Problem with J-45 Pickup?

[monkeytennis]

Hi,

 

A few months back I purchased a S/H 2003 J-45 in pretty much mint condition for studio use only.

Recently I decided I might use it for some rehearsals/shows so decided to plug it in - I hadn't plugged it in until this point.

 

Anyhow, I appear to have a problem which I presume is pickup based - if I plug the guitar into a tuner (I've tried 2xdifferent pedal tuners and also a VST tuner inside a DAW) then the tuner(s) seem to read the B string, and to a lesser extent the top E string, as G notes.

 

Soundwise the pickup seems fine and I can't hear any unusual resonance on these strings - using a clip on tuner yields normal results.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similiar or have any ideas as to what the problem might be?

 

Thanks,

Ben

[Lefty Guy]

My 2005 J-45 sounded terrible with the factory-fitted pick-up. It accentuated some strings way more than others. I ended up replacing it with an under-saddle B-band pick-up & now its perfect.

[larryp58]

For recording purposes, I've always leaned towards miking the guitar. To me, it captures the sound of the instrument better. That's just my humble opinion!

[KL]

Hi Ben,

Have you put a new battery in your guitar?

If not then I think this might solve your problem.

[KL]

Oh . . . I should have read your post a little more carefully as you say that the pickup sounds ok. Hmmm . . . try a battery anyway first off then if that makes absolutely no difference we can think again!

[monkeytennis]

Hi KL,

Unfortunately this was with a new battery installed - when I initially tried to plug it in there was no sound and it turns out it still had the factory fitted battery in place which had, unsuprisingly, died a death over the course of about 5-6 years.

 

I might try *another* battery tomorrow on the off chance though.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[KL]

OK. Well it's certainly an odd situation because the guitar sounds good amplified, is the sound balanced nicely across all 6 strings amplified? If so it seems unlikely that the undersaddle pickup has a major fault. The plot thickens. I should add I am no expert but I do have a couple of J-45's. What amplifier have you plugged it into? Also have you tried more than one lead as leads can have annoying intermittent faults. When you are plugging into the tuners are you going through any other leads or patch cables that are bypassed when you are going into the amp?

[monkeytennis]

The sound is pretty even across all the strings, or at least it sounds it. I haven't really tried it too much as the tuning issue has frustrated me somewhat.

 

As a rule it isn't plugged into an amp, it tends to go Gtr->Tuner->DI->Console. I may check out a few more leads though as I only tend to use one which has a 'silent' jack on the end. However, exactly the same cables and equipment work fine with my Martin with a Fishman installed.

 

I think tomorrow I might investigate a bit more thoroughly - I might record some audio of the offending strings into my DAW and run a frequency analysis to see if there are any odd resonances coming through that aren't audible. I may also remove the G string and see if the B & E continue to show up as a G - this might help narrow down the problem.

 

I will also try plugging the gtr straight into the DI box and running the tuner off of that to see if it is an impedance based problem with the piezo pickup (wouldn't have thought so but it's worth a shot I guess!)

 

Thanks for your help/suggestions, I will post back with anything I find!

 

Cheers

Ben

[KL]

Ok, yes it will be good to know what you find out.