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Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Hello everyone. I have an Ovation Viper solidbody guitar here with the big brass bridge saddles. It seems both the high and low E strings are pulling the top of those saddles towards the center of the fingerboard. Do all Vipers with this style bridge do this? I have seen pictures and it appears this may be just the way that bridge is. Is there a way to get the bottom of those two bridge saddles to rest flat on the bottom of the bridge? The four center saddles are flat on the bottom, but the high and low E strings are pulling them towards the center. Thanks for the help....Paul Hebert |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Could you take a picture and send it or post it? I have a bunch of Vipers and I have never noticed this, except when I'm stringing the guitars and it's not tuned up yet as part of the process. There is an adjustment screw on the each saddle. Between the leveler adjustment and the intonation adjustment, they all should be parallel with the bridge base plate. |
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Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Miles, what adjustment screw are you talking about? The only screw going into these saddles are the intontion screws correct? Thanks...Paul Hebert |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | You are correct... only one screw.. I was thinking of my main Viper which has a Kahler bridge, but I did check my other Vipers and none of them have the problem described. Doesn't really seem to be enough room for the saddles to move as described. I'm wondering if the angle of the string as it passes over the saddle to the bridge is not steep enough, thus not providing enough down tension. |
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Location: Scotland | There is another bolt which cannot be seen unless you remove the bridge. This bolt passes through the bridge base & into the saddle. It sounds like this may need to be tightened.
Paul |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Paul is that on the new bridges? The older ones, which I actually prefer, don't have that.
(Isn't it great to ask a simple question) |
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Location: Scotland | All of the older, non-Schaller bridges with brass saddles that I've owned have a screw through the bottom of the bridge base. (See pic) The nylon saddles don't. You can see slots in the bridge base where the bolt passes through on the later brass saddle versions.
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/MVC-018F.JPG
I discovered this when I had roller-saddles made for my b-bender equipped Vipers, you can see one of the the roller-saddles here
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/MVC-019F.JPG |
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Location: NJ | Nice clear pics, Paul!
Sony Mavica? |
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Location: Scotland | Yep, served me well, good enough for Ebay, but about to be ditched for a Fuji. |
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Location: Scotland | Paul H, the more I've thought about your bridge problem, the less I understand it. Post a pic. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Paul T... I have to start looking now, but I have several spare bridges and of course a BUNCH of guitars, and I don't recall ever seeing the bridge you show above. The only ones I have seen with grooves are the newer Shallers. I think all mine are like this....
Ovations never cease to amaze me. Now I learned my first new thing about Ovations for 2003. |
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Location: Scotland | Miles, I checked my guitars and of the ones with the original Ovation (non-Schaller) bridge I found 3 types;- Nylon saddles, brass saddles without the screw in the base and brass saddles with the screw in the base. It would seem logical that the bridge in your pic is a transition between the nylon saddles & the type in my pics. Maybe it was to solve the problem Paul H describes.
Paul |
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Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Hey guys thanks! After all the help and good pictures I got the bridge just perfect. Now I gota go jam!....Paul Hebert |
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Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Miles, a friend of mine just picked up a Viper with the large chrome Schaller bridge. Nice guitar, but the chrome bridge has alot of pitting and just looks bad. Do you have any of these bridges? Are do you know where he can find one? Thanks ....Paul Hebert |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well PT, like I mantioned in a few posts before, this is really one of the cool (and frustrating at times) reasons I like Ovations. Just when you think you have it all figured out....
"whoops there goes, another rubber tree plant."
Not sure why that popped into my head at that moment... but you get the idea. This also is probably a way to assist in dating the guitars (hmmmmm don't go there... too easy and you know it) I will check, but of the 80+ guitars with that style bridge, I don't recall ANY with a screw in the bottom, but I haven't closely examined them all either. I know of at least 20 that don't have the screws, but that still leaves 60+. Don't let this sound like a doubt, I'm just saying I need to go through the guitars, and I have enough to possibly correlate a date the addition occured based on serial number and guitars that I know when were manufactured.
As example, I know by 1980 they were using the Shaller bridges. My '78 viper and all the earlier Breadwinners and Deacons had either Brass of Plastic, with no screw. So I am going to make the first guess that the screws were added in '79 or '80, maybe to finish off the run before the new bridges.
Maybe someone else has a better memory for this little piece of trivia?? |
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Location: Scotland | Miles, have you seen, or do you have the solidbody catalog/folder with a picture of a Viper 3 & a Magnum bass lying across a mixing console? The same pic is on page 61 of "The Book" You can clearly see the slots in the bridge base of the Viper. There is a code on the catalog which I guess may mean 1979, so you could well be right. |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | I'm just going to play my Viper and be aware of it's musical qualities, I am not going to slip into the intellectual analysis of a great guitar to the point of forgetting that we are just playing guitars, not laying down the basis of a new world order.
Bailey |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | I'm pretty sure that that the slotted brass bridge plate was developed for the UK II, and there after was used for all the other solid bodies. |
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Location: Lafayette, La | my preacher deluxe has the same bridge with screws as shown in Paul's picture. it is supposedly a 1979 model (but who really knows?).
marty |
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Ovation Viper bridge problem question