no sound

[Giordano]

well, let say im not so happy. I hope anyone here will be willing to help.

 

i bought a transcale synapse 3 months ago, ordered online fro musicianfriends; as soon as I received the guitar I have found several quality issues:

 

1- the fretboard markings on the side (not on the top) were all positioned wrong with an offset of 2 frets: basically while the markings on the top of the fretboard were located at the 3,5,7,9,12,15 frets, on the side all the markings were starting at the 5th fret and therefore 5,7,9,11,14,17.

 

2- a lot of area of the rail of the transcale have bad or even missing painting (black)

 

3- noise when adjusting volume

 

main issue:

today I was playing and the battery was running low, so I always bring a couple of rechargeble 9V with me, and I replaced. from that moment the guitar stopped working :( I notice a weird thing: if the jack is not fully inserted the sound come out but very weak.

I bought a steinberger among other traveler guitars since I thought it was a strong branded name. I travel 80% of the days of a month and I keep recording using logic-pro in a laptop....I was looking for something reliable and a piece of quality.

but from the above I can say the QC/IPQC/ in the chinese factory where they are producing this junk must be blind (I'm a manufacturing engineer manager with 7 years experience in China) and looking at this kind of quality issue I can imagine to which kind of factory they produced in China).

 

if you need picture I can send you (also a Video). BTW the customer support/assitance for the above defects has been near ridicolous.

I dont want to keep complaining, I just hope someone from the forum will be able to address the issue of the sound or I wont be able to play during the next 4 weeks :(

 

please help

[Giordano]

3 months of life...supposed to be the best of the line!!!

 

I called all the possible customer support numbers! what shall I DO TO PLAY AGAIN THIS 1000$ GUITAR?

 

I brought it to the authorized Gibson shop in Minneapolis...they took 40$ without being able to fix it!

 

 

WHAT SHALL I DO TO PLAY AGAIN THIS GUITAR?!!!

[Bassguy]

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[Soulless]

Hi friend, ill try to answer you as best i can:

 

I believe the reason for the markings to be offset between the top and the side of the fretboard/neck is because of the option to use a capo.

Its not misprinted in any way, it is supposed to be that way. Now, you might find it an issue or even confusing, but it is the way the guitar is designed.

 

The noise when changing volume and/or the missing paint i cannot comment on but it sounds like issues that should be adressed.

 

About you main issue i would recommend looking into the electronics. See if you have a bad or even loose wire where a soldering might have broken.

Maybe when you changed the battery, tugging on the wires might have pulled a wire loose from the input or one of the components.

Open up the guitar (very gently) and take a look around. If you find a loose end of a wire, you should have no problems finding where its supposed to be attached and can fairly easily solder it back. Either do it youself or if you know someone with the experience.

 

Hope it helps at least a little bit!

[RaSTuS]

1- the fretboard markings on the side (not on the top) were all positioned wrong with an offset of 2 frets: basically while the markings on the top of the fretboard were located at the 3,5,7,9,12,15 frets, on the side all the markings were starting at the 5th fret and therefore 5,7,9,11,14,17.

The reason for the different markings is because of the capo. When the capo isn't used the guitar is in Baritone tuning using a 28 1/2" scale and the markers on the front should be used, when the capo is set to the 2nd fret the guitar is in Tenor tuning and uses a scale length of 25 1/2", in that case the side markers should be used. I always tune mine to standard tuning with the capo set at the 2nd fret, that way I can go down to Baritone if I chose to.

 

Mine arrived with everything in order, perfect in fact, so I can't comment about your other issues except to say that the noisy volume control is probably a bad potentiometer.

 

Also, regarding the battery issue, have you tried using a standard alkaline battery rather than a rechargeable one, rechargeable batteries don't have the same voltage as alkaline ones, for example a 1.5V AA rechargeable battery usually only carries 1.2V.

[Billyt]

I have been happily playing my Transcale the last few months but have hit the same problem.

 

Noticed the sound go out & thought it was my leads, then changed a brand new battery still nothing straight away, plugged in another lead & it worked so thought I had a dodgy lead.

 

Now a few weeks later its died altogther. No sound, except the weak sound when half plugged in like the op said.

 

I checked and changed the battery lead & input jack, still nothing, so I setup a simple single pot/power/output jack from some spare EMG wiring I had & it works.

 

So, suspect something on the PCB has died, but bugger me what it is. Looked up an old price for replacement, $400!! screw that.

 

Unless some bright ideas, I will see what replacement parts I can scrounge together from EMG pots & switches, but I will have to mix in the peizo pickup with the actives somehow (I'm assuming the piezo is passive) and probably loose the active EQ, but I just had them cranked to 10 all the time anyway...