P44 with quiet piezo

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JimmyFly
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P44 with quiet piezo

Post by JimmyFly »

I just bought a P44 in really excellent condition, hardly played. The humbuckers sound fine but the piezo's volume/output seems very weak in comparison. (maybe 30% of the humbucker's output). I put a new battery in and have the guitar in stereo mode with a Y stereo cable split into a 2 input amp with the controls the same for each input cable. Is this typical of P44's?
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vjmanzo
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Re: P44 with quiet piezo

Post by vjmanzo »

Is there a blue trim pot on the piezo preamp (inside the guitar)?
JimmyFly
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Re: P44 with quiet piezo

Post by JimmyFly »

VJ, thanks for your suggestion. I opened up the back and found a small yellow adjustment switch on the piezo pot which seems to help a lot. Back to my happy place. :)
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vjmanzo
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Re: P44 with quiet piezo

Post by vjmanzo »

Oh great! I’m glad this worked out!
Mike987
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Re: P44 with quiet piezo

Post by Mike987 »

Im currently dealing with this on my p44 pro. I thought the piezo was completely dead until I tried it with the amp turned up pretty loud and realized it’s just super low output. I’ve had a few Parker’s that for some reason had the trim pot turned down.
Sometimes they sound like crap if turned up all the way..unfortunately there’s more of an issue with my p44 pro as it’s not the trim pot. I tried ordering a piezo chip but the one I ordered looks nothing like the one in my p44 pro.

On one of my other regular model p44, I have low output in just two saddles. I’m going to assume that it’s probably just the connections to those two saddles on that. I’m not really a guitar tech so besides the chip, grounding, and the battery, I can’t really think of what else it could be..since there IS output, it’s just really low.
2x p30, 2x p32, 2x p36, 2x p38, 6x p40, 2x p42, 3x p44, 2x nitefly, fly mojo, fly bronze, 2x hornet bass
chrisandrews
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Re: P44 with quiet piezo

Post by chrisandrews »

Could be dry joint on saddle wires, maybe re-flow them to see if that rectifys issue. If not, they could be on the way out so would need replacing.
Mike987 wrote: Thu Nov 23, 2023 11:43 pm Im currently dealing with this on my p44 pro. I thought the piezo was completely dead until I tried it with the amp turned up pretty loud and realized it’s just super low output. I’ve had a few Parker’s that for some reason had the trim pot turned down.
Sometimes they sound like crap if turned up all the way..unfortunately there’s more of an issue with my p44 pro as it’s not the trim pot. I tried ordering a piezo chip but the one I ordered looks nothing like the one in my p44 pro.

On one of my other regular model p44, I have low output in just two saddles. I’m going to assume that it’s probably just the connections to those two saddles on that. I’m not really a guitar tech so besides the chip, grounding, and the battery, I can’t really think of what else it could be..since there IS output, it’s just really low.
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