SRTn Onboard Tuner Very Weak

I have a cedar top Artwood AW35 with licensed B-Band Preamp With Notch Filter and On-board Tuner. The tuner has never worked well compared to my older AE series with the licensed Fishman setup. I suspect the battery tray is the problem. It has a very cheesy slide-out for two AA batteries and the metal link that connect + to - does not make good reliable contact. I can push the batteries forward and backward and see the contact breaks. In my opinion, this is a defect. I could probably shim in some aluminum foil but that seems funky. Any other folks experience the same problem? I want my tuner to really work!