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Post subject: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:53 pm
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Location: Los Angeles, USA
Customer: I have no sound out of my guitar.....

Me: Okay lets open er up and see what we got..

[pull off control cover]
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Me: :shock: and :lol:

3 hours later....

Image


Problems found..... bad solder joint and trace on the circuit board, a signal + wire from one of the pup switches soldered directly to a pot ground, circuit board itself shorting to a pot, bad pot. Fun fun. And this is what happens when a DIY newb gets in over his/her head. It goes to me so I can commit suicide trouble shooting an almost endless chain of issues. Normally it would have been a quicky but I have no schematics for that circuit board or wiring at all. Seems that board is some kind of mid boost but when shorting out and messed up seems will not have any sound at all....imagine that :roll:

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Post subject: Re: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:37 pm
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I don't mind fixing guitars and amps where someone's tried to do a wiring job and hit a problem. At least they've tried to learn how to do it then handed it over when they know they're out of their depth.

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Post subject: Re: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:54 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
I don't mind fixing guitars and amps where someone's tried to do a wiring job and hit a problem. At least they've tried to learn how to do it then handed it over when they know they're out of their depth.


I am all for someone trying something themselves which is how I learned. But when I see an attempt where it is so blatantly obvious the DIY'er was totally clueless I have to wonder what they were thinking. I myself come across certain things I "feel" I can do myself but realize I am going to cause more damage then good if I don't at least research it or get advice from a pro before attempting. On the flip side it is business for me and every failed attempt is a sale. I just wish he would have at least asked me to have a look before randomly soldering wires anywhere his "instinct" told him to and damaging circuit boards.. and then want me to fix it without a schematic. All in all no real biggie but it turned what could have been a 1/2 hour T/S into 3 hours of hell wondering why every time I found a problem and repaired it I still had no sound.

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Post subject: Re: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:36 pm
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ebaysux wrote:
On the flip side it is business for me and every failed attempt is a sale.


Broom-and-dustpan jobs pay for my cigarettes.

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:54 am
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This reminds of the time I took my home built Tele to a local luthier to add an "After burner" volume boost cercuit. When I to pick up the guitar I noticed that it didn't work. I was baffled. The luthier tells me, "Well this sort of this is meant for active electonics."

I talked to the guy who gave me the Afterburner, and he says that it's BS, and I agree with him. After tracing the cercuit, we realized that he completed "a cercuit," just not one with the Afterburner in the loop. There's a reason it's called a cercuit.

Well after a bit of work, we soldered the Afterburner in the loop and everything worked wonderfully.


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Post subject: Re: Another day at the "office"...
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:19 pm
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paris wrote:
This reminds of the time I took my home built Tele to a local luthier to add an "After burner" volume boost cercuit. When I to pick up the guitar I noticed that it didn't work. I was baffled. The luthier tells me, "Well this sort of this is meant for active electonics."

I talked to the guy who gave me the Afterburner, and he says that it's BS, and I agree with him. After tracing the cercuit, we realized that he completed "a cercuit," just not one with the Afterburner in the loop. There's a reason it's called a cercuit.

Well after a bit of work, we soldered the Afterburner in the loop and everything worked wonderfully.


The best way to deal with that kind of stuff (especially if you don't have a schematic or do but don't know how to read it) is to find a picture or another guitar with the same setup that actually works right and use that as a "template". Seems to work better then just guessing lol. 99% of the jobs I get with electrical problems are due to mis-wiring by those who thought they could succeed by guessing. Current only flows where we guide it to..it is not smart enough to get around peoples mess ups and figure out for itself how to complete the circuit. And considering most people do not even have the most basic electrical knowledge to know an open circuit from a short..I see some pretty scary stuff.

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