A few months ago, when I went to play my PRS SE Hollowbody Standard, there’s was no output. Dead silence out of the amp. I changed from my wireless to a cable, tried a different amp, nothing. Tried again the next day, same thing. My Strat-type worked fine.
I took it back to the shop and it worked fine there. Back home it was fine, and has worked fine since. Until today. Same routine: no signal, Strat-type worked fine. I hate going back to the shop again and looking like an idiot. Anyone else experience this?
Sounds to me like an intermittent connection inside the PRS guitar body, maybe a cold solder joint on the female guitar jack or volume or tone control. That might explain the wireless and cable not working. (my background is in electronics)
… also you can google PRS SE Hollowbody Standard schematic to get an idea what’s inside. An intermittent short inside to the guitar ground would also kill the signal. An open circuit might tend to cause severe hum in the amp
I was about to post about an intermittent problem, then saw this.
The nature of them is that it’s difficult to trouble shoot and then know you’ve actually fixed it.
At least you seem to have isolated it to the guitar. I’ve no idea where my volume reduction issue is yet.
I read of one recently where someone eventually traced their problem to a fridge compressor starting and causing a problem via a shared power extension.
If you’ve shown it is the guitar, I would take it back. I think I’d contact them with what you’ve tested along with a suggestion that they may not be able to reproduce the error, but they could have a look at the electronics and see if there is anything suspicious.
silly but make 100% sure that you don’t havbe a pickup rolled off in combo with a pickup selector switch making a bad contact. speaking of contact; I always have a can of “contact spray” the liquid spray with a little tube that you use for pots and dials etc. it cleans contacts without being a conductor.
I have two guitars with dodgy selector switch. I flip it back and forth a couple times and it all works fine for a few days, then can go quiet. This is my first bet on what is happening.
Your gain pot can be suspect, but so far, mine have not been the problem. If they rotate noisy, then those become more suspect. If they rotate cleanly, then unlikely.
You ruled out the cable but not the output jack. If you wiggle the cable in the jack a little, see if it will come back. You can also try wiggling at the amp input jack. I doubt these are likley since a different guitar worked, but it is possible.
I haven’t looked inside a PRS. Solder joint is possible, but unlikely unless someone unskilled has been in there. If they use connectors like I have seen on other guitars, then it is not too bad to make sure those are hooked up if you don’t mind taking the pickups off and looking inside. If you have an inspection mirror, you can save the removal if you can fit it in and see how it looks. I think this is low liklihood since it worked at the shop and then not at home a day later. Those usually come all the way apart with movement.
I’d be interested to see what they say. I’m working on an Ibanez bass with a similar issue. I suspect it’s badly grounded somehow - it either cuts out or sends a terrific humming through the amp. I replaced one pot, but no change. Output jack is solid.
