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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 20
Location: Florida | I know there are Ovation fans here with much greater technical knowledge than I have, may I pick your brains for this challenge?
I am the current keeper of Hurricane A821, the nutmeg brown that has passed through the hands of a couple of OFC members here over the years and pictured on a couple of websites. She is still in beautiful condition, love the pickup sounds and light weight, but I haven't been playing her much, due mostly to string action uncomfortably high above the lower neck. Finally decided to improve the setup, and it's ALMOST there.
The neck is straight and true, but was absolutely flat (unrelieved.) I tweaked the truss rod just a bit to fix buzzing strings, played with the neck adjustments and bridge height, and the action is now just beautiful.
Problem is, the bridge saddles on low E and A strings just won't adjust quite far enough (towards tailpiece) to get the intonation spot-on. Top four pairs are just fine, the A strings come very close. I am using .009-.046 strings, which I also use on several other electric 12s.
The bridge is mounted straight-across right next to the pickup ring, as opposed to common TunoMatic practice of angling slightly to accommodate intonation, as per every Gibson and similar setup.
Has anyone else encountered and hopefully fixed this problem on a Storms guitar?
The bridge is an old-design Schaller according to the Ovation Book. It has its own unique support posts, with fat drum-shaped supports atop the thumbwheel adjusters. No forward-back adjustment at all.
A possible fix would be a bridge with greater saddle travel, or a bridge with adjustable set screws on its post slots. This would require replacing the entire bridge and posts. I am willing to do this only if something else would fit without permanently altering a classic 40-year-old guitar.
Does anyone know what kind of bushings are underneath? Metric or English? Thread size? Has any other bridge been tried on a Hurricane, Thunderhead, or Tornado without drilling or extreme modifications?
A Thunderhead Deluxe on the Ovationgallery site has a Gibson bridge and posts. Anyone here know whodunnit and how?
A real shot-in-the-dark question: anyone have available, or know a source for, the bridge cover piece?
Any advice would be most appreciated.
Maybe I am fussing too much, and should just enjoy the vintage sound and avoid upper frets on the bass strings! | |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Without seeing the guitar here are a few tips..
- Carefully insure your playing technique isn't pulling the strings out of tune. The neck on those have a lot of give to them (they are thin) and you can pull them out of tune easily. This also goes for pressure of your fingers when you fret the notes. This is one of the most common reasons for issues as when we set up a guitar we are usually not holding it and playing exactly the way we would when just playing it.
I would start working the A string as it is the next one and should be fairly close to the D which you infer is dialed in. Inspect everything, especially your technique when testing comparing the A and the D.
I'm guessing at this point you've already smacked your palm on you forehead and setup the guitar.
Caveat.. depending on where the rest of the strings landed for intonation, I have run into a situation where all of the saddles were already close to the rear of the bridge so there was no room to move. You may find that there is play in the saddle and it can move fore and aft. You'll have to re-adjust again, but that will solve the problem.
This might not be it... but it's a place to start. A picture straight-on of your bridge section now may help us spot something if none of the above was applicable. | |
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Joined:
May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | That Thunderhead with the Gibby bridge is mine. It was missing the bridge when I bought it so I fitted the Gibson on there. The span on the post was a bit off so I drilled out the matching holes on the bridge to fit the slightly wider span of the posts.
You might find that the saddle travel is more in one diection than the other so TAKE A PHOTO. Then remove the bridge and rotate it 180 degrees and start over, using the photo as a guide.
Good luck | |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 20
Location: Florida | Thanks for quick replies!
Miles, I will keep finessing the adjustments and try the saddle again with strings loosened. The guitar stays in tune quite well, overall string pitches are fine. I am used to setting up my set-neck guitars, so the Hurricane four-bolt and and center adjustment allen screw neck system is a bit alien to me. If I can't resolve it in the next day or two, I'll get a photo or two to post here.
Gallerinski, the Thunderhead is beautiful, but I did more research and no replacement bridge on the market looks even close to the 12 string dimensions. The Hurricane saddles look symmetrical front-to-back, but you've inspired me to check if they travel further one way than the other, making the 180 flip a good possibility.
Now, back to the workbench for me! | |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 20
Location: Florida | Hurricane update:
Success at last! Hours of tweak adjustment, retune 12 strings, adjust, retune...
My intonation problem was the sum of several things just slightly off. The saddle had some play, the bridge had a bit of left-right drift, slightly uneven pressure on the four neck bolts, too much pressure on the neck adjuster screw.
The slight distortion of the neck adjust led to pitch going sharp when fretted on the 12th fret, but only on the bass side. All is now perfect.
These Ovation guys knew what they were doing, even back in 1968! They somehow knew that a ham-fingered duffer could pick up the instrument 40 years later and get beautiful sounds from it.
This is an older picture cut out for a project I was working on, my camera is being uncooperative right now. The color here looks redder than the true Nutmeg brown.
Thanks again for your advice, you got me thinking in the right direction! | |
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Hurricane/Storms intonation?