problem with electronics, Mini Koa

[riffmeister]

Hi All, thanks to the admins for approving my membership! This is my first post. Between my wife and myself we have five Taylor guitars. My wife and I have an acoustic duo and we play out regularly in the greater Quakertown, PA area. I use my Taylor Academy 10e, it is an absolutely outstanding instrument and, being an "entry level" instrument, is a testament to the absolutely outstanding quality of instruments offered by the Taylor guitar company.

Anywho, I have a Koa Mini that has been sitting in its case for almost two years. I pulled it out a couple days ago, put in a battery (I always store guitars without batteries), plugged it into our rehearsal PA system, and wtf? It sounds EXTREMELY bass heavy, I had to turn down the bass control all the way to make it sound almost acceptable. With the bass control at the detent position, it was 100% unplayable, complete mush and feedback city. I fiddled with the three bridge set screws for the piezo pickup, moved the internal phase switch back and forth, tried a different battery, unplugged and re-plugged the piezo wire on the internal preamp board, all to no avail. So I'm thinking there is a problem on the preamp board itself, maybe one of the components has gone off. Before I order a new preamp board, does anyone have any other ideas about this problem?

[Frettingflyer]

It wouldn’t be the first bad pre amp board, but mine happened when new. Kind of odd that it failed while stored. I am no expert, but the piezo screws are very sensitive and should only be turned a little at a time. Also, only the bass one would seem to need to be turned if the other strings were fine?
Hopefully one of our more knowledgeable members will weigh in. I don’t use the electronics too much. I do prefer the version 1.3 though when it comes to the ES.
Best of luck.

[Edward]

Welcome aboard, Riff!

Sorry about your troubles ...especially since it was simply sitting in its case.  That is genuinely weird!  And it sounds like you've covered the usual suspects.  I think after your attempts, it is in fact time to call the mothership.  Give them your zipcode and they will refer you to a factory-authorized tech who can address the problem.  If you are the original owner it's covered; if not, Taylor is pretty good about working with you.  Chime back in with what ya learn!

Edward

[rydell]

Have you put fresh strings on it yet?

[Earl]

Riff, your troubleshooting process looks fine to me and just what I would have done.  I too store my guitars without batteries in the holders.  I have suffered leaking batteries in the past and prevention is way easier than clean-up.  Sometimes electronic things just mysteriously die.  Hopefully a Taylor tech can take care of you.  They were of limited use when my T5 volume pot became scratchy from disuse (long story).  I sprayed some De-oxit into the shaft of the pot after removing the knob to reduce the problem, but it was not a permanent solution.  Their suggestion was to buy a new board and wiring harness for $144 (it had changed since my T5 was built) and have a tech install it.  I had hoped to simply replace the the one faulty potentiometer, but alas modular construction did not allow for that.

I don't have any direct experience with ES2 as I have purposefully avoided that system.  I have read that the Allen key adjustments on the three elements are VERY sensitive - like 1/8 of a turn being a LOT.

[rydell]

A GSM Koa takes two 2032 batteries stacked in the holder, flat side down. If you're using a single battery, that could be the problem.