Epiphone PR-5E w Shadow eSonic preamp and pickup

[dahlungril]

So this guitar is acting strange.  Fresh batteries.  

 

1.  With the guitar unplugged (either at the guitar or at the DI) the tuner functions as expected.

2.  When I plug in the patch cord (either at the guitar or at the DI depending on which end was disconnected in previous step) I get signal output fine but when I engage the tuner it doesn't register any strings and just registers "LO" (tune not battery indicator).  Also with the tuner off, their seems to be a low frequency hum.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[dahlungril]

Never mind it was a bad ground.  got it.

[dahlungril]

back at square one. any help appreciated

 

[FlyAway2013]

hey i need some major help, i've recently ordered an epiphone pr5-e, however the music store that ive ordered from, did not have the preamp for the guitar, however the pickups and all that are built in, they said they had supplier issues, anyways what preamps i could use instead of the eSonic or where can i get myself the eSonics  ?? please reply ASAP !!

[WRGKMC]

Dont know why you'd by a guitar without the preamp. Is there a hole in the guitar for it to fit? Did you pay top dollar for a canabalized guitar?

In any case, if it has the pickup in there it requires a matching sonic preamp because its not your normal piezo transducer. Its a low impedance transducer that picks up sound directly from the strings and from the body. A normal piezo preamp would likely have too much gain and distort the signal. The original preamp is also an oddball size, not your normal square one with rounded sides.

I'd check with Shaddow, the maker of the pickup and preamp and see what they have.