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Post subject: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG Strat?
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:00 am
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Okay I bit the bullet on a Fender/Roland G5-A VG Strat. Sweet guitar, with ONE BIG CAVEAT.

The battery life is the bane of this instrument.

Anyone know a way to craft a power source cord to replace the batteries in one of these things?


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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:29 am
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I have not seen the wiring for this guitar, so I am making some assumptions.

Typically, guitars with an internal 9 volt battery use a stereo output jack that turns the battery circuit on and off when the cord plug is inserted or removed. Depending on the circuit, you may have to rewire the jack to bypass the battery or rewire it so the battery would be in parallel with the external source. You would then need to use a stereo cable with stereo plugs at each end. At the far end (maybe your pedal board) you would need to build a small box that the guitar cable would plug into. You would have to wire the box with a stereo jack that the guitar cable plugs into and a regular mono jack that feeds the guitar signal to the next box in the chain. You would also need a power plug on the new box to plug a 9 volt supply into. The third wire (power wire) in the guitar cable would then be wired to the external power plug. Everything would be grounded to the guitar cable ground.

Again, without see the wiring for the guitar, I make no guarantees that this would work and I really don't have the time to draw up a schematic. Personally, I wouldn't waste the time doing this and would just keep a fresh supply of batteries on hand and make sure to unplug the guitar when it is not being used.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:41 am
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Thanks for your ideas. Actually, the guitar requires 4 AA batteries. These will give you between 2-5 hours use time. Often, a gig will last longer than this.


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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:10 am
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Then I suggest you keep several spares in your pocket. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 1:56 pm
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You could use 4x1.2V 3000mAh NimH rechargeable.
Add a switch to turn off the circuit when using the guitar as a normal electric(it drowns the battery even if you don´t use the electronics when a plug is inserted).

All the best,
Robin

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:12 pm
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Robinstrat wrote:
You could use 4x1.2V 3000mAh NimH rechargeable.
Add a switch to turn off the circuit when using the guitar as a normal electric(it drowns the battery even if you don´t use the electronics when a plug is inserted).

All the best,
Robin


Total of 4.8 vs 6 volts. The electronics may not like that. I would stick with high quality alkaline batteries.

+1 on the switch, though.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:34 pm
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It accepts either alk or nimh.

No, I'm looking for a power cord. Got to be a way to make one.

Thanks.


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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:54 pm
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dennyblew wrote:
It accepts either alk or nimh.

No, I'm looking for a power cord. Got to be a way to make one.

Thanks.


I told you exactly how to make a power cord. Its up to you to find a 6 volt power supply. Good luck.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:40 pm
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bluesky636 wrote:
dennyblew wrote:
It accepts either alk or nimh.

No, I'm looking for a power cord. Got to be a way to make one.

Thanks.


I told you exactly how to make a power cord. Its up to you to find a 6 volt power supply. Good luck.

The owner's manual on this guitar is very specific about not mucking around with the electronics. Remember...this guitar reverts to a standard Stratocaster when on the 'N' setting [out of the modeling software]. Somewhere in these Forums, in the matter of the VG Strats may be another discussion on external power supplies. As Blue Sky indicated, he's only making some assumptions. Don't mess around with that board unless you really, really, know what you're up to. I use rechargeable batteries for mine, and always remove the cable from the guitar when not in use. The same goes for my Clapton with respect to the cable. The Clapton uses a 9V. I haven't seen those in rechargeables to the best of my knowledge and belief. I remove batteries from all my gear when they are going to be out of use for a time. Leakings batteries make expensive gear replacements.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:43 am
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I hear you. I'm not qualified to do it. I have written letters to both Fender and Roland requesting a power cord.

Yeah, I know. They'll look at it, laugh, and toss it in the trash. But if enough nobodies like me complained they might begin to think about it.

The Wishful Thinker


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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:33 am
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dennyblew wrote:
I hear you. I'm not qualified to do it. I have written letters to both Fender and Roland requesting a power cord.

In the many discussions we've had regarding the VG concept, the idea of a power cord has been set forth. There must be a rationale, in their concept of the guitar, as to why they chose not to incorporate a low voltage external linkage into the circuitry's design. When you consider the guitar, as a stage/performance instrument, it would be difficult to have such setup using a wireless transmitter, for example, or moving around the stage. If you're pretty much 'stay put' in the band's set up, it could serve.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:27 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
dennyblew wrote:
I hear you. I'm not qualified to do it. I have written letters to both Fender and Roland requesting a power cord.

In the many discussions we've had regarding the VG concept, the idea of a power cord has been set forth. There must be a rationale, in their concept of the guitar, as to why they chose not to incorporate a low voltage external linkage into the circuitry's design. When you consider the guitar, as a stage/performance instrument, it would be difficult to have such setup using a wireless transmitter, for example, or moving around the stage. If you're pretty much 'stay put' in the band's set up, it could serve.


Ignoring wireless connections for a moment, power cord design is quite simple and easy. I designed a remote power pack (batteries) back in the late 70's almost exactly as I described above (I used a multiconductor shielded cable with DIN connectors at each end between the guitar and remote battery box) for a Les Paul copy that I designed and built an active preamp and bass/treble control for using op amps. Everything fit in the guitar except for the battery. It worked perfectly. If wall wart power supplies were available back then, changing to that would have been simple.

Even with a wireless transmitter, a simple battery pack using long life (Lithium or other type) batteries could be done the same way and worn on the belt or strap.

Tapping into the power circuit of the guitar is easy. Find the power leads from the battery pack. No big deal.

The limiting factor with this guitar is the fact that it uses a 6 volt supply vice 9 volts. Not a standard value for guitar pedal board power supplies. However, here is a cheap 6 volt, 500ma wall wart that should be sufficient:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... mpaign=pla

That should work fine for a pedal board mounted power supply/interface box as I described in my original post.

So why doesn't Fender/Roland provide such a cable and power supply? Most likely lack of a market as most people seem to be willing to live with batteries. Why they used a 6 volt battery supply instead of the more common 9 volt seems dumb to me.

So with all this information, the OP should be able to go out and build his own power supply and cable for less than, oh say, $50. Probably way less.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:26 pm
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DISCLAIMER: This is all guesswork and I assume no responsibility if you wreck your guitar.

Let's think ... four 1.5 Volt cells will probably provide almost 6.5 Volts when new so I'd assume the guitar requires 5 Volts for the electronics. You could check that by running it on three brand new batteries, that should give you nearly 5V.

PSU's providing regulated 5 Volts are widely available, all you'd need to do is connect it (the right way round!) to the battery compartment and add some kind of socket somewhere on the guitar body to plug it in. I'd make sure it's a well-regulated supply as PSU noise could be a problem. Most cheap PSU's aren't properly regulated, they're just rectified and filtered but a 5 Volt regulator is very easy to construct. The only unknown would be the current draw which I'd imagine would be fairly substantial to drain batteries so rapidly. Maybe a couple of 9 Volt batteries in parallel with a 5 Volt regulator and a heatsink would work?

As everyone's been saying, the Roland people did a bad job on the VG electronics. They knew the power requirement, they've got considerable experience with designing battery powered musical equipment, why did they build such a turkey?

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:36 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
DISCLAIMER: This is all guesswork and I assume no responsibility if you wreck your guitar.

Let's think ... four 1.5 Volt cells will probably provide almost 6.5 Volts when new so I'd assume the guitar requires 5 Volts for the electronics. You could check that by running it on three brand new batteries, that should give you nearly 5V.

PSU's providing regulated 5 Volts are widely available, all you'd need to do is connect it (the right way round!) to the battery compartment and add some kind of socket somewhere on the guitar body to plug it in. I'd make sure it's a well-regulated supply as PSU noise could be a problem. Most cheap PSU's aren't properly regulated, they're just rectified and filtered but a 5 Volt regulator is very easy to construct. The only unknown would be the current draw which I'd imagine would be fairly substantial to drain batteries so rapidly. Maybe a couple of 9 Volt batteries in parallel with a 5 Volt regulator and a heatsink would work?

As everyone's been saying, the Roland people did a bad job on the VG electronics. They knew the power requirement, they've got considerable experience with designing battery powered musical equipment, why did they build such a turkey?


Sorry. Very poor design requiring mods to the guitar body and two cables running to the guitar. Read my two posts describing how to do this with one cable and no body mods.

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Post subject: Re: ? Possible to craft a power source cord for a G5-A VG St
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:10 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
As everyone's been saying, the Roland people did a bad job on the VG electronics. They knew the power requirement, they've got considerable experience with designing battery powered musical equipment, why did they build such a turkey?

The question really should be..why didn't they provide what we're talking about in the second generation guitar. My guess is that they were trying to one-up the Line 6 guitar which is also none but a battery powered rig. Anyone have any knowledge of similar issues with that make?

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