94 Epic 6 String Woes

[bass88]

Hi My Epic 6 String is acting up.
when I play its distorted, cloudy, and theres this weird Leslie or flanger thing going on like someone is messing with the tone controls kind of sounds like I'm playing under water have replaced the battery and it worked properly for about 2 hours or so then did it again, since then even battery replacement does not help.  Also, is it normal for the laminations on the back of the neck to have a ridge or kind of a seam that you can see and feel or should they be seamless?

[mario_farufyno]

Don't know why such odd behaviour on sound (may be problems with electronics), but is normal that different woods behave differently at Neck lamination. It is natural expect differences if some will shrink and others expand. My Neck is the same, but this doesn't bothers me (in fact, I got used to feel this seam as a trail to my Thumb).

[terryc]

Check that none of the pre amp modules or pots are touching the silver shielding paint as well as the battery clip connectors..sounds an easy fix but you never know..it may stop the problem.

[bass88]

Thanks guys I'll give it another look today. I think that I may send it in to the factory for a once over
and maybe even an electronics mod anyway. I just got it and it's my first Alembic and first six string.

[bass88]

OK so I played hooky from work, said my standard,  I'm in a meeting for two hours BS  and went home to lolly-gag with the Alembic. I took the backplate off and plugged it in lo & behold no strange sounds (other than quite loud hissing when treble is turned up).  
 
wiggled some wires and problem never came back something must be loose in there and touch the shielding paint from time to time.  
 
Of course that only took ten minutes the other 1:50 was spent funkin'out LOL

[mica]

If the solder side of the boards is able to rotate and contact the shielding paint (usually at the end of rotation, the board just rides along inside), this will cause the sound to cut out entirely.  
 
To cure this, you remove the knobs, and tighten the nut on the bushing of the control while holding fast on the board from the inside to prevent rotation. The wood cells compress over time under pressure, and these do need to be reseated after a few years.  
 
Does your output jack have a small orange capacitor on it? If not, adding it will cut the extreme highs, and relieve the high end hissing too). You can also keep the hissing and extreme high boost at bay by keeping the control away for the extreme settings. It's always a tradeoff with engineering.

[mica]

Also, can you measure the voltage of the battery?

[bass88]

Thanks Mica I checked the Volume pot and it was loose, it had also spun about 10 degrees or so and a couple of pins on the circuit board were shorting out against what looked like a torroidal core or ferrite ring. the Bass Pot is loose too although it looks the same its slightly different under the cap so I avoided messing with it until I can figure it out.  
 
The problem has stopped for now but there is still a slight wavering but only when playing the open A which makes that string kind of muddy just at the moment of attack.  
 
The capacitor is not there perhaps I should think about installing?? For some instances I really like the glassy highs for a different texture. Will I have to give that up along with the hiss?