the Fly Clone Project

I have a DF824 that I just had to take to the shop because it wasn't nearly as 'hot' as before. The tech believes the control board is dead. (Plug in - starts out hot for a second or two and then drops.) Anyone know of a way/place to get a replacement board, or to have the board repaired? The option is to totally bypass it (I'd lose the piezo), which isn't a bad option, but I'd like to keep it as 'original' as possible.

Thanks in advance for the feedback. And for your viewing pleasure, here's the guitar:

Welcome, @jn668ntb. Going by the chrome piezo saddles in your 824, they're Fishman and utilize the Fishman Powerchip preamp. The good news is that Fishman has never stopped producing the Powerchip; meaning you can order a new one through any Fishman dealer/retailer (or direct from Fishman, if you prefer), and can occasionally find used ones online for a decent price (although I currently see none on eBay or Reverb, you can always solicit for a used one in the Classifieds here or in the various Parker Facebook groups).

Regarding having yours repaired: The most common failure I see is the PCB frying at and around the input from the battery "hot" wire in a way that toasts the board (with only the PCB-mount 250k pot salvageable). I can't speak to whether Fishman would repair (or even consider repairing) a Powerchip board out of warranty for less than the cost of a new one. If you wouldn't mind posting photos of the damaged one after it's been removed from the guitar, perhaps one of us can spot whether a 9 volt short caused traces and/or components to burn out.

#PiezoIssues

Is this helpful?

jn668ntb wrote: ↑Fri Oct 27, 2023 9:48 pm Is this helpful?

Apologies for the delay - I seem to have misplaced the Powerchip I was going to photograph for comparison.

It may be a trick of the light, but there looks to be some burnout and corrosion on your PCB.

The photos in this post are examples of a "healthy" one.

Again, I apologize for this reply not being as informative as I'd hoped. Did you end up getting a replacement Powerchip installed?

From the photo, I'd say that powerchip is toast.
Its easy enough to wire up a replacement and for a few hundred dollars that's what I recommend.

They sound really nice and don't take up a lot of real estate. Buy the chip and let a decent tech have their way with it.

YMMV