Noisy Duotone

[Moxie]

Hi Folks,

I have a '95 3-hole Duotone with P-90s...

...with two jacks, micro switch for piezo/P-90s/blend, and a 3-way for the P-90s.

Lately, when using only the piezo output and the micro switch on either piezo or blend, the output has been incredibly hissy. I checked all the wiring and it's fine and haven't adjusted the EQ or gain micropots on the rear cover plate since I got the guitar years ago, and it's always sounded fine. From left to right, the pots are 100Hz, 1.2kHz, 4.5kHz, and gain:

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[ghamerinfrance]

euh....sell it to me for parts ?

This may be due to the piezo itself if there is no change or problem with the electronics or if you do not hear any trouble with the P90 circuit itself.

Good luck to you in finding /correcting the trouble

[gorch]

The micro switches often are not made for a longer lifetime. It might help to set a bridge to pass the switch to find out.

Rarely used, the pots on the circuit board could have collected dust. The circuitry does not look clean in the pic though.

[Studio Custom]

The common ground for the magnetic and piezo are often the culprit, it's easier to seperate them so each has is its own jack instead of the shared TRS.

[hamerhead]

Have you checked the battery? I haven't had a Duo for a while, but the noise may be from a low/dead battery.

[Moxie]

Rarely used, the pots on the circuit board could have collected dust. The circuitry does not look clean in the pic though.

All cleaned up now and that solved 90% of the problem.

Have you checked the battery?

I had, but the battery was a crap alkaline house brand courtesy of my laziness and the local pharmacy. Swapped it for a decent Energizer lithium, and bang!...that solved the rest of the problem.

At this point only Eric Johnson could hear any problems. But of course, he's moved on from his addiction to Jamaican 9-volt batteries to his killer new tone via Armor All/tilted Vox DC amps: https://youtu.be/HwDexrX04fA?t=6m12s

But seriously, folks, thanks for the help. I really did clean out those micro-pots and that made the most improvement. So as usual, the HFC is the place to be.

[gorch]

So, whats left then?