High E on friends old Ovation has no output thru piezo

[Emory]

Buddy I play with on beach has old balladeer, sort with no preamp, concentric vol/tone knob. He wonders if I can get some output on high E, said I'd give it a shot. I'll check first to see if saddle is flat, seems a slight bow up would reduce pressure, right? Think of Tom Hanks in Castaway as far as tools and supplies go here in Thailand, btw. I'd thought of trick mentioned long ago about maybe a judicious tap with rubber hammer might help it properly seat.... but top already has bit of a split (to be expected I'd think when mixing plastic with wood... expansion rates and all that). Maybe the piezo is a bit off and not even under high E? Is it possible channel for saddle isn't even? Anyway wonder if the brain trust has any simple fixes & things to check I might not know about... you would be kind enough to share.

And totally almost unrelated: was thinking about getting a long jawed clip on tuner as whale tail headstock developed long before those tuners existed. I have an Ovation VXT.. then brain fart came and thought "How about clipping tuner to capo?" I put at end of headstock for handy storage, sort of Rube Goldberg. Surprise surprise. It works! (told me I had to upload a photo tho couldn't find one I used to have of headstock soooo you get this little "gem")

[Freeman Keller]

If this is true, the Ovation system isn't really a UST like Fishman, Martin, et al but rather six individual piezo crystals embedded in the saddle itself (you should be able to tell if it looks like the patent drawing). In that case it is likely that the high E crystal has failed or the wire connecting it. I recently worked on a solid body nylon string Gibson (thread at EC) that had this type of saddle - there were six little wires coming from the saddle to a PCB where the signals were combined.

 

If that is the case and the saddle sensor really is dead it is probably possible to fill the saddle slot to make it smaller - route a new slot and fit Fishman style UST. Of course that assumes that this is an Ovation with a big soundhole so you can get your hand inside - not the ones with the silly little holes up in the bouts.

 

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Inside_Ovations_Acoustic_Pickup_Evolution

[Phil O'Keefe]

If this is true' date=' the Ovation system isn't really a UST like Fishman, Martin, et al but rather six individual piezo crystals embedded in the saddle itself [/quote']

 

It's been quite a while since I owned one, but if memory serves, they do use six individual crystals, although I'm not sure how they're wired.

 

 

[Emory]

Had friend drop off guitar. Told him I'd fiddle with it, change strings, polish frets, etc. I actually enjoy doing that...

Oddly, when I plugged guitar into my little Fly3, all the strings sound fine. He uses a Danelectro EQ as booster (piezo too low output). I'd given him a little 9v battery power amp (we are talking low rent... he has Thai wife and family to support).

So had strings off and took a look at saddle. Seems piezo is integral part of saddle (see photo). Would make for difficult height adjustment, ya think?

I wonder why I didn't just plug it into my amp first? Oh, because I'm getting senile. I forgot that. Perhaps this started as just acoustic and pickup was added later... no controls on guitar...

So thank you for your consideration and patience and anything else worth noting

[Freeman Keller]

Emory, I have encountered that style pickup twice. First time was a couple of years ago - someone brought me one to install in a guitar. This particular unit was an LR Baggs and like yours, the saddle was an integral part. As far as I could see the only adjustment in height was to sand the top of the saddle which means there is no room for error. I frankly don't remember if it had any on board electronics - one thing I note from this picture is that there is only one hot conductor - that means all of the piezo elements are combined inside unit. Anyway, this is what it looked like along side the stock saddle I was replacing - I did have to route a bigger saddle slot.

 

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The second one was only a week or so ago. This is a solid body nylon string electric guitar but the bridge looks like an acoustic. It also had the piezo crystals embedded in the saddle, and once again, there is no easy way to adjust height.

 

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Its kind of hard to see in this picture, but the guitar does have a little PCB and battery inside so it has some preamplification. Also there are six separate hot wires coming from the saddle meaning each string has its own element and there is a tiny trimmer pot on the PCB to balance them.

 

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The reason I mention this is that if this guitar had a dead string it could be one of these trimmers or the tiny wire from the saddle broken or the crystal itself. Not that it would be easy to fix, but at least you might have some clues.

 

I've also seen electric guitar bridges with separate piezo crystals built into the saddle - both fender and gibson style - but they are different from yours.

 

I can't explain why it worked thru your amp but not your friends. Piezo style pickups usually do need either a preamp (on board or external) or a DI to both boost the signal level and to match impedance. Piezos typically have very high output impedance and the preamp helps match to the lower impedance of your amp.

 

Anyway, don't have an answer but thought I would tell you the little bit I know (or don't know).