Ibanez AEG5EJP: Pre-amp AEQ-200T behavior

[Recycler]

Is anyone out there familiar with this setup?

I bought this Ibanez AEG5EJP used. The pre-ano (Ibanez AEQ-200T, probably original) works fine when the guitar is plugged in but the tuner and its tell-tale lights only work when a cable is plugged into the jack. The pre-amp and tuner work fine even with a cable plugged into an amp that isn't powered on or a plug with no cable whatsoever.

A new 9-V battery for the pre-amp doesn't help.

All of the other acoustic/electric guitars I've experienced have tuners that work regardless of whether there is anything in the output jack.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jim Schessler

The Guitar Recycler

[Goat Mick]

Usually plugging in the cable turns on power to the preamp. If everything works as expected when it’s plugged in, I wouldn’t mess with it and just use a headstock tuner.

[MarkF_48]

This may answer your question......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIIVPyrcRgg

[Recycler]

MarkF:

Yep, that did it.

I thought it might be this but it seems kind of wonky that you'd need to plug in for your tuner to work. I have had dozens of A/Es through the shop and this is the first one exhibiting this behavior.

The referenced YouTube had a link on how to keep the tuner switched "on" all the time (but over-ridden by the button). I'm not sure if that might keep the pre-amp on permanently and thus drain the battery.

My current solution is to just make up a dummy plus and remove it only when playing plugged in to an amp.

Another solution might be to wire it "on" permanently and remove the battery for long term storage.

Thanks again for all the helpful responses.

Jim

The Guitar Recycler