Skysonic Pro 1: bypass battery

[jegenes]

Hi all,

I installed a Skysonic Pro-1 in my old Gibson J-45 and it sounds reasonably good so far. Question for this thread is this:

I use external preamps that deliver phantom power (Fishman, DTar, Baggs, etc), via a stereo guitar cable. I've bypassed the battery in my Fishman Rare Earth pickups by jumping the poles together. This doesn't seem to work for the Skysonic, though. Replacing the battery in that little velcro bag is a complete pain in the neck. I have to remove the entire pickup in order to get my hand in there to do it. (this is why I use external preamps in my other instruments...)

I haven't been able to find any decent schematics online, either. Does anyone know how I can wire it in order to eliminate the 9v battery and use phantom power from my preamps? thanks.

--john

[jegenes]

I'm making slight progress, though I still haven't managed to find any schematics for the Skysonic pickup rig. I've taken the rig out of the guitar, and here's what I have so far:

I used a meter to test the power output from my DTar Solstice. It is working correctly. I'm using a stereo (balanced TRS) guitar cable from it to my guitar.

I found the positive terminal on the guitar's jack and ran a parallel cable from the guitar's jack to the postive point on the battery input of the Skysonic pickup. I grounded the negative terminal. The rig powers up okay, and I can use the volume controls on the mic, the soundhole pickup, and the contact pickup.

But there is a continuous clicking sound when it is powered up. Not being a true electronics geek, I don't really know what it is. I'm guessing it needs some sort of capacitor in the path, but I have no idea where to put that.

So to sum up, I have the rig wired normally for a stereo (TRS) guitar cable and it works fine that way, with the battery installed. The only thing I've done is to add a wire from the guitar jack's phantom power terminal and hook it to the "+" side of the battery input on the pickup. I then grounded the "-" side of the battery connection and bypassed the battery itself. The phantom power is putting out approximately 14 volts DC, if that makes a difference. It never has made a difference to any of my other dual source instruments (mandolins, guitars, dobros, etc), all with 2 pickup sources--most requiring 9V battery or phantom power.

Thanks for any insights you can offer.

best,

--john