Ascendpie
New member
Hello everyone,
I’m writing this message with tears in my eyes, to be honest. I finally managed to buy my dream guitar — something I’ve wanted since I was a kid. For 15 years, I’ve dreamed of owning one of John Petrucci’s Ernie Ball Music Man guitars. When I finally saved up enough, I ordered a Music Man Petrucci JP15 in Purple Nebula.
But… sadly, it arrived in very bad shape.
The first issue I noticed was the setup. The bridge saddles were angled extremely high, making the guitar almost impossible to play. That alone was odd, but not the end of the world.
I checked the case for tools, but there were none. It felt strange to receive such a premium instrument without any adjustment tools. Luckily, I had my own, but it still took me 2–3 hours to adjust everything because I was scared of damaging such an expensive guitar.
After I finally set it up, I plugged it into an amp — and immediately heard a loud, unpleasant buzzing noise coming from the pickups. I panicked, because I’ve never heard anything like that before. I tried another amp, then swapped cables, and when switching between guitars I realized the issue was definitely with the instrument.
Some friends suggested it might be the Piezo battery. Before opening the battery compartment, I noticed a piece of metal sticking out from one of the ends, which already felt wrong. When I opened it, the compartment felt like it was catching on something and took more force than expected. After removing the battery, I found scratches inside the compartment from a metal piece protruding from the housing. Putting the battery back didn’t fix anything.
So here I am… after 15 years of wanting a Music Man, I finally got one — but it doesn’t work.
My questions are: is this normal after paying 4000 euros on a brand new instrument to be like that ? Has Music Man’s QC gotten this bad? Does the Piezo system make this kind of noise on all of their guitars? I’m honestly heartbroken that at this price point this guitar feels so cheap made.... and don’t know what to do. At this point, I’ll most likely return the guitar…
PS: I am attaching everything here to hear and see the problem.
View attachment WhatsApp Video 2025-12-12 at 11.51.072.mp4
I’m writing this message with tears in my eyes, to be honest. I finally managed to buy my dream guitar — something I’ve wanted since I was a kid. For 15 years, I’ve dreamed of owning one of John Petrucci’s Ernie Ball Music Man guitars. When I finally saved up enough, I ordered a Music Man Petrucci JP15 in Purple Nebula.
But… sadly, it arrived in very bad shape.
The first issue I noticed was the setup. The bridge saddles were angled extremely high, making the guitar almost impossible to play. That alone was odd, but not the end of the world.
I checked the case for tools, but there were none. It felt strange to receive such a premium instrument without any adjustment tools. Luckily, I had my own, but it still took me 2–3 hours to adjust everything because I was scared of damaging such an expensive guitar.
After I finally set it up, I plugged it into an amp — and immediately heard a loud, unpleasant buzzing noise coming from the pickups. I panicked, because I’ve never heard anything like that before. I tried another amp, then swapped cables, and when switching between guitars I realized the issue was definitely with the instrument.
Some friends suggested it might be the Piezo battery. Before opening the battery compartment, I noticed a piece of metal sticking out from one of the ends, which already felt wrong. When I opened it, the compartment felt like it was catching on something and took more force than expected. After removing the battery, I found scratches inside the compartment from a metal piece protruding from the housing. Putting the battery back didn’t fix anything.
So here I am… after 15 years of wanting a Music Man, I finally got one — but it doesn’t work.
My questions are: is this normal after paying 4000 euros on a brand new instrument to be like that ? Has Music Man’s QC gotten this bad? Does the Piezo system make this kind of noise on all of their guitars? I’m honestly heartbroken that at this price point this guitar feels so cheap made.... and don’t know what to do. At this point, I’ll most likely return the guitar…
PS: I am attaching everything here to hear and see the problem.
View attachment WhatsApp Video 2025-12-12 at 11.51.072.mp4
