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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| First off, let me introduce myself, my name is Jim from Wanaque, NJ. I've been playing guitar for a total of 17 years, not included a four year break when I was in high School. I'm primarily an electric player who always just had an acoustic laying around, but in the last year my taste in music shifted from metal to more of the blues. So pretty much my acoustic gets ample playing time. I've owned five Ovations in total, my first being a CS257, followed by a 6778 Stanard Elite LX (that was labelled a Balladeer), a beat up 1718 Custom Balladeer, a reverse blue burst (that yellowed to a nice green) Ultra and currently a beat up 1861 Standard Balladeer.
When I got it, it was in bad shape, the top was severely sunken in (the 1718 was the same way) and I later discovered slight bridge separation. With some time and three Dampits, the top is almost perfect. The action was insanely high as well. I initially lowered the saddle which helped a lot and a local luthier shaved away a little of the bridge to expose more of the saddle, which helped, but not entirely. Now, the pickup decided to stop working, I called Ovation and they are sending me a replacement saddle and pickup. I noticed that the relieve is way too high as well, I can fit a quarter and a dime in the spacing under the straight edge. When I tighten the neck, the first fret buzzes.
Now on to my questions:
The top is pretty flat now, but it shows some texture from the grain, will it ever be perfect again?
The saddle I have in now is way to low with very little, almost no break angle. I'm going to replace it, will the new higher saddle and resulting string height allow me to tighten the neck to proper relief and with a little saddle work get the guitar back into proper playing shape?
I'm no professional, but I am confident in doing my own work, but if it's something like a neck reset or anything I won't tackle that. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. I guess I'll go back to reading the forums while I wait for an answer.
Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to being a member here.
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | First, when you adjusted the truss, what clearance did you have at the 7th fret with the string fretted and 1st and 12th frets? Also, after you adjusted the truss and it started buzzing at the 1st fret, what clearance did you have at the 12th fret?
It's going to be tough to tell you exactly what's needed because there are several adjustments and they all interact; neck relief, string height at 12th fret, string height at the 1st fret, and the height of the individual frets. But we can try.
Welcome to the group. |
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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| Thanks for the reply and the welcome.
Honestly I never checked the height at the 7th fret and i didn't check after the adjustment, I just loosened it to get rid of the buzz. I'll take measurements tonight or tomorrow. I'm just hoping that a new saddle and the correct relief will bring everything back to normal. As it is set now, the string height at the 12th fret is 5/64" on the treble side and about 6/64" on the bass. This is with the excessive relief and short saddle. |
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | If you're not experienced adjusting the truss rod I'd recommend you look at some of the many online resources on the subject. Basically, when you adjust the truss rod you're trying to make the neck/frets as flat as possible without having any back bow. The test is to capo the first fret, fret the 12th fret, and measure the distance from the 7th fret to the string (relief). The string will act as your straight edge. You want just a few thousandths of relief (a human hair is a couple of thousandths). When you adjust the truss, make small adjustments, i.e. 1/8 turn and wait a few minutes. After it's adjusted you'll need to check it a couple of days later because it can continue to change. So, if you have a forward bow you may want to tighten it a little less than needed. I've tweaked truss rods for several days trying to get it just right. Once you get this set, you will probably need to raise the saddle. Since you have a replacement saddle coming, you can temporarily put shims under the saddle to get the right clearance at the 12th fret (about .090" base, .070" treble). If you don't have any, you can cut them out of thin hard plastic (using a soft plastic or cardboard can really kill the sound). If you get uncomfortable with any of this, find a luthier. Good luck. |
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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| This morning I went ahead and made a shim from an old eBay gift card and tightened the truss rod. The neck is pretty much dead flat and the string height at the 12th fret is 6/64th on the bass side and 4/64th on the treble. The break angle is much improved, but the treble side still seems shallow. Much more saddle is exposed, but the bridge was shaved away in the front, so I don't know how that factors in to the actual improvement in the set up. Here are some before and after pictures. I'm not sure if I can post it as an image from Photobucket, so here are the direct links.
Before:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/elessar820/IMG_4739.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/elessar820/IMG_4742.jpg
After:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/elessar820/IMG_4747.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/elessar820/IMG_4749.jpg
The Guitar:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/elessar820/IMG_4750.jpg |
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | So Jim, how does it play and sound with the new setup? If this setup suits you, you can use the old saddle/shim as a starting point when you cut the new saddle.
Hopefully a moderator will be along shortly to give you access to the other forums. |
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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| It definitely seems better. I stopped at Guitar Center on my way to work to check out some acoustics for comparison and my neck angle seems off. I think it's going to need a reset. I'll check it again later on to see how the guitar settled, maybe it just needs more adjustment. I don't have a lot of cash to have it done, is it tough to reset an Ovation neck since it's bolted on? |
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | The only bolt-on neck reset I've had done was performed under warranty so I can't advise on the cost or difficulty. Maybe we can get one of the moderators to move this over to General Posting forum where more folks can respond.
Edited by Nick B. 2012-04-03 6:57 PM
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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| Sounds good. I'll send one a message later on. Thanks for all your help Nick. |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | I was gonna say that you can do your own neck reset if it has a bolt-on neck...
But yours is a Center-hole... So I don't know how that end of the fingerboard attaches to the top.
If the fingerboard is glued to the top... Well I don't know if it is or not!
If yours was an Elite, I would have posted this a while ago.
You'll figure it out.  |
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Joined:
March 2012
Posts: 21
| I saw an old thread about a Balladeer neck reset, the OP separated the fretboard from the to with just a spatula and used business cards as shims. I just need to determine if it's definitely needed when I get my new saddle and pickup. |
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New Memeber with a Setup Question
