Cutlass HT Volume Drop Outs

[KFC]

Hello all,

I bought an HT back in March - I absolutely love this guitar. Smooth as butter!
Recently, I've been having an issue with volume cutting out completely. This happens most often when I put the guitar down for any period of time. For example, carrying it to a gig, I plug it into my Quad Cortex - no volume. I reseated the cables and reboot the QC, but still no volume. I've found the only way to remedy the issue is to remove the battery from the guitar and reseat it. This has now happened 3 or 4 times now.

This weekend, it changed a bit. I was playing a set, and the guitar was fine. We went on break - no one touched a thing while we were sitting at a table next to our gear, set the guitar in the guitar stand, came back - again, no volume. This time, it was through my pedal board. I checked all the cables, and again, the only thing that cleared it up was reseating the battery (this was after changing the battery before our gig). I use a battery tester, and everything shows fine - perfect 9v output - traditional battery (not lithium).

I've tried many things to troubleshoot this - tracing cables, checking pedal power, checking QC firmware issues, I can't seem to find anything. Someone had reached out to me via facebook about a month ago asking if I was having any problems - they had also heard that volume drop outs were a challenge for other HT owners.
Wondering if someone could point me in the right direction on anything I may be missing here. I love this guitar.

I also bought it a Sweetwater and reached out to their Guitar Support line and they had no records of issues with the HT. I'm also not seeing anything obvious in this forum. I understand the electronics is required for the push-push db boost. Just strange this just started happening around two months ago.
Thanks in advance to any assistance or recommendations.

 

[Iperfungus]

Hi there!

I had the same issue with my Luke III and, if this applies to your Cutlass as well, you can fix it very easily.
It's not a pickups issue: most probably, the battery moves a little in the holder and looses contact with pins.

I also started thinking about everything but the battery...cables, pedalbord, defective female jack connector or push-push volume...
Then, before I started doing something stupid like replacing the jack connector or volume pot, someone said to me "it's a battery issue"....and that was right!

In my case, the battery had indeed poor contact with pins in the holder...I just used a folded piece of paper, used like a shim, that I put at battery bottom, between battery and the holder's clip that keeps battery in place.
In this way, when I close the battery in the holder, the piece of paper pushes battery down enough to ensure a good contact with pins and making the battery not moving inside the holder.
Problem solved, happy me!
And, hopefully, happy you as well.

 

[KFC]

Hi there!

I had the same issue with my Luke III and, if this applies to your Cutlass as well, you can fix it very easily.
It's not a pickups issue: most probably, the battery moves a little in the holder and looses contact with pins.

I also started thinking about everything but the battery...cables, pedalbord, defective female jack connector...
Then, before I started doing something stupid like replacing the jack connector, someone said to me "it's a battery issue"....and that was right!

In my case, the battery had indeed poor contact with pins in the holder...I just used a folded piece of paper, used like a shim, that I put at battery bottom, between battery and the holder's clip that keeps battery in place.
In this way, when I close the battery in the holder, the piece of paper pushes battery down enough to ensure a good contact with pins and making the battery not moving inside the holder.
Problem solved, happy me!
And, maybe, happy you as well.

Ah. I never thought of it as the battery not seating well, as the battery holder is fairly well built. Looked like it locked it in pretty solidly, but does make sense as the guitar is hanging vertically v horizontally when I play it. Let me give that a try and see if it helps.

 

[Iperfungus]

Ah. I never thought of it as the battery not seating well, as the battery holder is fairly well built. Looked like it locked it in pretty solidly, but does make sense as the guitar is hanging vertically v horizontally when I play it. Let me give that a try and see if it helps.

Me too I didn't think about a simple battery issue, at the first issue's occurrences.
The holder itself is solid and good, probably just the pins are "too far" from where battery sits and you've to push it down with a shim a little more than holder does.
In such situation, since we usually move the guitar a lot while playing, if battery moves a little in the holder, it can loose contact with pins and that's it.
This is something that can be easily tested and, if it works also in your case, it's a quick and unexpensive solution.

 

[DrKev]

Ah. I never thought of it as the battery not seating well, as the battery holder is fairly well built. Looked like it locked it in pretty solidly, but does make sense as the guitar is hanging vertically v horizontally when I play it. Let me give that a try and see if it helps.

Yes, it turns out that not all battery manufacturers make their 9V batteries exactly the same length. To avoid a too tight a fit with the slightly larger ones, the slightly smaller ones can be a little loose. There is a capacitor in the circuit which maintains voltage through brief disconnections and eliminates any poppping or clicking noises and so most users never have a problem. But there can still be rare instances where dropouts can happen.

I use a small piece of foam on the base of the battery. You know the foam sheets they use inside hard cases for camera equipment? The ones with the little cubes/rectangles that you pull out to the shape you need? I love that stuff. It's perfect for muting tremolo springs too. I have three sprinsg in my guitars and I just stuff a cube in between pairs of springs. Reduces unwanted noise at high gain, palm mutes are as dead as can be with no unwanted ringing, and no effect on tremolo motion or flutter.

 

[KFC]

Yes, it turns out that not all battery manufacturers make their 9V batteries exactly the same length. To avoid a too tight a fit with the slightly larger ones, the slightly smaller ones can be a little loose. There is a capacitor in the circuit which maintains voltage through brief disconnections and eliminates any poppping or clicking noises and so most users never have a problem. But there can still be rare instances where dropouts can happen.

I use a small piece of foam on the base of the battery. You know the foam sheets they use inside hard cases for camera equipment? The ones with the little cubes/rectangles that you pull out to the shape you need? I love that stuff. It's perfect for muting tremolo springs too. I have three sprinsg in my guitars and I just stuff a cube in between pairs of springs. Reduces unwanted noise at high gain, palm mutes are as dead as can be with no unwanted ringing, and no effect on tremolo motion or flutter.

Thanks, I found a pretty solid piece of cardboard that I cut a few pieces out of and will pack my gig bag with them. Seems to be working ok so far. Fingers crossed!

 

[Iperfungus]

Let us know!

 

[KFC]

Well, a couple of rehearsals so far, and the cardboard worked like a champ! Thanks for all the replies. Can't believe it was something this simple, but explains just about every issue I was having. Appreciate the info!

 

[Iperfungus]

Well, a couple of rehearsals so far, and the cardboard worked like a champ! Thanks for all the replies. Can't believe it was something this simple, but explains just about every issue I was having. Appreciate the info!

Fucking good!
As I wrote in another thread for a similar issue with a Luke III, it looks to be a common issue with an easy and unexpensive solution.
Other people facing it, maybe will read here and find the way to fix it.
That's why we're here, sharing experiences.

Enjoy your guitar!