Disconnect Luke III Boost?

[brianiac5150]

I LOVE MY EBMM LUKE III, however, have zero use for the boost. Is there a simple way to disconnect it without removing it altogether? I have the hardest time remembering to unplug my wireless after the few minutes I get to play, it sits for a period of time until I'm able to scrape a few precious minutes to play, pick it up, turn everything on and battery's dead. UGH!

I'd just like to not have it connected, at all. Possible?

 

[beej]

So the bigger issue is that you're not disconnecting the wireless from the jack when you're not playing. Keeping a plug in there completes the battery circuit, so the buffer is active all of the time, drawing current and draining the battery. You could disconnect the boost, yes, but that won't solve the problem.

In terms of disconnecting the boost ... if you still want to do this, you could probably remove the wires from the push/pull pot (make sure you cap them so they don't accidentally ground or contact one another). But unplugging the guitar will solve your problems

 

[brianiac5150]

So the bigger issue is that you're not disconnecting the wireless from the jack when you're not playing. Keeping a plug in there completes the battery circuit, so the buffer is active all of the time, drawing current and draining the battery. You could disconnect the boost, yes, but that won't solve the problem.

In terms of disconnecting the boost ... if you still want to do this, you could probably remove the wires from the push/pull pot (make sure you cap them so they don't accidentally ground or contact one another). But unplugging the guitar will solve your problems

Completely understand that is what is occurring and do appreciate your reply; however - as my only active guitar, it takes a lot to remember to remove the cable when sitting the guitar down. Almost 40 years of habit to break, as opposed to a simple, unused circuit modification. A simple, maybe even internal or jack-based switch would be nice.

How 'bout a Snark-like timer? No input for X = boost circuit (battery drain) off.

Countless pedals could benefit from this, as well.

Applicable here question: will removing the wires from the pot and (certainly) capping them not disrupt signal flow, as does simply removing the battery?

 

[beej]

Well it is what it is. Keeping a plug in there is going to drain the batteries. You could always pull the battery when you're done playing, but if you're doing to do that you might as well pull the cable out.

Interesting idea about the timer, but it would take additional current to sense signal input and run the timer. Plus there's a lot to go wrong (like cutting out on stage ...). It's Luke's guitar, so these features are a representation of what he wants.

Anyhow ... there are several revisions of the Luke wiring diagrams, so if you wanted to remove the boost you'd need to play with it a bit. If you have the wires on the pot, remove them and see. (Disconnecting them may actually turn the boost on, but it's pretty simple to tell.) If the wires are on the PCB near the pot, you'd need to do something similar.

If you really wanted, you could always wire the push/pull up so it disconnects the battery.

 

[tbonesullivan]

It seems you don't fully understand the Luke III. The battery does more than just the boost. It has a buffered output, and also compensates for volume differences in positions 2 and 4.

If there is no battery, there is no sound. Unless you want to completely rewire the guitar as a totally passive one, your only solution is to unplug cord from the jack. Seems a lot easier than installing some kind of switch to turn it off. I mean if you can't remember to unplug it, how are you going to remember to switch the guitar off?

 

[brianiac5150]

It seems you don't fully understand the Luke III. The battery does more than just the boost. It has a buffered output, and also compensates for volume differences in positions 2 and 4.

In this regard, you are 100% correct. I don't recall seeing that mentioned, albeit I could've looked directly over this and forgotten. Thanks for the input (hehe).

 

[Magic Jason]

To make a long story short : Just DON'T.

 

[ksandvik]

It takes some training to learn to remove the cable from the guitar after playing but it's doable. I even remove the cable when doing gigs between sets and put the guitar back to the case, seen enough craziness at gigs to make sure guitars are not exposed.

 

[tbonesullivan]

It takes some training to learn to remove the cable from the guitar after playing but it's doable. I even remove the cable when doing gigs between sets and put the guitar back to the case, seen enough craziness at gigs to make sure guitars are not exposed.

Having been playing active basses for some time, it's already ingrained to unplug the guitar when I'm done with it. Having a cable attached to the guitar is just a possibility for someone to trip on it and damage it, which would most likely be myself.