Problem With Active Pickups - Help!

Cam Heiliger

Cam Heiliger

Inspired
Hey guys, I use a Godin A6 Ultra for acoustic songs with my band. It has dual inputs, one driving a piezo pickup under the bridge, and one driving an active humbucker in the neck position. I run the humbucker as the main guitar input and the piezo through in the Effects Loop input for the acoustic sound. I noticed yesterday that I am getting random static-like sounds, pops, and other noises. They clip my AX8 when they occur even though my levels are well below clipping and the sound goes in and out. I changed out the battery thinking that may be the culprit and it was not. I don't have any issues with my passive guitars. Is this an input issue? A soldering issue? Do I have a bad connection somewhere? That guitar is out of commission until I figure this out and I'd like to try to fix it myself before taking it to a tech. Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you!
 
I've had this type of symptom (static, crackles) when the battery for the active electronics is running low. Have you tried changing the battry?
 
If your other guitars work and you're using the same cables then the problem is with the A6. I would try running the A6 through another amp or pa system just to make sure.
 
You haven't mentioned - do these pops and "random" sounds occur when you are playing, when you physically move, when you wiggle the cables at the jacks, or a bit of all of the above?
 
how high is the AX-8 cpu before you start playing? what does it go to when you are playing? High cpu can make the AX-8 do this on its own.
 
I do not experience pops, but I am having issues with my Godin A6 Ultra and the AX8- seems with a new battery in it I can only get about a few hours of play before the dreaded 'Apocalypse Now' helicopter sounds come in- Real nice touch when playing live gigs btw :0
Battery apparently gets drained down way too early. I am pretty sure it would be a guitar issue rather than the AX8 draining it pre-maturely.
 
Just out of curiosity - were you connected via USB to AxEdit at the time? I've had some 'noise' happen when I'm playIing through my computer monitors and plugged into my Friedman that doesn't exist when I'm not connected via USB. If you are connected via USB, maybe disconnect that and see if it changes? Just trying to offer another option to troubleshoot. :)
 
B0LTcreative said:
I do not experience pops, but I am having issues with my Godin A6 Ultra and the AX8- seems with a new battery in it I can only get about a few hours of play before the dreaded 'Apocalypse Now' helicopter sounds come in- Real nice touch when playing live gigs btw :0
Battery apparently gets drained down way too early. I am pretty sure it would be a guitar issue rather than the AX8 draining it pre-maturely.
Click to expand...

Correct, there's really no way for the AX8 to drain your guitar's battery.

If your battery is only lasting a couple hours, there's probably something wrong with your guitar's internal wiring or the Godin's preamp. If you (or your favorite tech) has a multimeter it should be easy to tell if the preamp is pulling an unusually high amount of current from the battery.
 
B0LTcreative said:
I do not experience pops, but I am having issues with my Godin A6 Ultra and the AX8- seems with a new battery in it I can only get about a few hours of play before the dreaded 'Apocalypse Now' helicopter sounds come in- Real nice touch when playing live gigs btw :0
Battery apparently gets drained down way too early. I am pretty sure it would be a guitar issue rather than the AX8 draining it pre-maturely.
Click to expand...
Do you always unplug the cable from the guitar when not playing? With most active setups, the output jack acts as a switch for the battery. If a cable is plugged in, your battery is draining even when not playing.
 
Handyman said:
Correct, there's really no way for the AX8 to drain your guitar's battery.

If your battery is only lasting a couple hours, there's probably something wrong with your guitar's internal wiring or the Godin's preamp. If you (or your favorite tech) has a multimeter it should be easy to tell if the preamp is pulling an unusually high amount of current from the battery.
Click to expand...
To the Guitar Tech I Go! thx
 
mr_fender said:
Do you always unplug the cable from the guitar when not playing? With most active setups, the output jack acts as a switch for the battery. If a cable is plugged in, your battery is draining even when not playing.
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Yes, well (most) times I remember to unplug it. It has to be a guitar issue at this point so I am gonna see what the guitar tech says and will post that info
 
Hi, no problem with my Godin A6 Ultra , il use the mixed output ( piezo + humbucker) and connect the guitar to the standard guitar input of the AX8. In the I/o menu IN1 = 6db.
 
It could be string ends shorting out Jack's. A few times in the 6 years I've been playing A6's, I've had the guitar cut out and make horrible noises. Dead battery makes a sound I recognize. String ends that fall unnoticed into guitar can make there way into the jack area and cause pops, crackling and shorts. Once I pulled at least 5 string ends out of the jack area. The Jack's are actually both stereo, when the ring and sleeve connect on sleeve of a mono plug it switches the output mode from mixed to seperate. Shorting out that switch makes an awful noise :)
 
Marc T Dobson said:
It could be string ends shorting out Jack's. A few times in the 6 years I've been playing A6's, I've had the guitar cut out and make horrible noises. Dead battery makes a sound I recognize. String ends that fall unnoticed into guitar can make there way into the jack area and cause pops, crackling and shorts. Once I pulled at least 5 string ends out of the jack area. The Jack's are actually both stereo, when the ring and sleeve connect on sleeve of a mono plug it switches the output mode from mixed to seperate. Shorting out that switch makes an awful noise :)
Click to expand...

Marc, you hit the nail on the head. I took the guitar to my tech and he opened it up and pulled out a bunch of string ends. Said that it had been shorting out the pickup. Would have never guessed. Luckily it was an easy fix and it's playing great again. Thanks for the feedback!
 
Glad I could help. It's an easy fix using only a screwdriver. However, use the right screwdriver and watch out for rusty screws that may strip if in a bind and a slightly wrong size screwdriver is used. One of my A6 jack plates has all new screws now.
 
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