• Ernie Ball
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magic

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My Majesty guitar arrived on June 7th and I absolutely love it. Since the Majesty has much more complex technology than your average guitar I was concerned that something might go wrong with the internal electronics and it appears that as of July 2nd something catastrophic happened. Basically the guitar is "dead", meaning, no sound comes out when I want it to. I'm hopeful this is something really easy and "dumb" on my part so I look forward to chatting with Ernie Ball support. Here is what appears to be happening...

There is a feature that allows the guitar to be switched between mono and stereo modes. You toggle between these modes by holding down the Piezo volume button and waiting 7-10 seconds. When you do this, the guitar "mutes" so no sound comes out while she's making the transition between stereo/mono modes. Once the transition completes, the sound should come back on. That is how I understand this feature is supposed to work. I never had occasion to switch between modes so I have not tested this feature first hand.

In any case, my guitar behaves the exact opposite way. The guitar behaves as though she thinks "mute mode" is normal audio mode and that the the normal audio mode is now the temporary "transition" state. When I press and hold the Piezo button I do hear the guitar (when she's supposed to be muted) and when I release the button the volume goes dead again (when she's supposed to be heard again). So long as I hold the button down she sounds fine, as soon as I release the button she goes mute.

Once I talk with the Ernie Ball support folks and discover the root cause I'll update this thread so that if anyone else runs into these symptoms this post will help you troubleshoot and better understand what's going on.

Thank you everyone who has responded to my post with helpful suggestions. I found the troubleshooting advice from the group most helpful. If not for you all I would not have thought to test the stereo/mono switching. Others who have similar issues (hopefully I'm the only one) may want to perform these steps:

1. Plug in a different guitar and confirm that your gear is set up properly and functioning.
1. Change Your Batteries: Be sure that you have fresh batteries and confirm or rule out "power" as the problem.
2. Try switching between stereo/mono: Perform the steps I described above and see if this makes a difference.

I'm hopeful that there is some kind of master "reset" routine I can do myself rather than have to ship her back to the factory for fixing. Either way will update the forum once I learn what's going on and have a solution.
 
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QuietSpike

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At first listen, it sounds like a battery issue--- if you leave your Majesty plugged into your amp/rig, it will drain your battery.

I'm sure you checked this, but are you sure the battery you replaced it with was fresh?

Also, I'm quite confident EBMM customer service will be all over you shortly. They will advise your best course of action. GL.
 

KEOKI

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Mine went dead last night during a set of the second of two gigs. No warning, no flashing amber light. I was watching for the flashing amber light because the guitar has been used a lot since purchase and the batteries should have been low. I WAS able to recover. I removed and reinserted the TRS (stereo) cord from the guitar and only then did the amber light begin flashing. I was able to finish the set without the usual weak battery symptoms and changed the batteries on the break without incident. Looks like you have done a good job of trouble shooting. Going over everything again can't hurt. To include re-cycling the mono/stereo function using the piezo volume knob. Good luck. Hope you don't have to return your guitar.
 

dibart77

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Someone else had this exact issue and the replacement battery they installed was dead. I would recommend you double-check the battery with battery tester (every guitarist should have one in their gig bag). If it's NOT the battery, Customer Service is the way to go.


 

magic

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How do you recycle the mono/stero function

Mine went dead last night during a set of the second of two gigs. No warning, no flashing amber light. I was watching for the flashing amber light because the guitar has been used a lot since purchase and the batteries should have been low. I WAS able to recover. I removed and reinserted the TRS (stereo) cord from the guitar and only then did the amber light begin flashing. I was able to finish the set without the usual weak battery symptoms and changed the batteries on the break without incident. Looks like you have done a good job of trouble shooting. Going over everything again can't hurt. To include re-cycling the mono/stereo function using the piezo volume knob. Good luck. Hope you don't have to return your guitar.

I was surprised that my Majesty did not come with an owner's manual or user guide. As a result, I'm not sure how to reset the mono/stereo function. How exactly do you do this? I swapped out the batteries with recharged rechargeables first and then tried fresh copper tops as well. No luck. Was sure they were inserted correctly, etc. so I am 99.9% certain it's not a battery issue. I did leave the guitar plugged in accidentally for a few days (I have a wireless system I use at the house so it's easy to hang her up and forget she's plugged in). So perhaps if the batteries drain completely while plugged in the mono/stereo thing becomes an issue?
 

KEOKI

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Check out FAQ, "Can I run my Majesty in stereo". The basics are you hold the piezo volume knob down (for like 20-30 seconds) and look for the blue light to flash. Once mono, twice stereo. You can cycle back and forth.
Did the guitar go dead while in use? Or was it dead when you picked it up to use it? Did the guitar ever woke after you let completely discharge ?
 

magic

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Check out FAQ, "Can I run my Majesty in stereo". The basics are you hold the piezo volume knob down (for like 20-30 seconds) and look for the blue light to flash. Once mono, twice stereo. You can cycle back and forth.
Did the guitar go dead while in use? Or was it dead when you picked it up to use it? Did the guitar ever woke after you let completely discharge ?

Thanks for the details. Will give it a try. To answer your questions:

1. The guitar was dead when I picked it up to use it.
2. I presume the batteries were dead but am not 100% certain. In any case, the guitar has not woke since, except for the fraction of a second when I insert/remove the cord I can hear sound very briefly.
 

magic

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Yes - a mono cord. Was working great with the same cord. Tried different mono cords and no luck. I don't own a stereo cord but will pick one up.
 

magic

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Tried resetting mono/stereo feature

Thanks again for the suggestions. I read about how to switch from mono to stereo and that has not fixed the issue. Here's what happens:

1. Insert cable - blue light comes on then goes off.
2. Pull out cable - blue light comes on goes off. Amber light flashes once and then goes off.
3. Pushing in the Piezo button has no affect on lights at all no matter how long I push the button.

Batteries verified good, fully charged, and inserted correctly. Will update the thread after I hear from the EB crew on Monday or as soon as an update is available. Thank you all who have assisted.
 

Kenji20022

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Sorry I can't offer up much advice, don't own a Majesty (yet ;)) but I can offer some insight to Customer Service. They're pretty awesome, if you're the first owner and it's within it's first year of purchase you don't have to worry about shipping costs if they can't help you over the phone.

If I've ever had an issue where they needed to take care of it themselves, they covered the back and forth shipping costs and did everything very quickly. Nothing but good things to say about the guys over there, call them up and you'll most likely speak to either Billy, AJ, or Jacob.
 

magic

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Jul 5, 2014
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Sorry I can't offer up much advice, don't own a Majesty (yet ;)) but I can offer some insight to Customer Service. They're pretty awesome, if you're the first owner and it's within it's first year of purchase you don't have to worry about shipping costs if they can't help you over the phone.

If I've ever had an issue where they needed to take care of it themselves, they covered the back and forth shipping costs and did everything very quickly. Nothing but good things to say about the guys over there, call them up and you'll most likely speak to either Billy, AJ, or Jacob.

Good to know they have excellent customer service. All I could find in my cursory search was that buyer had to pay shipping. I did not know this only applies if no longer under warranty. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed quickly. I've quickly become addicted to this guitar and am really bummed that she's out of order at the moment. I picked up the red one. Presuming I have to send it in, if they then offer a replacement guitar I'd probably go with the blue or white instead since those would show off the cool carbon fiber top a little better :)

I also presume that batteries are needed for my Majesty no matter what, and not just for the Piezo, right? Meaning no sound will come out at all if batteries are dead. It's not just Piezo that requires power, since the switches and nobs are digital I think.
 

magic

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Jul 5, 2014
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I've troubleshot this further and here's what I've noticed:

1. Plug in guitar cord - blue light comes on.
2. Hold down Piezo volume button while blue light is on and keep holding.
3. Blue light flashes goes off, then light flashes on/off amber color

So long as I hold the button down I can hear the guitar, which suggests that the batteries are working fine. But as soon as I either let go of the button or flip any switch, the guitar goes dead. This is definitely behaving like an electronic issue and not a battery or user error problem. This guitar sounds and plays amazingly, so I'm looking forward to Ernie Ball fixing it.

Once I talk with the Ernie Ball support folks and discover the root cause I'll update this thread so that if anyone else runs into these symptoms this post will help you troubleshoot and better understand what's going on.
 
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peterd79

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Customer service is top notch and they WILL take care of you...

my experience last monday... i needed a schematic for my 20th...

I emailed them at 10:15 - did not realized i emailed ernie ball support (not musicman)
I got a reply at 10:27 - Pete - i forwarded your message to Musicman and they'll take care of you (paraphrasing)
at 11:00 i got an email from Billy with the schematics and i was on my way...

Less than an hour went by and i had an answer to my question with a solution that got my guitar back up and running.
 

decreebass

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Nov 6, 2013
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Mililani, HI
Someone else had this exact issue and the replacement battery they installed was dead. I would recommend you double-check the battery with battery tester (every guitarist should have one in their gig bag). If it's NOT the battery, Customer Service is the way to go.



I'm that guy. It sounds like you have the EXACT same issue I had. I had accidentally put a dead battery in with two fresh batteries thinking I had replaced the whole set. If you don't have a battery tester, replace ALL three batteries with fresh batteries and you should be golden. It was my rookie mistake. It is unfortunate that there is little to no warning that the guitar is about to die, though.
 

KEOKI

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Jan 28, 2014
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Orlando
Q: What does the red light on the battery hatch signify?
A: The red light should blink once when the instrument is turned on or off. When in use, the light should remain off until the batteries start to get close to end of life. Once they get close, the light will start blinking and there is about 3-4 hours left of live play. At this point, make sure you are not going to be "mid-gig" when they reach end of life! Also, after upgrading the firmware and performing the first power cycle, the memory will update for about 5-10 minutes, and during this time the battery will remain lit. Lastly, be sure to change out all 3 batteries during replacement!!

This is quoted from the Game Changer FAQ. The game changer appears to use the 3AA battery power that the Majesty. And it reportedly uses the game changer digital switching in the Majesty. I did not get the "3-4" hour warning I was expecting when my Majesty quit mid song. Too bad that little feature could not have been bestowed upon the Majesty.
 
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