MusicMan Majesty piezzo problem

[Desmoquattro]

Hello all.
I'm Julien, from France, and am 37 year old.
I bought a MusicMan Majesty, 6 string, color silver lining, 1 month ago. It is of course new and from an authorized dealer.
Guitar has been working fine since then, until yesterday evening. During our usual gig with the band, I noticed that when on the piezzo only position, strange buzz and hums would come out from the amp, and that the buzz was amplificated and changing when touching the trem or trem bar with my hand.
I also noticed by investigating further that the piezzo sounded absolutely distorted on at least one of the strings, others seem fine (except the buzz when touching the trem.)
I know that the logical answer would be to send it back for repair, but I live in France and I wouldn't want to get through the hassle of shipping a guitar overseas, waiting for weeks, for a guitar I paid 4000 Euros one month ago.
So, was wondering, any known issue ? Any idea ? any solution ?

 

[Magic Jason]

Change les piles!

 

[beej]

Hah! Yes that. Are you plugged into two different amps at the same time (like an amp and the PA)? The buzz/hum could simply be a ground loop.

 

[Desmoquattro]

I already did this. Moreover, if we forget about the buzz (which is a problem of course) I doubt it would cause only one of the strings sounding bad, no ?

 

[Desmoquattro]

No, i'm plugged in only a single amp, and i repeat, the problem was not there before yesterday and nothing changed.

 

[Antho]

I had similar issue : distorted piezzo. I changed the batteries and piezzo sound came back just as the first day I had mine!

Antho

 

[beej]

You should contact your dealer- they're paid to help you out here.

 

[Desmoquattro]

Hello again.
This has been kinda sorted. My dealer (Steel Music in Toulon, south of France) has been indeed very helpful and when he tested my Majesty he found out that the piezzo captor (crystal ?) on the G string (lol) was faulty.
He agreed to cancel the sale of my Silver Lining Majesty (it was still as brand new as it had played only a couple hours), took it back in stock, refunded me the full price new, and I added the missing amount of money needed to buy the Arctic Dream Majesty he had in stock new.
So now I'm left with a great Majesty 6 Arctic Dream, and he will deal himself with the warranty of the Silver Lining he took back from me, as it appears it could be long since we are in France.
And I prefer the Arctic Dream color, so i'm pleased

 

[Desmoquattro]

Hello again... now, one more problem I'm afraid.
My new Arctic Dream Majesty works fine, no problem with piezzo or sound, but I have only had it since my last post (so 11 days), played it only 5 hours or so, and as almost everyone the black chrome has started to peel off the trem where the palm rests (half of the plating has gone, trem cover is now half chrome and half black chrome... horrible). To be precise : i'm VERY careful with my gear (my John Petrucci Ibanez JPM100 P1 bought in 1996 is still as new !!!), and I don't sweat from my hands.
I find it highly unacceptable : once again, this is a 4500 Euro guitar, I'm on my second one after the first one had its piezzo faulty, and it only lasts a few days (and only a couple hours of playing) before the first problem occurs. I'm wondering what's next now : a crack somewhere ? A broken neck overnight ?
I sent a mail to CS to see what is possible to do, but I'm seriously starting to feel ripped off.

 

[stonedoubt]

pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[Desmoquattro]

no problem, will post one tonight when i reach home. Regarding the 'did not happen' thing, I think you should consider gathering information about how many persons are complaining about this chrome black peeling off.
Anyway, thank you still

 

[Desmoquattro]

Okay, so here are the proofs.
You can clearly see the area where the black chrome has peeled off to just become chrome. That's UGLY, and not normal on a guitar this price tag. Oh, and of course, don't ask me to try and clean it with a cloth, it's already been cleaned and these are NOT due to a difference in dirt.
Also attached are pics of my 1996 Ibanez John Petrucci P1 (bought it brand new, i'm the first and only owner)... as you can see, i'm a VERY cautious person (and I took the pics as it is out of its case, didn't even clean it before). It has no sign of wear, no dent at all, no scratch at all after 20 years, a tremendous number of hours of playing, gigs and live shows, whereas the Majesty has some after 2 weeks and 5 hours playing at home !!!!! Very unhappy right now. Especially after the first one that had faulty piezzo.
Still waiting for the CS reply though, I'm sure they will provide me with a solution. I hope so.

 

[WillyD]

PM Sent!

 

[Joe Rumble]

Desmoquattro (I love Ducati's ), I had the same thin black chrome coating start to wear off on my Majesty & the same thing happened just got worse the more I played it. I too find it highly unacceptable that a new $AU5500 guitar has a poorer hardware finish plating than my Ibanez guitars as well. I have a Mystic Dream JP7 and the logo is wearing away off the headstock...now the bridge palm rest & whammy bar on my Majesty. Come on guys...you claim to be the best...for the money I paid for these two guitars I expect perfection & longevity.

I've since used a little metal polish and polished out the remaining black chrome on my palm rest & whammy bar so they're now just chrome. I'm waiting for the peg heads on my tuners & control knobs to start fading with use as well. Not good guys...especially not at the level you're pitching these guitars at.

 

[beej]

Have you tried contacting the customer service folks?

 

[Joe Rumble]

Hi Beej,
Thanks for the reply...I'm only a new guy here and the point I was trying to make that didn't quite come out right in my post was that these guitars are a high end product and they retail for huge money here in Australia.

My JP7 is out of warranty and I bought my Majesty in slightly used but in unmarked condition apart from the bridge palm rest and trem arm, it was cheaper than a new one but still very expensive. I don't think I have any warranty entitlements with a used instrument.

When I bought it I noticed the flaw & unbeknown to my dealer or myself, they told me it was just a little oxidation & should clean up with a bit of a polish & elbow grease. So I got out my mild metal polish and a soft microfibre cloth & started polishing. Alas it started to polish out the finish so I just finished it off rather than leave it because it looked cheap, ugly and embarrassingly unsightly for such a high end instrument had I stopped.

It cleaned up to bare chrome quite nicely to be honest, but that's not the point....I was still bummed out as an owner who has spent good money on high end products that this had happened in the first place. It simply shouldn't especially for a company such as EBMM that boasts so openly about the absolute quality and minute attention to detail of their products...well I have 2 examples from 2 purchases where this has not been the case. I've also been reading from others here that the replacement palm rests have been suffering the same fate so quite frankly I'm hesitant to spend money on replacement parts where the same thing will more than likely happen again.

I love the guitars don't get me wrong, playability & sound are beyond incredible, but to just accept that these things should be expected & fob off the production flaws as "it's making it yours" & "unique" is just bollocks...maybe on a $6-800 cheapie...not on niche flagship products.

I'll add pics of the fully polished out parts shortly...it really doesn't look that bad but you can still make out the difference.

Best regards...Joe

 

[beej]

Joe, my point was that your first post on the forum was to complain about prices and quality control, rather than reaching out to MM to see if they could help you out.

 

[JamieCrain]

The black plating wearing off is a known issue and appears many times in this forum. It happened to me on Day 1 of owning the guitar. Your best bet is to contact CS and ask them to send a new bridge cover out. Or, as others have done, polish the rest off. If you check your vol, tone and piezo pots you may see the same issue. I think EBMM should have changed the finish by now on newer models, but it seems not.

 

[Dead-Eye]

The black plating wearing off is a known issue and appears many times in this forum. It happened to me on Day 1 of owning the guitar. Your best bet is to contact CS and ask them to send a new bridge cover out. Or, as others have done, polish the rest off. If you check your vol, tone and piezo pots you may see the same issue. I think EBMM should have changed the finish by now on newer models, but it seems not.

Doesn't that mean that a replacement bridge will also start wearing on day one?

 

[JamieCrain]

Doesn't that mean that a replacement bridge will also start wearing on day one?

Yep. Almost certainly.