Acoustic/Electric, Help Please!

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question444

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My Kona Acoustic/Electric has failed. I used it yesterday in practice and it worked. Tonight it does not. I just hooked it up to my computer to record some tracks and the recording is very faint, the signal is not getting sent out. The 9 volt battery is about 2 weeks old. If I press the battery-test button, a loud thump signal is sent. The only thing I've done recently is repaired the hole that the jack mounts to. I could not find a pickup anywhere inside this guitar. Can someone please give some advice or educate me a little in solving this problem? Thanks. -Perry
 
Check the connections to the jack from the pickup, you may have damaged one of the solder joints.

The pickup is likely under the saddle in the bridge.
 
re: acoustic electric

Is it possible that the pickup is not visible? I looked all inside with a mirror and flashlight and could not see anything. I did however see a wire from the controls leading into a strip of wood on the guitar. How could the pickup be accessed or removed? I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge, but I believe the bridge is the wood at the middle off the body, and the saddle is the thin piece of plastic set in the bridge that the strings sit in. Is that right? -Perry
 
Try to make sure it's the guitar with the problem... have you got an amplifier to connect to? if so try it out, change the lead from guitar to amp etc. Have you got an electric multimeter with probes? if you have put one probe in the hole for your jack and the other on the outer edge (do not push all the way in as you don't want to make the connection between the two) and you should not get a signal on your meter, if you do you have an earth and thats you problem....
Its difficult to say what the snag is unless you try to narrow it down.

Mal
 
I have to admit, I am guessing. But I think many pickups on AEs are a strip of peizo material that fits under the saddle. If the wires you are talking about disappear in the area under the bridge, that's probably what you have. Maybe you could loosen or remove the strings, and the saddle should pop out of the bridge, letting you see it. You may be disappointed, though, cause once you see it, what do you do then? Consider examining the recent repair before looking at the pickup.

Here is a photo of Martin's thin line. Maybe yours is something like that.
http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/MT332.htm

Looks to me like a "no-moving-parts" kind of thing.
 
re

You guys are right, I do not think it has anything to do with the pickup. Yes, today I pulled out the multimeter and set it to resistance. There are three wires going to the jack, correct me if I am wrong but doesn't that mean it is a stereo jack? Why would a guitar ever need to be stereo? I tested the cord, and it is fine. But when I test from the soler joints to the end of the cord I get mixed readings. Shouldn't I only get a reading when left contacts left, right contacts right, or when negative contacts negative? -Perry
 
question444 said:
There are three wires going to the jack, correct me if I am wrong but doesn't that mean it is a stereo jack? Why would a guitar ever need to be stereo? -Perry
Click to expand...

It has three wires because it is a switched jack - the preamp won't operate and therfore not drain you battery unless a plug is inserted into the jack. When you plug in the jack it turns the preamp on....
 
re

Stereo cords will not work on acoustic/electric....duh! This was the problem, I grabbed a stereo cord during recording. The stereo plug does not send the signal to the preamp, and the preamp would not turn on. Plugged in a mono, worked fine. Thanks for your info. everyone, and gusfinley, I had no idea about that switch wire... -Perry
 
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