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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| Hi all. First time posting here, and I already have a problem to gripe about. Oh joy :) Anyway, I own a 1974/75 Deacon. It's a nice playing guitar and has great tone, but I'm having awful issues with feedback, and not the good kind. To me it's a wavering kind of feedback, not smooth like it should sound. It's almost like electronic interference of some kind and it reminds me of that shrill sound that you sometimes hear out of a megaphone. Right now, I'm running through an old Peavey tube amp. I've plugged other guitars into it but the problem only seems to happen with the Deacon. I've tried adjusting EQ settings and other things but I cannot seem to get a grasp on the issue. I fear it may be the active pickups or maybe the wiring has gone bad. I'm not sure. Has anyone else experienced this same problem or am I alone here? |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | It sounds like a ground issue, without actually hearing it of course.
First, whle it seems you ruled out the amp, I would test the guitar on another amp. Just to be sure..
One thing that I have done to resurrect many a breadwinner and deacon is to essentially skip the troubleshooting step and just get at the circuit board and visually inspect it, re-solder all of the tangs on the switches and pots, re-solder the pickup leads to the board, and replace the battery leads.
More times than I can count this has turned a non-working or problem pre-amp into a new sounding one again.
Of course there could be other issues, but in all the pre-amps I have worked on over the years, only two or three actually ended up with bad electronics components as the root cause of a problem. In most cases it was just solder joints that got loose, worn jacks, or worn/broke pots and switches. |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I hate to ask a stupid question but ... have you tried changing out the 9v batteries? I got a bit of a "howling" noise from mine when the batteries were drained. |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| The battery thing did cross my mind, but if I remember correctly it was doing it even with fresh batteries. I will try putting new ones in just to be sure.
Faulty electronic components was another thought as well. A friend of mine suggested maybe the wiring has just gotten bad. It is an old guitar after all.
I went to a jam session tonight and had someone else plug it into their rig. They got no squealing at all. So now I wonder if it is the amp. There are too many things to eliminate it seems. The person who tried it out suggested maybe my amp is not biased properly. Which would not surprise me considering how old it is too. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Welcome!
+1 on the 9v leads and regrounding or remelting some contacts.
Post some pictures so we can troubleshoot better! :D |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| Ok. It's definitely not due to low batteries. I replaced the 9v. Then, I did something I hadn't thought to do before. I plugged it into my small 25w solid-state practice amp, and guess what? I still got that annoying, megaphone-type feedback. So I guess my tubes are fine (thank god). I did however, discover something interesting whilst trying to "tame the beast." I turned the tone knob all the way down (which gets rid of the feedback but muddies up my tone). While doing this, I noticed a very large jump in the sound when the knob reaches a certain point, as well as a very audible pop. Obviously, the rolloff is not smooth at all. It sounds like the potentiometer has gone bad. Could this be the cause of the problem? I know I need to get it fixed, regardless. |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| Okay. I don't mean to ask the same question twice. It looks as though several of you have already told me to check the pots, so I will get on that and then get back to you with my results. Thank you so much for the suggestions. |
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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 498
| Hi RedTele,
If it is the pot, first you need to realize that the potentiometers and most of the electronics on Ovation Solid-body Electrics with and without preamps are not regular "off-the-shelf" or standard items.. they are mostly old mil-spec parts from Kaman, and some of the pots, switches, and chips are hard to find or replace. there are some work-arounds and some are posted in the forums if you can find them in a search.
There are also other members that have hoarded up and collected various components for re-use and re-furbishment and reviving of the "Dead" from e-bay or other sellers....
The Kindness of members here helped revive my Preacher Deluxe that had a failing tone-pot as your Deacon may have.. Thanks again to BruDev and Chatman!
There was talk of some re-creating the preamps using modern components and chips... but I think that task fell by the wayside.
Check with Miles-Kevin Baron(Mr. Ovation here) or Mike Woodford(Mwoody)... if it turns out to be the pot that is the problem... AFTER you have checked all solder joints and connections and dialed down to the correct culprit. One of them, or someone else here MAY have a potentiometer proper for your guitar and be willing to part with it.
Good Luck! and hope you get it right again!
Regards,
Glenn |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I agree with Miles on the potential ground problem, particularly if your friend's amp (where the howling stopped) had a ground lift switch activated. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | I would also take the amps into a different part of the house (to potentially a different run of power) and see if the symptoms remain the same. Could just be a problem with house wiring in that section of the house. |
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January 2006
Posts: 1131
Location: NW Washington State | It probably couldn't hurt to reheat/reflow the solder joints on the switches and pots- unless you overheat the board and mess up the traces. Solder carefully. Might be a good time for some new battery clips too.
You could try cleaning the pots, but don't overdo it. Use just a little bit of cleaner. I've wrecked pots with my overenthusiasm for spray cleaner.
Here's a thread where preamp potentiometer problems are covered: Breadwinner Preamp Pots Go to the second page to find BruDev's repair suggestion. At the time nobody seemed to have replacements.
-Steve W. |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| I'll take these suggestions to whomever I decide to have look at the guitar (I don't know nearly enough about electronics to go dabbling into the mess of circuits and wires). The question is, would any of these kinds of problems cause unwanted feedback? Some of the suggestions, like broken solder joints, seem like they would just cause the guitar to cut-out or buzz. |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| In response to stephent28's suggestion:
I don't think it has to do with the house wiring. I've had this same problem live on several different stages with much more stable power grids. There is definitely something going on with the guitar. |
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Joined:
November 2009
Posts: 7
| In response to the ground switch suggestion:
My amp does have a ground lift switch, but I believe it is activated. I'll mess around with it just to be sure. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by RedTele:
The question is, would any of these kinds of problems cause unwanted feedback? Some of the suggestions, like broken solder joints, seem like they would just cause the guitar to cut-out or buzz. It's possible. Even the bad pot could be causing some sort of loop. Without it being in hand, pretty hard to trouble-shoot remotely. |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | I've had one that had a LARGE increase of gain from the pre-amp due to the foil shielding coming loose and short out something on the pre-amp board. |
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Feedback issues with Deacon