Not sure what's wrong with my Squier bullet...

[JTred]

Ok so I have a squier bullet that until recently, worked fine. But when I accidentally plugged a 12V transformer into my 9V distortion pedal, something went wrong. My amp seems to work fine, because my mic, which uses the same 1/4" input as the guitar, still works. I tried my buddies cable too, because I figured I had fried the cable, but it still didn't work. I opened where the cable plugs in and found no loose wires, but I really don't know much about the electronics so there might have been something I missed. I'm really at a loss for this. I know it's not the nicest guitar but I would really like for it to work again. Does anyone know what might be wrong and is it something that I could fix myself?

 

[Spudman]

Bypass your pedals and find a cord that you know works. Plug your guitar into the amp directly using just that cable. If you still have no sound turn the volume knob up on the guitar. If that doesn't do it and you are sure that cord and jack on the amp work then you'll have to take the pick guard off the guitar and have a peek. You might have a broken solder joint.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Bypass your pedals and find a cord that you know works. Plug your guitar into the amp directly using just that cable.

This is key. You want to eliminate any other possible source of problem between guitar & amp.

12V shouldn't be enough voltage to do any real damage, though it may have blown out a component in your distortion pedal. Not clear to me how this could find its way back into your guitar's circuitry, though. The DC is generally pretty well isolated from the signal path in these pedals. Though I suppose you could have blown a coupling cap. Seems unlikely though.

What were the "symptoms" that occurred when you plugged in the 12V transformer? Any weird noises, funny smells or smoke involved?

BTW, we're happy to help out here, but we do like to know who we're dealing with. Would appreciate you stopping over at The Fret Players forum and introducing yourself....

 

[JTred]

Bypass your pedals and find a cord that you know works. Plug your guitar into the amp directly using just that cable. If you still have no sound turn the volume knob up on the guitar. If that doesn't do it and you are sure that cord and jack on the amp work then you'll have to take the pick guard off the guitar and have a peek. You might have a broken solder joint.

Yeah I tried all that when I tried out my buddy's cable. I didn't try another guitar in the amp, but I have a mic which plugs into the same place as the guitar and that works fine. I also took a look under the pickguard, I didn't see anything that looked burnt or loose, and everything was definitely connected, no loose wires, but like I said I don't really know what to look for.

What were the "symptoms" that occurred when you plugged in the 12V transformer? Any weird noises, funny smells or smoke involved?

Not much really happened, the check light wouldn't go off even when I clicked the pedal down (the light goes off when there's no distortion) and it basically sounded like when you have a cable plugged in to an amp and you touch the other end. No smells or smoke or anything.

 

[kiteman]

I'm thinking that the 12v has reversed polarity than of the 9v and possibly fried a pup. Does any of the pups work?

 

[Spudman]

Remove the jack plate from the Bullet and check the solder connections. It's only 2 screws.

 

[Kazz]

Even if it were reverse polarity it should not have had that effect....12 volts vs 9 is not that big of a difference...now what does make a difference is how many miliamps it was pushing. But I am with Spud on this..I would think it would be a bad connection on the jack plate or one of the pups. Not impossible...but sure would be a first time for me hearing of a pedal screwing up a guitar.

 

[kiteman]

I hope I'm wrong but when he described buzzing that tells me the +12v was fed to the ground and that will go into the guitar.

 

[JTred]

I checked the wires and connections under the jack plate. There was nothing wrong that I could tell. I checked and tried just about everything, volume, I flipped the switch to change the pickups, different cables, I checked under the pickguard and jack plate. What are pups? I did a google search and I'm still not quite sure.

 

[kiteman]

Pups=pickups.

 

[MichaelE]

Even if it were reverse polarity it should not have had that effect....12 volts vs 9 is not that big of a difference...now what does make a difference is how many miliamps it was pushing. But I am with Spud on this..I would think it would be a bad connection on the jack plate or one of the pups. Not impossible...but sure would be a first time for me hearing of a pedal screwing up a guitar.

It doesn't matter what the current capacity of the power supply is. The device will only draw what is required. The power supply doesn't 'push' current to the device.

 

[duhvoodooman]

If you have access to a multimeter, it's easy enough to check the continuity from the output jack back through the controls and pickups. Use the method described HERE. You don't have to open up the guitar to do this measurement. Assuming your Squier Bullet has the usual S-S-S pickup arrangement, I'd expect that the individual pickup resistances should be somewhere in the 5 - 8 Kohm range. If you have a humbucker in there, it will probably be higher.

 

[ibanezjunkie]

im sure you ave a friend with an amp, try your guitar into your friends amp, if it works, its a problem with your amp.

try a bunch of cables to eliminate the chances of damaged cables, and try a guitar you know work.

the basic message given by Spud an DVM in their first posts is basically telling you to troubleshoot, process of elimination.

if all else fails, go to a tech, or use your amp as a footstool?