Original AA battery Expression System Ground Loop repair

[Twik]

So let me get the preliminaries out of the way... I'm aware of the upgrade options. I've also double, triple and quadrupled my troubleshooting and know where the problem is. Having said that I have a 614CE (beautiful LI I might add) that has developed the ground loop issues. While it's pretty straight forward to repair the fuse in the 9V version, not so much in the AA version. To the point that I couldn't even find confirmation that it had the fuse until this morning. Unfortunately that Luthier is the closest (that I know of) to me and he is a 2 hr drive. Trust me, if I could, i would make the drive... But I can't and I really need to fix this ASAP.

The challenge is, the AA version power pack is fully enclosed (once it is removed from the guitar). I can not find any guide nor directions to get the circuit board exposed and I'm fearful of breaking something. Buzz is one thing, fully broke, i'm screwed.
 
For what it's worth, I do plan to get the Upgrade through Taylor (for the power pack, not sure about messing with anything else if possible), but I need a window of time and the cash... Fortunately I don't have the window of time at the moment as i'm busy gigging through the end of the year and this is, unfortunately, my only gigging rig.

Additional FWIW, I actually love the sound of this expression system... I've seen many different opinions and while I'm not an expert, I am a bit of a tone snob and have had more luck with this system sounding true than any other I've worked with to date. Not to mention, I've received many more compliments on my sound from other musicians, than any of my prior rigs.

Thank you for any guidance!!!

[Edward]

...The challenge is, the AA version power pack is fully enclosed (once it is removed from the guitar). I can not find any guide nor directions to get the circuit board exposed and I'm fearful of breaking something. Buzz is one thing, fully broke, i'm screwed....

If you've got the assembly in your hands, and it's not coming apart with any obvious signs (like a clamshell, or a tab, or such), then it's likely (my guess only) glued together.  So yes, you're done here!  If you are skilled with a dremel, it's likely not hard to open the plastic assembly, knowing full well that you're "breaking" the housing (albeit carefully) to open it and will require you to either glue or tape it together for reassembly.  Once open, you're likely to see the fuse.

Notice my profuse use of the word, "likely."  Have you tried calling the mothership and asking to speak with an ES-savvy tech as to what's actually under the hood as perhaps they can give you specific guidance.  And this may require a little bit of pressing and patience since the last 3v ES was on the 2006 models, so who knows how many of them actually even had worked on one. 

So if you have to finish out your gigs with a buzzing, perhaps judicious use of a mute pedal (say a tuner pedal) may be your best stop-gap measure before you upgrade.  Sorry I have nothing better to suggest.  But if you end up going to ES1.3, it sounds stellar and zero problems (I had upgraded two of my old Taylors to this version and was awesome).  Report back if you get a solution! 

Edward

[Twik]

Edward,

Thank you for the insightful response. I've note made the call, yet, but plan to. I will keep you posted. I appreciate the comments about the upgrade. If I do make noteworthy headway, I will share.

-Twik