Dead Majesty!!!

[kgreenman21]

I purchased a black Majesty in August 2015 and it has been a daily driver for me. It has worked great up until today. First I noticed that my volume knob wasn't working properly. I'd turn it down completely and it would still produce sound. Next I switched to the piezo and turned down the piezo volume which produced no sound as expected. I switched back to the magnetic pickups and checked out the volume knob, but it still wasn't working. When I engaged the preamp, it produced a ton of feedback when the volume knob was maxed. So I decided to swap out the batteries. When I did, the blue light stayed on and no sound was produced. So I tried another set of new batteries with the same result. I tried one more fresh set and the blue light still stayed on with no sound. I tried holding down the piezo knob for 30 seconds and nothing happened. Note that the blue light even stayed on with the guitar unplugged as soon as I put the batteries in. After 5 minutes, the blue light turned off and I gave it another shot. I plugged in the cable and no lights even came on and still no sound. I swapped out more batteries and saw no lights and had no sounds. I've given up for the night. Has anyone seen this before? I've tried the mono to stereo switch numerous times to make sure stereo wasn't engaged as I'm playing through a mono cable. It looks like I'm just out of warranty which makes this seem like a $2700 mistake at this point. I've loved it until now.

 

[Gio_Force_One]

Give customer service a call they are extremely helpful.

 

[beej]

Sorry to hear you're having problems.

If it was my guitar, I'd call EBMM and ask their advice first, knowing that they'll help you out. But that's just me

 

[kgreenman21]

Thanks for the replies. I sent an email off to customer service. I'll provide updates. This is the last guitar I expected to have electronic problems with.

 

[KevTN]

Sorry man...Email is good but they are really good one the phone too... prob. the best i have dealt with.

 

[beej]

Keep in mind they're on Pacific time. They'll get back to you!

 

[tonechaser1]

You can also email customer service to have a technician call you back, as that's what I do. They are very good.

Sounds like you may have a wiring harness issue for which they can direct you on how to manually re-set it, for which I'm sure they will have you try first.

The Majesty wiring harness is very complicated, as I learned when my Majesty went completely dead. No symptoms like your's, mine worked great one day and was dead the next. My issue was caused by me mistakenly using re-chargable batteries which is a big No-No. Hopefully your Majesty is still under warranty. Mine wasn't but they were very generous in reducing all the costs to replace my wiring harness, and of course it came back set up perfectly.

Good luck!

 

[bhull]

My issue was caused by me mistakenly using re-chargable batteries which is a big No-No.

Not only that, but stay away from generic disposables. Cheapo generics are much more prone to leakage than name-brand.

Personally I stick with Duracell.

 

[kgreenman21]

So here is the response I got over email from customer service:
"If you are using alkaline let's try a reset. Plug a cable into the guitar. Remove the batteries. Leave the cable plugged in and the batteries out for 10 minutes. Reinstall batteries. Leave cable plugged in and you should get output. If this doesn't help let us know. Although you are outside of your warranty period we will still do what we can to help you out."

I tried the steps listed above and it's still dead. I've sent follow up emails, but I haven't received a response. I'll probably have to pick up the phone when I have a chance. Unfortunately, I'm out of warranty by 3 months. It's like they implanted a logic bomb in this thing or Murphy has reared his ugly head. I'm willing to tear it apart, but I'd need a schematic. I'm dreading the thought of having to send it back in and pay to have it repaired. It's like buying a Mercedes only to have the engine blow the day after the warranty expires.

 

[kgreenman21]

On a side note, I've only used Duracell or Energizer batteries in this thing, so that's been ruled out.

 

[tonechaser1]

Best case scenario is it could be as minor as a faulty battery box, as they advised me. But of course with my luck, it was the worst case scenario, a faulty wiring harness! Total cost of the repair was approximately $300.00 if I remember correctly, not including shipping.

I know it hurts, but I think your best bet is to send it in as they are very good with discounting the cost of parts and labor.

If you are going to try and work on it yourself, make sure to speak with a customer service technician as it's very important that the guitar be grounded before you open it up. I remember them being very specific about this when I spoke with them.

 

[kgreenman21]

Best case scenario is it could be as minor as a faulty battery box, as they advised me. But of course with my luck, it was the worst case scenario, a faulty wiring harness! Total cost of the repair was approximately $300.00 if I remember correctly, not including shipping.

I know it hurts, but I think your best bet is to send it in as they are very good with discounting the cost of parts and labor.

If you are going to try and work on it yourself, make sure to speak with a customer service technician as it's very important that the guitar be grounded before you open it up. I remember them being very specific about this when I spoke with them.

They followed up in another email suggesting that I send it in. They haven't gone over cost or estimates yet, but I'll see where that goes once we cross that bridge. At the end of the day, I just want it to work. Out of my 16 stringed instruments, it is my favorite.

 

[tonechaser1]

Your's definitely has different symptoms than mine did, so maybe you'll get lucky and it will be something minor. I know exactly how you feel though. My Majesty has been back to CA twice since I've owned it (almost two years), once under warranty and the other time out of warranty for the wiring harness. It's still the best guitar I have ever owned though and easily my number one, but also the most expensive guitar I have ever owned, especially considering the two trips back to CA. My Luke 3 is my number two. The one downside with such a feature rich guitar I guess is that there are more things that can break or malfunction. On the upside, your Majesty will come back completely set-up back to factory specs and they will carefully check everything else over. They will give you an estimate of the costs involved best-worst case scenarios before you ship it. Good luck!

 

[xjbebop]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. A couple of things to keep in mind:
-The Majesty series are high performance machines with leading edge technology. Unfortunately, this makes them a bit more fussy than dead simple, proven, old technology. * thank goodness they aren't like the early Gibby's 'robot tuner tech though!
-Think in Ferrari / Lambo terms. You wouldn't run regular gas and cheap tires on one of those. You have to give them special attention, proper regular maintenance, and use only qualified techs to work on them.
- CALL EBMM...you'll get much better & faster communications. A lot gets lost in translation (and time...) just relying on email.

 

[kgreenman21]

Their customer service has actually been pretty solid via email so far. They've already produced an RMA along with shipping instructions. They pretty much told me that if it's a software issue, they'll take care of it, but I'll have to pay for any hardware replacements. That's fair and expected. I just hope it doesn't require much, but we'll see. I'll let you all know of any updates. I am going to try one more reset tonight. Another tech provided a different set of instructions.

 

[frankencat]

Software?

 

[John C]

Software?

If I'm remembering correctly from when they came out the Majesty switching is Gamechanger technology but it's pre-set and you can't change it through software like you can on the Gamechanger. So I guess you could describe the Majesty as having a motherboard with software that controls the switching and the guitar.

 

[J0056]

kgreenman21,

Did you solve your problem for good? I have the same *EXACT* problem as you, 100% exact symptoms. Tried reset, new batteries, everything. Looks like I am bound to send the guitar back to MM. Warranty looks like it will apply. Curious on the final diagnostic and remedy for your guitar?

 

[josephjospeh]

Their customer service has actually been pretty solid via email so far. They've already produced an RMA along with shipping instructions. They pretty much told me that if it's a software issue, they'll take care of it, but I'll have to pay for any hardware replacements. That's fair and expected. I just hope it doesn't require much, but we'll see. I'll let you all know of any updates. I am going to try one more reset tonight. Another tech provided a different set of instructions.

Can you share this new set of instructions? I have exactly the same problem as yours and tried doing the first reset you mentioned but no luck.

Thanks!

 

[7enderbender]

Does anyone know how the technology used in the Majesty series compares to the JP15? And are the schematics for these available anywhere?
Frankly, I wouldn't want to rely on harnesses like this and would rather still consider pulling all this out and turning it into a dead simple passive circuit plus something that'll work with the piezo. I'm still very uncomfortable with the fact that I have to rely on batteries for basic tone and I don't need the boost (I've set mine to neutral at this point so I won't by mistake have it on for a clean setting which sounds awful).