Taylor 416CE with ES 1.3 Preamp is "motorboating"

[TomCarlos]

Hey friends....

Maybe this is a long shot for MEF. But you never know who might stumble across this video.

My Taylor 416CE has the ES 1.3 system. This system uses a contact on the body and magnetic pickup between the neck and body. The color attached image is of an earlier design where the magnetic pickup is NOT under the neck. Look at the B?W photo. The strings are grounded through a bar under the bridge.

The guitar has developed a "motorboat" sound in the last few months. As I bring the guitar near my amp or an electrical power cable, I can hear a motorboard sound coming through the amp. Yes, I tried different guitar cables, different amp, different room, etc. It is definitely coming from the amp.

Here is a video I posted on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GVRQk56a5rw

Is it possible that one of the pickups has developed a bad ground connection? Maybe something has happened to the circuit board?

If anyone has heard this kind of issue with an active pickup / preamp system, I would appreciate hearing from you.

I have contacted Taylor Guitars and awaiting a reply.

Thanks, Tom

[The Dude]

May seem a dumb question, but have you checked or changed the battery?

[Helmholtz]

To me it sounds like a low frequency EMI noise.
Do you have an electric guitar or bass to compare?

[TomCarlos]

May seem a dumb question, but have you checked or changed the battery?

To me it sounds like a low frequency EMI noise.
Do you have an electric guitar or bass to compare?

@ Dude - Yes, that is the first thing I checked. New battery installed, same Issue.

@ Helmhotz - Yes, using the same amp and chord, I plugged in my Ibanez Electric - motorboating gone!! I also have two other Taylor guitars with the later ES 2 system. Those guitars did not exhibit the noise. I get what you mean by some type of EMI noise. That is why I tested multiple cables, amps, outlets in the house, the whole 9 yards!! I was thinking maybe something was feeding onto my circuit in that room. But while this was happening, I had my friend playing through another amp (at the same time) and no problem. I also had a keyboard player here and no motorboating from his keys and amp. So the issue was on my setup only.

I put my telescopic mirror inside the guitar body. Everything looks clean, no loose wires. I don't know if it is worth pulling the circuit board and pulling each connector and resetting it after some DeoxIt cleaner.

I sent an email to Taylor. Let me see if they respond. I highly doubt the contact pickup or string sensor (the super mini magnetic pickup) would suddenly go bad. I an leaning towards an issue on the circuit board. A replacement is under $125.

Thanks mates!

[The Dude]

It would be much easier to figure out if everything wasn't buried inside an acoustic guitar! I feel your pain, Tom.

[DrGonz78]

I would clean all connections to eliminate them from the equation. While I was doing that I would inspect the board for any bad solder joints. I know you already know about the 15ma fuse or whatever it is. I remember reading your thread about it years ago and I have dealt with 3 Taylor acoustics with fuses blown on the ground. I read on google hit where the site is dedicated to fixing problems with the ES-2 system and they literally say taking it apart and back together may just fix some problems. Sounds like my old desktop computer!!


Well hope you get a break soon and figure out what is wrong.

[TomCarlos]

I would clean all connections to eliminate them from the equation. While I was doing that I would inspect the board for any bad solder joints. I know you already know about the 15ma fuse or whatever it is. I remember reading your thread about it years ago and I have dealt with 3 Taylor acoustics with fuses blown on the ground. I read on google hit where the site is dedicated to fixing problems with the ES-2 system and they literally say taking it apart and back together may just fix some problems. Sounds like my old desktop computer!! Well hope you get a break soon and figure out what is wrong.

Thanks Doc..... Yes, I bypassed the fuse that is inline with the ground lead. In fact, the next Generation ES system eliminated the fuse entirely.

Pulling the preamp out is not a big deal. The issue is loosening the cables from the straps that are inside the body. I'll come back to this when I hear from Taylor or make some progress.

[TomCarlos]

By the way, here is the ES 1.3 circuit board. For those interested, the v1.3 has a single white switch on the bottom side where the v1.0 and v1.2 had two switches with (slightly) different pickup configurations.

[mauman]

Motorboating might be a failed preamp, but intermittent motorboating doesn't fit that idea. Here's an off-chance idea, but worth checking. The pickup under the neck is a single coil, but gains humbucking capability from a companion dummy coil just to the right of it in your pic, it's the loop just above the legend "Expression System." If the dummy coil is disconnected, the neck pickup is no longer humbucking. Also, some of the cabling is shielded, there might be a shield lead disconnected from a ground point somewhere.