[canon_mutant]

Not trolling here. I am truly blessed. Since I own AL-230 Lifeson ES-355, I literally stumbled across AL-230 LP Axcess the other day by accident on MF while just string hunting and quickly nabbed it. So never before buying a signature anything, I now have both Lifesons, same serial number, which should be an added unique novelty to a collector some day after they pry them from my dead hands . . .

Problem is the ES-355 had numerous issues from numerous owners posted here:

The volute issue discussed ad nauseam.
Tuning problems.
Electronics problems.
Finish and binding problems.

I personally wasn't bothered by the volute issue and have only recently developed slight bleed through on the neck. After 3 years of regular playing that would happen to any white guitar.

I had tuning problems galore though to the point of almost selling it. Beyond not being able to use the Maestro, I couldn't even do much string bending without "BINK" out of tune that no amount of lube would touch. But finally I just loved the tone so much that I fixed my tuning problems with a roller bridge and locking tuners.

Had humming problems on a humbucker guitar and thought perhaps it was hollowbody related never owning one before until I realized after I lost a pup while changing it that neither pup was wired twisted pair or sheilded so I fixed that while swapping the bad pup and no more hum.

So, now I am fortunate to have the Lifeson Axcess that arrived yesterday in time for my birthday today but just so far:

The Piezo only output "Life-o-sonic" is "Dead-o-sonic" on arrival. The piezo is working, it's just that output that's dead. I can blend the piezo in with the HBs through the regular output. Just that 2nd output that's DOA or DOS I guess.

And I've got 1/2 volume piezo problems on the 2 middle strings and the popping problems reported by others.

And though Chris at MF did a superb job setting up my ES-339 when I got it, the setup on this Lifeson Axcess was pretty bad. One buzz problem and bad intonation on 3 of 6. Easily rectified myself and could be argued that any new guitar should be setup or even taken to a luthier for setup, but then again I have NEVER had to send back any of my Carvins over setup problems nor had to change them myself. Intonation is always spot on and they always set the action low without buzz.

I think it's just something about being "Custom Shop" and no doubt the associated expense that perhaps adds to the frustration.

Unlike my ES-355 that I just fixed myself, I likely will have to send the Axcess back with the problems it has which bums me as much as the problems themselves.

I can see its potential though and being a tremolo freak having an LP with a Floyd is nice though somehow foreign too in a way?? The Axcess neck that Carvin's been doing for years is wonderful and I love the shape and size of the neck too. Mine is a brick right at 9 lbs. which I love. I was afraid being thinner with gut and heel reliefs that it would be too light. Still real comfortable to play though.

The Lifeson curse? Probably a bit strong but I've seen some other posts here with AL-Axcess problems too after all the previous ones on the AL-355. Since I really doubt all these problems happened in transit, I still just think QA is napping at Gibson.

[SolitaryPine]

canon_mutant, on 17 August 2011 - 08:34 PM, said:

The Piezo only output "Life-o-sonic" is "Dead-o-sonic" on arrival. ... And I've got 1/2 volume piezo problems on the 2 middle strings and the popping problems reported by others. ... The Lifeson curse?

I have not heard of a dead jack on any other guitar, nor the 1/2 volume problem. I have heard of the popping problem but I don't have it myself.

I think all of those things should be covered under warranty, and, since they are electronic issues, shouldn't affect the tone or look of the guitar when repaired. So that's the good news. The bad news is that you'll have to wait for parts and will not be able to use your guitar for a while.

I think the volute was a much worse thing (for those whom were bothered by it) as Gibson refused to acknowledge it, simply stating that the artist approved it even though it clearly was wrong.

Congrats on getting both guitars with the same serial number! That's very cool!

[JohnnyRocker]

canon_mutant, on 17 August 2011 - 08:34 PM, said:

So, now I am fortunate to have the Lifeson Axcess that arrived yesterday in time for my birthday today but just so far:

The Piezo only output "Life-o-sonic" is "Dead-o-sonic" on arrival. The piezo is working, it's just that output that's dead. I can blend the piezo in with the HBs through the regular output. Just that 2nd output that's DOA or DOS I guess.

And I've got 1/2 volume piezo problems on the 2 middle strings and the popping problems reported by others.

First-> Happy "belated" Birthday!

I was one of the AL LP owners who experienced the "popping" or what I called an unidentified/occasional/random loud ground crackle. Well with the aid of my authorized dealer's guitar tech it appears to be resolved. At least I haven't experienced it in a month now and I've gigged with it twice. There was a loose (unused) blue wire that we capped and we moved some of the pickup wires away from the Peizo wires.

As for the "Life-o-sonic" output. It will only work if there is a connection already in the regular jack. It will be dead otherwise.

I haven't had any issue with string volume on the Peizo and mine has worked flawlessly.

I hope you get your issues resolved.

[canon_mutant]

JohnnyRocker, on 22 August 2011 - 07:14 PM, said:

First-> Happy "belated" Birthday!

I was one of the AL LP owners who experienced the "popping" or what I called an unidentified/occasional/random loud ground crackle. Well with the aid of my authorized dealer's guitar tech it appears to be resolved. At least I haven't experienced it in a month now and I've gigged with it twice. There was a loose (unused) blue wire that we capped and we moved some of the pickup wires away from the Peizo wires.

As for the "Life-o-sonic" output. It will only work if there is a connection already in the regular jack. It will be dead otherwise.

I haven't had any issue with string volume on the Peizo and mine has worked flawlessly.

I hope you get your issues resolved.

Yeah, thanks. We learned about the Life-o-sonic output requirement of having the regular output jacked in order to be active. Sadly, there is NO paperwork with this instrument [or at least with mine] to tell you that. So, we're still looking at the piezo volume issues and G string seems to have magically healed but D is still 1/2 volume. I'll forward the wire re-routing idea for popping to the local tech tomorrow.

I still believe that just like my Lifeson 355, once I got ALL THE BUGS AND PROBLEMS fixed, it's an amazing instrument. Damn near sold "great white" because of all the problems but now after 2 trips to the luthier early on and me working on it a 1/2 dozen times, it's a reliable and great sounding tone monster. And sure glad I did now because I've got both AL230s.

I can already tell the potential of this Lifeson Axcess and it plays just like my Carvin CS6 except for my CS6 has the advantage of the tung oiled neck where AL-Axcess is still going through that sticky phase. Amazing to me how well they sound acoustically just playing it unplugged on the couch late at night. My Carvin is the same way. I think it's somehow related to that "true floyd rose routing" in the guitar that gives it some added resonance other hard bodies don't have.

thanks alot,

[canon_mutant]

Well, all seems well at least temporarily with AL-230 Axcess. All problems were flakey connections [piezo volume descrepancies] and wire routing [popping] <= we think. And now that I know that Life-o-sonic is Dead-o-sonic unless the primary output is jacked, it works too. Been real nice to have at least some level of paperwork to splain that with the instrument but live and learn.

Back loving it again . . .

Very diverse instrument.

[Rock2112]

canon_mutant, on 26 August 2011 - 11:08 PM, said:

Well, all seems well at least temporarily with AL-230 Axcess. All problems were flakey connections [piezo volume descrepancies] and wire routing [popping] <= we think. And now that I know that Life-o-sonic is Dead-o-sonic unless the primary output is jacked, it works too. Been real nice to have at least some level of paperwork to splain that with the instrument but live and learn.

Back loving it again . . .

Very diverse instrument.

Congrats on getting over those hurdles. I waited months and went through a slew of hassles before I got my first AL LP, only to have to reject it for various issues. But I got lucky on the second one I got and it is darn near perfect. I feel for people having issues like yours because these are expensive guitars and it just shouldn't happen. I'm glad you got it sorted out. It would be easy to just reject these and buy something else if they weren't such amazing guitars. You can see from a look at Lifeson's various Les Pauls that this guitar puts together a variety of features he had built custom into his other LPs. He really did a nice job of directing great features into this and it comes together very nicely for a guitar that is fairly high tech but preserves the best of a classic Les Paul. Unfortunately, he's stuck with Gibsons quality assurance dept., if they have one.

Enjoy and crank it up loud.

[Rock2112]

Well, despite my previous happiness, my AL has begun exhibiting weird electronics issue. The bridge pickup keeps losing volume randomly, fading to very low volume and swelling in and out. It is just that pickup, no issue with the neck pickp. For some reason, playing around with the Piezo volume control affects the volume fluctuations, even though I have the knob pulled out so the Peizo is killed. The problem is intermittent, which of course means it won't exhibit the issue when I try to drive it to a Gibson warranty center. I'm really bummed about this. Question to the group -- is this the same as the problems that were fixed by capping and shuffling the wiring?

[zGrooveMeister]

Rock2112, on 24 September 2011 - 05:02 PM, said:

Well, despite my previous happiness, my AL has begun exhibiting weird electronics issue. The bridge pickup keeps losing volume randomly, fading to very low volume and swelling in and out. It is just that pickup, no issue with the neck pickp. For some reason, playing around with the Piezo volume control affects the volume fluctuations, even though I have the knob pulled out so the Peizo is killed. The problem is intermittent, which of course means it won't exhibit the issue when I try to drive it to a Gibson warranty center. I'm really bummed about this. Question to the group -- is this the same as the problems that were fixed by capping and shuffling the wiring?

Did you try a fresh battery?

[Rock2112]

zGrooveMeister, on 24 September 2011 - 06:23 PM, said:

Did you try a fresh battery?

Yeah, but the one I had in there was relatively new (haven't had the gtr very long). I also opened the back and taped down the random unused blue wire referred to above (why this wasn't capped during the build by the CS is beyond me).

But, while the bad news is these things did nothing to fix the problem, the good news is it is very easy to demonstrate the problem (so now I won't waste a trip to the warranty center only to have it work fine). All I have to do is apply mild pressure to the Piezo volume knob and it causes the bridge pickup to pop in and out from full volume to the vastly reduced volume. Again, this is even when the Piezo is in killed mode. There is likely something bad about the Piezo volume/kill pot itself. Funny thing is, the problem does not affect the Peizo itself, which works fine. More and more, it seems that it will be an essential mod soon to separate the Peizo and mag pickups once and for all. While the one-jack blending feature is a nice option to have for casual playing, it is not likely to be used in any situation that really matters. At the trouble Gibson seems to be having to provide a trouble-free application of the feature is not worth it. If my Piezo gets whacked for some reason, I don't want the mag pickups being taken with it. Thank god I was just jamming the other night and not playing a gig. A massive loss of volume in a pickup is a pretty big glitch that I've never had to worry about or experience with any of my other guitars.

By the way, the trouble Gibson has had with the electronics on this thing should be enough to warn anyone off the Firebird X they are pushing. The electronics on this should not be so hard to straighten out, and it's almost certain that the Firebird X guts are going to be wrought with problems. I'd better get my AL in for service before the Gibson service centers are overwhelmed with FBXs coming in for one thing or another!

[Wondo]

Hey all. Been a long time since I have been here. I was part of the complaining brigade after the first Lifeson Release (355). Well, I have my Lifeson Axcess now. AL 260. Royal Crimson. Beautiful guitar! Was set up pretty well from the shop except that the neck was bowed pretty good and had too much relief. I fixed that with a truss rod adjustment. All is well in that department. The complaint I have is the trem arm assembly. First of all there is a small piece of teflon that fits in the barrel where the trem arm goes. That was missing. Of course when I first got it, I had no idea this was missing. But, I quickly found out after I could not get the trem arm to fit in properly and then the allen screw ended up scratching the arm pretty good. I was actually going to send it back because I could not play it like this, when I found a tiny little piece of white plastic the size of a small peppercorn inside of the case. I studied it for a while and the lightbulb went off. I put it in the allen screw hole and it now does its job, but will fall out again if not careful. I called Graph-Tech, I made them aware of the problem and they are trying to get parts to put up on their site. Other than this problem and the hassel of having to use an allen key everytime you want to adjust the trem arm or take it out to store in the case, I will admit, that this is a great guitar. I did hear of the original electronic problems, of which I was notified about, which made me postpone the purchase until this problem was fixed. There is no paperwork for the recent runs because after they put a push pull for the Piezo, the old documentation was not correct. Maybe Gibson will someday release the new booklet for the recent run. I have been playing mine most through two amps. I love doing Natural Science and 2112 with this guitar. Nails both parts nicely.

[canon_mutant]

I just let the tremolo float and grab as necessary. It wouldn't matter where I locked it, it would get in my way somehow and I'm just so used to them floating, it's not a big deal. It's so habitual now that I'll reach down for a tremolo arm when I'm playing my Les Paul or my ES-339.

My biggest complaint is this is my first locking nut and I hate the damn thing. Why does Gibson have a problem with using locking tuners?

Much better application.

Nice guitar though. So, glad I held onto my Lifeson 355 too. Just played it tonight.

Having AL-230 guitars in stereo is cool. And, being able to play the Axcess in stereo is cool too.

[SolitaryPine]

canon_mutant, on 28 September 2011 - 09:48 PM, said:

I just let the tremolo float and grab as necessary. It wouldn't matter where I locked it, it would get in my way somehow and I'm just so used to them floating, it's not a big deal. It's so habitual now that I'll reach down for a tremolo arm when I'm playing my Les Paul or my ES-339.

My biggest complaint is this is my first locking nut and I hate the damn thing. Why does Gibson have a problem with using locking tuners?

Much better application.

Nice guitar though. So, glad I held onto my Lifeson 355 too. Just played it tonight.

Having AL-230 guitars in stereo is cool. And, being able to play the Axcess in stereo is cool too.

So if you play both guitars in stereo, including the Axcess in stereo, does that make the whole thing tri-o-phonic? I guess you'd need three amps, and perhaps some open tunings.

[canon_mutant]

SolitaryPine, on 29 September 2011 - 08:41 AM, said:

So if you play both guitars in stereo, including the Axcess in stereo, does that make the whole thing tri-o-phonic? I guess you'd need three amps, and perhaps some open tunings.

You just made my brain hurt . . .

[Rock2112]

So, I'm now having a host of electronic problems with my AL, which have even managed to confound my chosen luthier. I reported the main problem above -- slight movement of the Piezo volume pot causes the bridge pickup to cut in and out (from full signal to low-level, low-fi signal). The part that's boggling my luthier, and me, is that, by the time the signal gets to that pot, the signal from both the mag pickups should have both passed through the pickup toggle switch and there is no logical reason why the problem wouldn't affect both pickups instead of just the bridge pickup.

Rather than just have this problem addressed, and mindful of the repeated electronics problems that have plagued numerous users here, I have made the decision to have my AL rewired to "keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold." In other words, I'm having it wired so that the mag pickups run output directly to the "regular" jack with no blending of the Piezo, and the Peizo running directly to the "Life-O-Sound" jack. I don't want my mag pickups dependent on an in-line battery for their tone, I don't want any problems with the Piezo causing problems with the mags, and there's too much noise and strange volume fluctuations associated with the factory design. In every serious application of this guitar, I'm not going to use the blending feature anyway, as I can blend at the board or on separate tracks of my DAW. So for something I rarely will use, I'm not going to live with what is an inherently unreliable electronics scheme that seems to be giving people headache after headache.

I have been forewarned the separating the mags from the circuit board and running them more directly will potentially cause a slight shift in tone towards a more traditional Les Paul sound. I was very happy with the sound I was getting but I also love the traditional LP sound so I'll take that risk. On the plus side, there will be no draining of my Piezo battery unless I have a cable plugged in to the Piezo jack. For those lazy days where I just want to plug in one cable, sit in front of my computer, and goof around with Amplitube and the blending options, at those times I may miss the blending. But this guitar is just trouble waiting to happen until the electronics are simplified in my view. It's a shame, because it is an absolutely awesome guitar. But I've never had so many problems with a brand new instrument in my life. For that matter, I've numerous guitars for years and years without any of this kind of trouble. So I think there is a Lifeson Curse, it's called Gibson QC. They need to start an electronics division and learn how to do this advanced stuff right. Otherwise, customers like me are going to have to kiss their warranty goodbye just to get something you'd feel safe plugging in on a stage.

[canon_mutant]

Hmmh, interesting mod. Of course if I go down that route, I'll be swapping in a set of 57s while I am at it too, just my personal preference. Popping noises are back on mine and I still have occasional "noticeable" piezo volume mismatches - wonder if this isn't an "inverse" of your HB volume mismatch? Gibson said slight piezo mismatches are to be expected but then again my TL60T Carvin hasn't ever had that problem - a near identical set up to this Axcess except it's a Tele type guitar with a Wilkinson Tremolo instead of the Floyd. Well, identical set up as far as HBs, Piezos, and a blend function but wired completely differently [and it works? ]. And I literally have removed the nut locks, or at least have temporarily thrown a "remove them" tantrum that maybe I'll get over. From the idea that once tuned, you should never have to touch it when locked, the locking nut concept is fine. But, sadly, there is reality and having to reach for a freakin' allen wrench every time you have a slight tuning adjustment to make is just a PITA. I do NOT understand Gibson's reluctance to just use locking tuners. I have them on every other guitar I own, except my R9 of course.

I would agree that I will rarely "blend" the piezos so having them separate isn't a bad idea but what I've done to my 355 Lifeson I can easily back out for a purist collector. If I start modding this Axcess, I want to make sure that I don't do anything that's not reversable or for that matter not "easily reverseable" or anything else to devalue the guitar.

I expect these two Lifesons to move as a set to a collector some day after I am dead and gone being both AL-230 S/Ns.

BTW, I would be interested in seeing even a scribble on a napkin wiring mod version of what your luthier is proposing if you want to share it?

If not, generally, feel free to PM me too.

If not at all, that's cool too. I have the ability to figure it out on my own if I choose to. Have always had the attitude why spend an hour figuring something out on your own if you can ask a simple question and have the answer in 5 minutes?

And, it's STILL a great guitar. Just shouldn't be having these issues.

[SolitaryPine]

Rock2112, on 09 October 2011 - 01:54 PM, said:

I have made the decision to have my AL rewired to "keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold."

I have been talking about doing this mod since before I got the guitar. I run two radio packs, and, frankly, I don't see a need for the blending feature at all. I have played around with it a little just to see if it is worth it, and frankly although it does create a different tone to blend them through one jack, it's not something I need or want to risk an electronics failure on stage over.

In the end, I decided to wait until the one year electronics warranty is over, as doing this mod would obviously void that. But I totally get it and encourage you to post as much as you can about your experience doing so as I'm sure others will choose to do this mod also.

Good luck!

[Rock2112]

SolitaryPine, on 10 October 2011 - 08:40 AM, said:

I have been talking about doing this mod since before I got the guitar. I run two radio packs, and, frankly, I don't see a need for the blending feature at all. I have played around with it a little just to see if it is worth it, and frankly although it does create a different tone to blend them through one jack, it's not something I need or want to risk an electronics failure on stage over.

In the end, I decided to wait until the one year electronics warranty is over, as doing this mod would obviously void that. But I totally get it and encourage you to post as much as you can about your experience doing so as I'm sure others will choose to do this mod also.

Good luck!

Thanks -- actually, you can take full credit for the idea because I remember you suggesting this mod before. At that time, I figured that, even if the blending was rarely used, it wouldn't be something I'd want to mod around just for the sake of it. But with all the electronics problems by me and others, that's the driving force for this. I feel like it's the only way to get the electronics under control and I am just not up for sending my guitar to a Gibson warranty center every ten minutes and constantly worrying about what effect the Piezo is having on my mags.

When my luthier opened up my AL, he could replicate the problem with my bridge pickup cutting out just by slightly wiggling the wires attached to the Piezo volume pot. So there is some kind of workmanship issue there, but it's just asking for trouble for a Piezo volume pot to have the ability to affect a mag pickup that much (much less the sheer mystery of why it doesn't affect both mags equally). The reality is I trust my luthier more than I trust Gibson or their ragtag team of authorized repair technicians at this point. I'm ready to just get it right and move on.

My wife jokingly asked me if doing this would decrease the resale value of my guitar. The joke, of course, is she knows I would never sell it. I love this freaking thing so I just want to "stabilize" it.

[SolitaryPine]

Rock2112, on 10 October 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

Thanks -- actually, you can take full credit for the idea because I remember you suggesting this mod before. At that time, I figured that, even if the blending was rarely used, it wouldn't be something I'd want to mod around just for the sake of it. But with all the electronics problems by me and others, that's the driving force for this. I feel like it's the only way to get the electronics under control and I am just not up for sending my guitar to a Gibson warranty center every ten minutes and constantly worrying about what effect the Piezo is having on my mags.

When my luthier opened up my AL, he could replicate the problem with my bridge pickup cutting out just by slightly wiggling the wires attached to the Piezo volume pot. So there is some kind of workmanship issue there, but it's just asking for trouble for a Piezo volume pot to have the ability to affect a mag pickup that much (much less the sheer mystery of why it doesn't affect both mags equally). The reality is I trust my luthier more than I trust Gibson or their ragtag team of authorized repair technicians at this point. I'm ready to just get it right and move on.

My wife jokingly asked me if doing this would decrease the resale value of my guitar. The joke, of course, is she knows I would never sell it. I love this freaking thing so I just want to "stabilize" it.

Credit taken! Haha.

My initial thought behind doing it was simply that it sounded like the piezo bleed issue was caused by the circuit board (again I had not received my guitar yet). Also, after seeing how the Ghost system worked, it didn't appeal to me to have my mag pickups running through the circuit board.

Kudos to Gibson for trying to incorporate a blending feature, and the truth is that most of the problems people are having are probably the fault of GraphTech. Nonetheless, doing a "hot-side-hot" mod (I love that) just makes sense for many reasons.

Luckily I haven't had any of the issues you describe yet, but if I do I will likely accelerate my plans to do it.

And my wife also knows that I never plan to sell this guitar, lol.

[Rock2112]

canon_mutant, on 09 October 2011 - 10:59 PM, said:

BTW, I would be interested in seeing even a scribble on a napkin wiring mod version of what your luthier is proposing if you want to share it?

I'll give a full report here and try to get you whatever recon I can on that once it comes back. I'm not the best schematics guy and I'm trusting my luthier to "implement the vision" on this. But the basic idea will be to take the circuit board and battery completely out of the signal flow for the mags and follow a traditional wiring path for the mag pickups. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one and, yes, living a little dangerously.

Regarding your point on collector's value, only time will tell whether this mod increases or decreases the guitar's value. If all these electronics problems persist, unfortunately, this great guitar is going to become known as an unreliable instrument. Maybe it's just a select few with these problems and we're just being vocal. If so, then that's just bad luck for us. Or maybe everyone else is sitting on a problem waiting to happen, or they are just less detail oriented and don't mind the pops, volume fluctuations, pickup toggle problems, or whatever. I just saw a second guy the other day report that his pickup toggle was not bringing in both mags. These types of problems are unheard of on my other guitars (except I just started having a pickup toggle issue on a Jackson tele I've got ... but it's 25 freakin years old!). There's a guy who posted a series of YouTube videos about "restoring" his brand new AL 355 so as to fix the poor finish and move the volute back to its "correct" position (he did very nice work on it). My guess is, he increased the value of his guitar by doing that.

I hope to report success on this -- it may be a couple of weeks but I'll post results here.

[zGrooveMeister]

You have to wonder if Alex hasn't already had this mod done to his Axcesses, since he would never use the blend feature either. I think I remember reading somewhere that it was only at Gibson's insistence that the blend feature was added to Alex's design specifications.