How to replace or repair an acoustic guitar pickup and preamp (piezo pickup)

How to replace or repair an electro acoustic guitar piezo pickup (a Fishman Isys piezo pickup and preamp)

In this video I remove a Fishman Isys preamp and peizo pickup from an electro acoustic guitar and fit a replacement, a very similar Fishman Isys pickup system. The process would be very similar for any other make of acoustic guitar with an under-saddle piezo pickup and preamp. During the pickup replacement process I explain every step of how I'm doing the replacement and explain other problems and solutions that you might come across with acoustic pickup and preamp systems. This Fishman Isys pickup was factory fitted in a James Neligan electro acoustic guitar which I've owned for several years and was second hand when I bought it, so I have no idea how old it is. The tuner in the preamp I am replacing is broken, which is why I decided to change the whole system. Fishman pickups and preamps supposedly have a lifetime guarantee but they ignored all my emails and James Neligan first responded very positively and said they would do something, but never did.

If your guitar peizo pickup and preamp has quite strings or strings that are too load then you will need to watch this video. I will explain in detail what is causing your pickup to pickup some strings at a different volume to the rest and explain how to repair you acoustic guitar so your piezo pickup, pickups all the strings uniformly.

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[cannabiscze]

Hello, nice tutorial ! I have Fender CD-100 with Fishman isys 3 and last few months I have problem with Tuner. Its interesting, it goes right with old battery (measured 8, 1V) - although the battery diode is shining like low battery, it works fine. When I put new battery, Tuner does nothing at all (measured 9, 3V on battery). Pre-amps works fine with both batteries, just tuner has problem with all new 9V batteries. Does anyone know how to solve it? 😄

[petercollard]

My new Fishman arrived today and I installed it correctly in 1 hour following your excellent video. Thanks very much.

[MyMnielsen]

Just bought a guitar that needs replacement electronics. This is super helpful! I am ready to dig in!

[MurkyFall]

You could wrap a rubber band a few times around the battery to fill the gap and reduce vibration. Hope this helps.

[lmkigondu]

This is so informative! It has answered a number of questions for me concerning guitar repairs. Thanks a lot, sir! Blessings!

[horseror]

Freebird! Thanks for the video - I'll be doing this for my classical acoustic soon. I wasn't aware that the pickup was wedged between the saddle and the bridge, good to know!

[sunnyjim]

Thank you for the Fishman replacement video. I’ve just bought Fender DG60CE from eBay. The seller classed it as good condition, but neglected to mention 1. Battery utterly dead; 2. Tuner/Preamp/Pickup don’t work.
After spraying tons of isopropyl alcohol into the tuner switch it tries to work, but I think the pick up is fragged as there is no output to the amplifier.

[edmbit]

Thank you so much - this explains why my Fishman has been giving me rattle and low amplitude on the high E/B . This will be my go-to video for when I get around to redoing my acoustic preamp wiring and saddle checklist.

[lisanelson]

Thank you so much! I bought a used acoustic guitar and it has a Fishman. Everything was fine the first night I plug into my speaker but the second night it wasn’t working and I could not tune it. I found it very hard to find a replacement but eventually I found one on eBay and decided to take the chance. I followed your directions, testing first and I did it! My guitar plays wonderfully now. I hope it lasts!

[rp]

Excellent video. Clear and informative. Thank you.

[robertkelly]

I've finally gotten around to installing that Fishman 301 Presys Blend in my Briarwood acoustic. I reviewed your video again prior to getting started. It was of great help. I've got the job about halfway completed, it took longer than I'd anticipated to fit the endpin jack. Tomorrow I start cutting. 😏😏😏

[Ramon]

Since I bought my electro acoustic guitar one year ago, I've had this weird buzzing noise when I played the G-string coming from inside my guitar. It only made this noise when I was playing the guitar normally, not when I put it down on a flat surface. I tried so many things to fix it, but could never narrow down what was wrong with it.

It turns out that the one cable connecting my battery to the chromatic tuner (CL-4) ended with a screw thread, and there was a small ring supposed be screwed around it, but it was loose. This means it was always moving around, and when I played the G-string it would rattle against the plastic cable.

Thanks to this video I was able to take out the tuner and fix the ring back into place. It now still buzzes a tiny bit when I hit the heavy E, but it's much better than before. I have no idea why they designed a cable like that. Judging by the fact that it worked fine for a year with a loose ring moving around the body of my guitar, the cable probably doesn't need the ring to begin with. I wish I could just easily remove it altogether...

Anyways, thanks so much for making this video!

[Manny_J]

Great video man. I’m about to replace my my input jack on my Ibanez and found you’re video.

[martinyao]

Thank you for helping me to repair my guitar's pickup!~ It works now

[harrisonandrew]

The most difficult bit of this procedure is getting the pickup back through the bridge hole. I have a thin line ACOUSTIC guitar with a Fishmann Isis on it. Getting a hand in that guitar to feed the pickup back through the hole is quite tough on hand and guitar. I’ve tried tying thin cord to the pickup to pull it through - fail and pretty much trashed the pickup in the process. I’m going to have to replace the whole damned thing.

[juanziegler]

"If I leave here tomorrow...." Wanted to grab my slide at end ..nice video

[williamarnold]

Thanks I'm repairing an Ibanez AW SST Fishman! This really helped! Thanks bro-seph!

[mellowfred]

Man this is a great help👏🏻 I’m pretty sure I could do this job. I was gonna take it into the shop, but I don’t think I will need to do that.

[mae]

Very informative maybe I can try to sort my pickup and repair it by myself gotta say nice sounding voice to boot, great accent.

[SJB-my]

Thank you for a great and clear instructions. My fishman Isys t suddenly stopped working. When I turn on the tuner, a green light blinks and nothing works. is there a way to fix it or should I look for Isys + as replacement? Thanks!