem persists.

I bought a second hand Pearl-Redburst JP7 from a guy.
It's an older model, but it looks just like new!
It plays great (after I adjusted the action, wich was REALLY needed) and sounds awesome... truly awesome.
Anyway, as soon as I got home when I got the guitar I tried the piezo.
There was a noticable crackling noise wich was unbareable...
When I turn on the distortion on my pod (instead of a special piezo patch I made) the hum/crackle is just as loud as the notes I would play.
Anyway, so I brought it to a repare shop, and they told me that the pre-amp was broken...
I thought, ok fine, so they ordered a new pre-amp...
I got the guitar, and everything seemed fine...
Then when I got home I plugged it in... no hum or crackle! wohoo
I thought my problems were over.
Then I noticed that as maybe 2 minutes went by that the crackling noise slowly started to come back again...
So the problem wasn't solved at all.
I first thought that it might be my gear, maybe the podx3l I use, so I tried it with my sennheiser headphone directly out of the guitar.
I know this isn't usual, but there is a very soft signal, that is noticable enough to check if there is any hum.
And WITH the headphones and no other gear the guitar had the same symptoms...
So the problem does lie within the guitar.
Anyway, the strange thing is, when I first plug in the guitar the hum/crackle slowly rises... this takes about 2 minutes for it to be fully there...
Then when I unplug my guitar and re-power the pod the hum is still there in an instant without having to rise up.
But if I plug the guitar in, maybe an hour later or something the hum/crackle will rise again...

Another repair guy thought it might be the cable I use,
so he gave me a new cable to try, still the same problem...

I've tried new batteries.... still the same problem....

Does anyone know what could possible cause this problem??
It only affects the piezo signal, the normal magnetic signal is un affected....
also the piezo does sound GREAT if you don't take the noise into account.

I could really use some help here, because no-one seems to know what the problem might be...

Thanks

Jon

**crywolf71** · 03-24-2008, 12:12 PM

I had a similar problem with my new Axis SS.
A guitartech found the problem was in one of the string saddles. With more stringpressure on the saddle the piezo worked fine. He pusched the wire from the saddle toward the neck en the noise disappeared. I works fine now.