[JayOhh]

Yeah right now I really bummed about the whole deal. But the guitar is beautiful, and you can hear that it sound awsome through all the noise. So if I just can get this fixed I'll be very happy with my new axe. Don't think I`m actually gonna use the Piezo`s that much anyways, so I could have just bought the standard Axcess, but I like that the AL isn't chambered. So I'll just have to wait and see.

[JayOhh]

The video suddently showed up on youtube after all. So here it is:

[zGrooveMeister]

JayOhh, on 01 January 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

The video suddently showed up on youtube after all. So here it is:

Yep - that's exactly what mine does. It's weird how the piezo volume control affects the noise even with the kill switch enabled. It's probably a combination of bad solder joints or crappy wiring mixed with an overall bad circuit design with little or no tolerance for a weak ground. Graphtech and their circuit board is probably just as much to blame as Gibson for this crap. But it really doesn't matter because Graphtech is not the one building and selling guitars that leave the factory with defective circuitry - Gibson is.

I bet there are a lot of owners of this guitar out there who have no idea their guitar is defective. I say this because it's an overly expensive guitar with Alex Lifeson's name on it. Rush fans with disposable income are probably buying this guitar just to have it, even if they don't play much or don't play at all.

In any case, I won't be playing mine any more until I have the McDLT mod done to it. That sucks, but it sucks even worse having to listen to the crap.

And I can assure you that I will NEVER EVER buy another Gibson.

[JayOhh]

So yours make the same amount of noise?

I didn't notice either for the first two days, since its not so bad when plugged straight into my amp. Then its just a bit more noisy than the rest. But then it doesn't get affected when I touch the metal on it.

[zGrooveMeister]

JayOhh, on 01 January 2012 - 05:59 PM, said:

So yours make the same amount of noise?

I didn't notice either for the first two days, since its not so bad when plugged straight into my amp. Then its just a bit more noisy than the rest. But then it doesn't get affected when I touch the metal on it.

It's not AS bad when plugged into a tube amp, but it still makes noise that changes when you turn the piezo volume with the kill switch enabled. And Lord help you if you ever take your hand away from the strings or bridge. If I plug it into my Marshall MS-2 9-volt mini-amp, it's absolutely God-awful. Lightly touching the strings makes it sound like there's a high-voltage arc going on. It's just crazy. In any case, an electric guitar is NOT supposed to behave this way, I don't care how much fancy-schmancy electro-gadgetry gets crammed into it. There is simply NO excuse for this crazy noisy crap - PERIOD!

[Rock2112]

JayOhh, on 01 January 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

The video suddently showed up on youtube after all. So here it is:

Oh, man, that noise is loud. I couldn't tell exactly, but it seemed like your Epi was extra noisy -- but not as bad as the AL -- once you took your hands off the strings (hard to tell because you only did it for a brief second). There seems to be something about that setup that produces a lot of noise. That said, the AL noise was unacceptably high and should NOT be affected by the killed Piezo volume. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. The noise I got from my AL in factory condition was not nearly that bad but it was louder than my other guitars. Then I started to get crackling followed by a huge reduction in volume from my bridge pickup (coming in and out, which was affected by pushing the Piezo volume pot back and forth). That was the impetus for me going ahead and having the McDLT mod done. I couldn't be happier now. If you can't get someone to do the mod, I think you are going to have to send your AL back and give up on this model. I'm afraid that Gibson will not be able to repair it the way you want it -- with noise problems fixed and the blending feature intact. I think the Graphtec and Gibson electronics simply don't like each other. We'd probably both be interested in whether any other AL owners without the mod are happy with the noise levels they experience, compared with similar guitars using the same setup. If so, then maybe I'm wrong and a Gibson repair is worth trying. I just had little use for the blending feature (as I can blend other ways) and needed the guitar to be more reliable. Good luck however it turns out. I hope you end up with your dream guitar in the end.

[SolitaryPine]

JayOhh, on 01 January 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

The video suddently showed up on youtube after all. So here it is:

That blows, man, sorry. I will say that even your Epi sounded too noisy for me. But the AL was over the top bad. Good luck.

[SolitaryPine]

guitarest, on 06 January 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

Isnt that acoustic set up similar to a single coil pickup? Its not a ground loop but a 60hz hum, to tell stand up with the guitar and rotate your body like a clock hand. If the hum is very loud and 180 degrees apart from each other thats where the humming is from. I have seen this with other guitars and its more noticeable with certain items in the effects loop.

No, the acoustic setup is a separate piezo pickup. But the humbuckers on this can be coil tapped, so that can turn them into single coils.

[torqvaw]

Hate to say it but a while back I noticed my Al was noisey just like in the video. The day it happened I didn't have a chance to check out the problem as my wife was dragging me out the door just as it happened. When I got home later the problem was not there. I passed it off as possibly an electrical "anamoly" in the house. But it has happened since and it is centered around the piezo pot. My feeling is it's a bad pot. When mine makes the noise if I pull it out to the kill position and put some pressure on shaft it will go away and be quiet until it acts up again. I also feel this is unacceptable even for a $300.00 guitar.

I haven't pursued it with Gibson yet. But after reading this it's time to get off my a$$ and do it. Good luck to us all!

[JayOhh]

Yeah.. Still waiting on feedback from the Norwegian distributor. They're a bit short of people because of NAMM, so I should hear from them withing a few days.

I'll keep you guys updated.

[JayOhh]

Soo...

Talked to the tech today. He finally had a chance to try the guitar after NAMM and sickness. But as I feared, he couldn't find anything wrong with it. He only tried it on an amp, and not through a computer. So after I talked to him, he said he would take another look at it tomorrow. He would also see if there was something he could improve and check out the "split signal mod".

But the strange thing was: "There was nothing wrong with the guitar, but considering how it was made ( electrics and all ) we couldn't expect anything else." Sounds strange to me, but sounds like Gibson didn't really do a great job on this one....

Anyways, I'll call him back on thursday after he's had another look at it and hear what he says.

I'll keep you posted.

PS! If I can get the mod and the guitar will be dead silent, I'll be very happy with it. But Im not so sure that's gonna cure the whole noiseissue...

[JayOhh]

No longer an Axcess-owner.

Traded in for an ESP.

Good luck to the rest of you. And hopefully Gibson will get their s@@# together, so I can get another Customshop in the future....