Reverend Gristlemaster / Fishman pickups . A warning before purchasing one used.

rze99

A short story of my experience in the last few weeks. It ends well, it's just to advise future buyers of used kit.

I bought a used Reverend Gristlemaster from a UK store.

Played it for a few days. Sounded and played great. Nice guitar and good value.

One night the signal cut out a few times and then died. The red battery indicator light was flashing, indicating a pickup battery flat. 

I charged the rechargeable battery for the Fishman pickups via the USB cable. But the red flashing light wouldn't go out.

I called the store.

"Try charging it again and see how long the charge lasts". I did. Same thing.

The store said they'd check with Reverend. They did.

Reverend are not providing replacement rechargeable batteries or other replacements parts for the pickups.  The store said that only the batteries supplied by Fishman can be used with the Fishman pickups and, as they can't remedy via Fishman, the store has now arranged return at their expense and are refunding me. 

MikeS

According to the Reverend site, the battery used is a PL503450. A replacement can be bought for about £15.

Might be an option just changing it yourself.

https://www.batteries4pro.com/en/communication/BabyPhone/3,18996-battery-37v-1ah-lipo-pl503450-for-babyphone-luvion-grand-elite-4894128165187.html

https://www.fishman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Telecaster-User-Guide.pdf

Bidley

Why can't they remedy via Fishman?

ThePrettyDamned

Well that sounds like garbage. 

rze99

MikeS said:

According to the Reverend site, the battery used is a PL503450. A replacement can be bought for about £15.

Might be an option just changing it yourself.

https://www.batteries4pro.com/en/communication/BabyPhone/3,18996-battery-37v-1ah-lipo-pl503450-for-babyphone-luvion-grand-elite-4894128165187.html

https://www.fishman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Telecaster-User-Guide.pdf

I could have done that but it was still under shop warranty and we were not certain it was the battery at fault (though most likely it was) therefore I preferred to return it to the shop while I could as it was their duty to  remedy.

rze99

Bidley said:

Why can't they remedy via Fishman?

I don’t know. Maybe they can, but they didn’t offer that. 

Crazyblue1779

It’s a bit of a disappointing stance from Reverend   

rze99

ThePrettyDamned said:

Well that sounds like garbage. 

I was surprised the store were not able to offer a remedy via Reverend or indeed via Fishman. 

I don’t know why that is.  

But as a consumer, I was offered a full no cost to me refund so I took it while it was offered. 

The store did what I expected them to. If you can’t fix it then refund it. 

The fact that a fix via Reverend was not available is why I posted it.

rze99

Crazyblue1779 said:

It’s a bit of a disappointing stance from Reverend   

I agree. 

Assuming what the store person told me is true.  I don’t doubt that it is true.

I am not certain it is true either of course as I wasn’t in that loop, but it’s in the store’s interest to resolve rather than refund of course.

It’s a highly reputable big guitar store and I attach no blame because they refunded fully so I’m not naming them as in any way at fault. 

Dave_Mc

rze99 said:

But as a consumer, I was offered a full no cost to me refund so I took it while it was offered. 

Yeah definitely, that's the thing to do.

Thanks very much for the heads-up. 

ICBM

What exactly is the point of this USB/rechargeable battery nonsense?

I'm all for new technology when it improves things and doesn't cause more problems than it solves, but this seems like a prime example of the opposite. If you want active pickups, a standard PP3 or two will last months, years, or even more... I've come across several where the battery is so old it's started to physically leak but actually still powers the pickups OK.

So why bother with something which seems to be significantly less reliable?