Members Bob Thomas Posted August 18, 2015 Members Share Posted August 18, 2015 My Stratacoustic will not fully pickup the B string. Just that one string. I changed strings, and have tried different amps. That one string is about 50% strength. Any thoughts out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted August 18, 2015 Members Share Posted August 18, 2015 Take the strings off and remove the saddle. Then carefully remove the undersaddle transducer element. Check the bottom of the saddle to make sure it's flat and free of gaps. Check the saddle slot to make sure it's also flat and free of debris. There may also be a shim under the saddle that's interfering with proper contact between the bottom of the saddle and the transducer element. There's a technique that involves putting a small amount of clay in the bottom of the saddle slot. The clay conforms to any gaps and hardens over time. IIRC, it's known as Spanish clay. The late Forum member Terry Allan Hall was a big proponent of this technique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garthman Posted August 19, 2015 Members Share Posted August 19, 2015 Like Deepend says, when you get an imbalance of sound between strings it's usually down to poor contact. If the UST is a of the type with separate piezo crystals - one for each string - it is sometimes the case that one of the crystals might be faulty but that is rare. If it dies prove to be so a new UST - plenty on Ebay - will solve the problem. Deepend also mentions the clay shim trick. I learned about this from Terry and it works great. Here is the method (lifted from a past thread): When I fit a UST I always now use Mexican clay to bed the UST into the saddle slot. Mexican clay is a self-hardening (when exposed to air) modelling clay available in most craft shops. You just roll out a small piece of clay into a very thin strip, cut out a slice the same size as the base of the saddle, and lay it in the base of the saddle slot before fitting the UST - you can also put another strip on top of the UST before fitting the saddle (which I always do). The clay hardens and fills any small gaps between saddle slot, UST and saddle and really does improve the sound quality. Well worth doing IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted August 19, 2015 Members Share Posted August 19, 2015 Has the bridge saddle been shaved down quite a bit? That can cause a string to not have enough break angle over the saddle to transfer vibrations down to the piezo. If so, I'd take it to a tech to see if they can slot the bridge to get some angle back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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