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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | I know this was dealt with in the past, but interested to know what people are thinking now.
My nephew has my old Legend 1117. He's started gigging in a cafe and is currently playing a friend's balladeer. The Legend needs a refret, which will get done, but for gigging it would be great to amplify it. While he could go out and buy one with a pickup already in it, this particular guitar has mojo up the wazoo.
Would people go with a 3rd party preamp, use an FET with the wooden knobs (just involves drilling), or go the whole hog with a kidney shaped preamp (which involves some fiddly placement and cutting)?
And, would you install a thinline pickup (fairly simple) or get the bridge routed to fit the larger pickup (with the danger of permanently screwing up the intonation if it isn't done right)? |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | TAFKAR asks:
And, would you install a thinline pickup (fairly simple) or get the bridge routed to fit the larger pickup (with the danger of permanently screwing up the intonation if it isn't done right)? I would go with a thinline... Either Ovation or aftermarket.
You could also hook-up a Passive system, with just the under-saddle pickup and a jack.
Or you could get an End-pin preamp system... Just don't put it in the end-pin.
But you would only need to drill two holes.
It would be really nice if you could find a single-knob or stacked-knob system.
Ovation would be preferable. But other ones could work.
Not much modification... intonation stays, and it is mostly reversible. |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | I had a minimally invasive Fishman Super Natural undersaddle pick up retrofitted on my 1971 Balladeer. No volume or tone controls, just a jack in the bowl. The sound is righteous; does a damned fine job of approximating the acoustic tone of the guitar. I run it either through a Yamaha 500 PA (when playing with my band) or a Roland AC60 acoustic chorus amp (when I play solo). Fishman has a new pickup (Matrix Infinity, I think?) that has volume and tone controls that hide unobtrusively inside the soundhole. That might be an option for you. |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | Oh - forgot to mention the Super Natural pickup is active. It's an analog to Martin's Gold Plus thinline (which Fishman manufactures). The preamp is built into the jack assembly. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | I would just stick a LR Baggs M1 in the thing for the occasional gig. |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 382
Location: USA | i just use a pa system and i have zero complaints. |
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Joined:
August 2009
Posts: 1137
Location: Germany, where delicious wine is growing (Rheinh) | Hi Richard,
I've upgraded a lot of old Ovations to the newest generation preamps. You can see some pics of them on my ning page.
I would go for the original Ovation thinline pickup and an OP-Pro-preamp for gigging.I've done so with my '74-Folklore and my '78 Pacemaker.
The completely set with the XLR output-unit is perfect and it is still an "Ovation".
I've had (no,-my wife had) a 1713-4C classical with a Highlander pickup additional to the OP-24 preamp. The Highlander was sounding way better. That would also be an option for me to go, but you need a really good luthier for to install it.
If you need further advices, let me know.
Bernie |
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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | Thanks guys, some good information here. Partly it depends on how much my nephew is prepared to spend. We have a good luthier, who repaired the neck on my 1685. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | It's a noisy club, but you can hear my 1117 that is equipped with a Fishman Prefix Pro system in this CLIP. We are playing through a Bose L1 with a small Fishman Loudbox behind us as a monitor. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | Originally posted by dark bar:
I would just stick a LR Baggs M1 in the thing for the occasional gig. +1 |
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Joined:
November 2011
Posts: 19
Location: NOR*CAL | Of course get some Ovation electronics under the saddle, i also prefer Fishman as well, and others have recommended some worthy candidates. For immediate satisfaction i would drop in a Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking(active) pup in the hole, i've permanently installed the Rare Earth Humbuckers in 2 my standard soundhole Ovations. I have yet to try the Rare Earth blend, so far the humbucking rare earth is amazing, heres some more info for your reference, the best site i've seen so far for acoustic guitar pickup reviews:
www.fingerpick.com/pickups.htm |
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Amplifying an acoustic Ovation