Sounds like it could be a dirty selector switch. If it was a power issue it should decrease in volume no matter where the selector was... Unless you have something weird going on like... Active and passive pickups in the same guitar. I had an old RG Korean made ibanez that did the same thing. My guess... Switch is dirty or you have a cold solder for that position. If you have a soldering iron, just reheat each pole on the selector switch to re-liquify the solder... And give it a test. If it doesn't fix your issue, and the switch isn't completely closed... Spray some contact cleaner in the switch and flick the blade back and forth a few times (I am assuming it's a blade switch not a 3 position toggle like a Les Paul).
Volume decreasing/increasing....on its own
I have a Ibanez RG5170 Prestige....in Black. I've had it about 3-4 weeks no issues. It has the 9volt battery, not sure how old it was I put in a new Energizer Lithium about 9 days ago. All of a sudden yesterday, as I was playing in bridge only mode the volume decreased about 50%, I hit the strings a few times and it slowly came back. over an hours time, it did this about 3 times. I accidentally left it connected overnite, (unplugging the cord powers off the 9v battery, so I understand?)..so I figured even though its supposedly the best (Energizer Lithium) battery may be going down. I did the old lick trick, sure enough seemed weak, so a put in another new Energizer Lithium 9v....problem solved...so I thought.
After a bit, it again did this strange volume, decrease....down to nothing then after a few seconds, volume comes back to normal. I switched to the middle and neck pickup, and pow...volume is there. When it does this, the volume decrease only lasts about 10-15 seconds, so while volume was down, I switched to the middle and bridge pickups, and no issues the volume was there. Switching back to bridge only.....volume was low, and slowly came back to normal.
It seems to only do this in bridge only mode. So my questions are:
1) Is it the battery ? is Lithium ok? can I use rechargeables?
2) I don't see any +/- signs, I was very careful and put the new batterys in exactly as the old were installed as far as +/-
3) Being this only happens on the bridge pickup...I'm wondering if that pickup is bad?
I should go ahead and reveal I'm using wireless remotes (no cables) between the guitar and the amp, I have not tested with just a cable, but, I have 3 different sets of wireless, never had issues with any and the problems exists on all 3 wireless sets. I'm going to try it with a cable tomorrow.
Has anyone had this happen or hear of this happening ?
After a bit, it again did this strange volume, decrease....down to nothing then after a few seconds, volume comes back to normal. I switched to the middle and neck pickup, and pow...volume is there. When it does this, the volume decrease only lasts about 10-15 seconds, so while volume was down, I switched to the middle and bridge pickups, and no issues the volume was there. Switching back to bridge only.....volume was low, and slowly came back to normal.
It seems to only do this in bridge only mode. So my questions are:
1) Is it the battery ? is Lithium ok? can I use rechargeables?
2) I don't see any +/- signs, I was very careful and put the new batterys in exactly as the old were installed as far as +/-
3) Being this only happens on the bridge pickup...I'm wondering if that pickup is bad?
I should go ahead and reveal I'm using wireless remotes (no cables) between the guitar and the amp, I have not tested with just a cable, but, I have 3 different sets of wireless, never had issues with any and the problems exists on all 3 wireless sets. I'm going to try it with a cable tomorrow.
Has anyone had this happen or hear of this happening ?
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This is a Made in Japan RG5170...and brand new. I've only had it 2 weeks. Surely the switch cant be dirty from a few hours playing in my room. It doesn't do it "when" I move the switch. It just does it out of the blue, when the switch hasn't been moved in a day or two. When I moved the switch to another pickup, its fine, them back on the bridge...sound is low. Then in bout 15 seconds it creeps back to normal all on its own, if I do or do not move the switch.Sounds like it could be a dirty selector switch. If it was a power issue it should decrease in volume no matter where the selector was... Unless you have something weird going on like... Active and passive pickups in the same guitar. I had an old RG Korean made ibanez that did the same thing. My guess... Switch is dirty or you have a cold solder for that position. If you have a soldering iron, just reheat each pole on the selector switch to re-liquify the solder... And give it a test. If it doesn't fix your issue, and the switch isn't completely closed... Spray some contact cleaner in the switch and flick the blade back and forth a few times (I am assuming it's a blade switch not a 3 position toggle like a Les Paul).
I put it on a cord today....and issue didn't happen, so after an hour I went back to my wireless......still didnt happen. Seems to have gone away. I've made no mods, to it. all the PU are active.
NOW...one thing, I did change the strings and had to re-set up. The pickup (bridge) was pretty close to the strings...I lowered it a bit maybe that fixed it?
I'm trying to remember if it did this before I changed the strings.
And yes, its a 5 position blade switch.
That's a funky weird issue haha. Could be a number of different things... sounds like it has something to do with the "active" circuit from your description. Hopefully it won't happen again. How new is it? If it's really new you have a warranty.
ITs off the shelf at the store new...I still have 30 days to return it and get my money back, so its for sure under warranty. I'm hoping its an issue with the wireless remote. I've got 3 sets, one of them did something similar to this, it would black out for a half second.....every so often. But I wasn't using that one, plus it did it on all 3 sets, and this is a fade out and back in not a black out.That's a funky weird issue haha. Could be a number of different things... sounds like it has something to do with the "active" circuit from your description. Hopefully it won't happen again. How new is it? If it's really new you have a warranty.
thats why I was asking if it matters on the type of battery used. I want to say I read somewhere you can only use a certain type of 9v battery, but I can't find that article now.
Surly an energizer lithium is ok. I could see if it didn't like a rechargeable but not a regular energizer thats lithium.
Do you know if it matters on the battery...within reason, if its a certain brand, rechargable, lithium? Those should all be fine, as long as it not some weird or homemade battery.
Not sure to be honest. Some devices are odd with batteries of different types. They are both 9 volt batteries but they could be putting out a different amount of milliamps. For example my digitech drop pedal it needs 400mA or higher... Some pedals are still 9 volt but cannot run with a battery because they need more mA than a battery can provide...
That example is probably not the reason why you're having an issue, but sometimes weird **** happens when you change simple things. But I could see the type of battery could cause an odd problem like you're having.
That example is probably not the reason why you're having an issue, but sometimes weird **** happens when you change simple things. But I could see the type of battery could cause an odd problem like you're having.
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