Short Circuit

[Ice Man]

I believe I have a short in my Power Nashville Tele. Immediately after buying it new, I put SD Vintage 54's with a SSL-2 in the middle and a Fender Custom 5 way switch. It sounds awesome! The first battery lasted over 6 months, but the last 2 have only lasted a week or 2. The only thing I've done to it recently was to remove the control plate to copy the switch part number so I could order another for my other Tele. I never leave it plugged in.
Any ideas how to procede?
Thanks

[ArtieToo]

Re: Short Circuit

You're probably going to have to do some old-fashioned "trouble-shooting" to find this one. You're also going to need a DMM. (meter)

Do you know how your Tele achieves its power switching? Normally, the output jack would be stereo, and power switching would be acheived by plugging in the cord. But on your Tele, it uses a stereo output jack to divide the passive and active p'ups, so I doubt thats how its done.

First, I would remove the battery, and place an ohmmeter across the battery terminals. (I mean the terminals on the guitar - not the battery itself.) Now, keep an eye on the meter, and see if there's any major meter change as you remove the control plate again. If there is, you've maybe pinched a wire somewhere. Once you have the control plate open, start wiggling wires and things, and look for meter movement.

Another thing you can do is measure the battery current while the guitar is "on" to see how much drain there is. The thing is, to measure current, the meter must be placed in series with the power. (battery) The easiest way to do this with a 9-volt, is to buy a 9-volt jack from Radio Shack. Carefully cut the little plastic holder in half, so you can physically separate the two terminals. If you can, install the battery in the guitar at a 90 degree angle, so that only one terminal is connected. Now plug your "split" connector onto the the two left over terminals - one on the battery, and one on the guitar. Connect your meters two leads to the two wires coming off the RS battery connector, and plug the other two ends into the meters "current" or "amps" sockets. They'll be different than the "normal" ones.

Observe the current reading while you play, and look for excessive current draw. That can be the tricky part. You'll need some kind of reference, perhaps from the owners manual that states what "normal" current draw is. I would think that only a few milliamps would be needed to power a Fishman piezo. Look for current readings above say, 200ma. Although, even 100ma may be too high.

Or, if you get this together, report back here your readings and we'll go from there.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Short Circuit

Just got an email from the Fishman folks.

That PowerBridge should draw less than 2.8 ma.

So, again, the best thing to do would be to connect an ampmeter, as I described, and monitor it while you remove the control plate and "wiggle" wires.

Let us know how it goes.

[Ice Man]

Re: Short Circuit

Thanks for the info.