punchlinechar
New member
Long time no see forum bros!
I own a Chapman ML3 Bea, and it's had some glitchiness since day one. The pickup selector would cut out, the neck pickup was microphonic, and the volume pot made a scratching sound through whatever the guitar was plugged into. I tried to get Chapman to fix it, but I was in customer service hell (months between emails). Joe Leach reached out, and he had me mail it to RiffCity for them to work on it (very cool especially considering they're closing, and I didn't even order it from them). They say it was working fine when they fixed it, and I have no reason not to believe them, because they replaced the pickup, and set it up to my specifications-They clearly were focused when working on the instrument, and they said they had replaced the volume pot.
Unfortunately, the volume pot was scratching still, and then it started cutting out. I emailed Joe, and he said that their technician probably used a spare Chapman part provided by the company-based on my experience with Chapman, it could've very well been a bum pot that lasted long enough to get shipped out. Anyway, I thanked them profusely, and I decided to go ahead and replace the pot myself. I installed an EVH pot, and though it works better, it still cuts out occasionally, and now there's a strange distortion to it in certain mid volume positions. I'm at a loss here, does anyone know what may be causing this? I don't think it's the pot, it's brand new, is it maybe a bad ground somewhere? I know how to solder, but there are a lot of connections in this guitar, and I can't seem to find any glaring problems. I think the jack may be a problem, but I thought I'd ask here to get some opinions.
I own a Chapman ML3 Bea, and it's had some glitchiness since day one. The pickup selector would cut out, the neck pickup was microphonic, and the volume pot made a scratching sound through whatever the guitar was plugged into. I tried to get Chapman to fix it, but I was in customer service hell (months between emails). Joe Leach reached out, and he had me mail it to RiffCity for them to work on it (very cool especially considering they're closing, and I didn't even order it from them). They say it was working fine when they fixed it, and I have no reason not to believe them, because they replaced the pickup, and set it up to my specifications-They clearly were focused when working on the instrument, and they said they had replaced the volume pot.
Unfortunately, the volume pot was scratching still, and then it started cutting out. I emailed Joe, and he said that their technician probably used a spare Chapman part provided by the company-based on my experience with Chapman, it could've very well been a bum pot that lasted long enough to get shipped out. Anyway, I thanked them profusely, and I decided to go ahead and replace the pot myself. I installed an EVH pot, and though it works better, it still cuts out occasionally, and now there's a strange distortion to it in certain mid volume positions. I'm at a loss here, does anyone know what may be causing this? I don't think it's the pot, it's brand new, is it maybe a bad ground somewhere? I know how to solder, but there are a lot of connections in this guitar, and I can't seem to find any glaring problems. I think the jack may be a problem, but I thought I'd ask here to get some opinions.
