Hi All!
Total newbie here in need of some help. I have a guitar with active pick ups that are powered by a 9V battery. The guitar suddenly has no sound what so ever. Replaced the 9V battery with a fresh one and still nothing. Took the back cover plates off and all connections looked good. Removed the battery box and began a continuity check. The black wire (ground) tested out fine traced and checked the connection from the battery clip to the back of the potentiometer. All good there. Checked the red (hot) and found I wasn't getting a connection from the battery clip to any other connections. Found a small circuit board with a decoupling capacitor on the side of the battery box. I bypassed the capacitor on the battery box on the hot side and found to have continuity going to the pick ups and other circuits. So, it appears the decoupling capacitor is the issue. The numbers and letters on the capacitor as far as I can see are 106 GD. I will provide pictures a little later today. My question is what would a comparable replacement for the decoupling capacitor? I have no idea what to order. Thank you in advance!

 

Welcome to AAC!

Found a small circuit board with a decoupling capacitor on the side of the battery box. I bypassed the capacitor on the battery box on the hot side and found to have continuity going to the pick ups and other circuits.

What does bypassed mean?

The numbers and letters on the capacitor as far as I can see are 106 GD. I will provide pictures a little later today. My question is what would a comparable replacement for the decoupling capacitor?

Ceramic decoupling caps in axial packages specify capacitance in picofarads. 106 would be 10,000,000pF, or 10uF. That would be large for a ceramic decoupling cap; the largest I've seen is 1uF. The largest radial ceramic cap I've seen is 2.2uF and the package was large enough that it was labeled 2.2uF.

 

Your test and description is not conclusive.
There are coupling capacitors and there are decoupling capacitors. We need to know which one it is.
Besides that, we need to determine exactly what is causing the pickup not to work.

Show sharp, well focused photos of both sides of the board.
Also tell us the make and model of the guitar.

 

For a "Total Newbie" to recognize some capacitor as a decoupling capacitor is totally amazing!
But the clue I see is elsewhere:" Checked the red (hot) and found I wasn't getting a connection from the battery clip to any other connections. Does the guitar have an on/off switch?? OR is it turned on by inserting the plug to the amplifier cord?? Probably that is the case. And to make the turn-on happen you must use a two circuit plug, not a stereo plug. The switched battery connection goes to the part of the jack that would connect to the "ring" of the 3-wire TRS plug. So if the TS used a TRS (stereo) plug the power will not switch on.
IN ADDITION, for fault searches, a simple continuity check is only useful for finding broken connections.

Please let us know if using the correct plug works.

 

For a "Total Newbie" to recognize some capacitor as a decoupling capacitor is totally amazing!
But the clue I see is elsewhere:" Checked the red (hot) and found I wasn't getting a connection from the battery clip to any other connections. Does the guitar have an on/off switch?? OR is it turned on by inserting the plug to the amplifier cord?? Probably that is the case. And to make the turn-on happen you must use a two circuit plug, not a stereo plug. The switched battery connection goes to the part of the jack that would connect to the "ring" of the 3-wire TRS plug. So if the TS used a TRS (stereo) plug the power will not switch on.
IN ADDITION, for fault searches, a simple continuity check is only useful for finding broken connections.

Please let us know if using the correct plug works.

Thanks!! Coming to the conclusion it was a decoupling capacitor is only after some internet research and it seemed like the best explanation from what I found. I did have TS cord (standard instrument cable) plugged into the output jack at the time of testing so there was a connection. There's not really an on off switch per se on a guitar. When you plug in the output jack is pretty much you on off switch. When testing I tried all the switches in all positions, again, same results. The guitar worked fine then one day it just stopped so it's not something like using wrong cord or anything like that (although I wish it was a simple fix like that lol). I tried to check all possibilities and that seemed to the only break in the connection. The guitar is a 7 string Ibanez RGIR28BFE. Checked the internet for a wiring diagram but none were showing me the capacitor or any info on it. The guitar is actually at my cousins house and he's getting me some pictures so when he does I will post those for you guys. Thanks for all your help!

 

Your test and description is not conclusive.
There are coupling capacitors and there are decoupling capacitors. We need to know which one it is.
Besides that, we need to determine exactly what is causing the pickup not to work.

Show sharp, well focused photos of both sides of the board.
Also tell us the make and model of the guitar.

I am honestly not sure which one. It was only after some internet research that I found the decoupling capacitor explanation to be the best one. Whether that's right or wrong I don't know. There is no power going to the pick up is the reason the pick up is not working. That's for sure. The guitar worked fine one day and then it just stopped suddenly. The guitar is an 7 string Ibanez RGIR28BFE. Looked for a wiring diagram but didn't see one with any info on the capacitor. The guitar is at my cousins and he is getting pictures of the capacitor, so I will post those as soon as I get them. Thanks for your help!