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| When I got my 1771Lx last week, it's action was way high. I took a shim out. Today, I thought, it still plays a little hard so I took the other one out. No buzz whatsoever. It wasn't so long ago I got a 6751 and had both shims taken out. Are most Ovations set high for a reason? |
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Location: North Carolina | I tune my guitar very low and so I get severe fret buzz with tight action. I have 3 shims in place on my guitar with a pretty good amount of relief in the neck. Makes it harder to play but I've gotten used to it. Different strokes for different fokes. ;)
Franklin |
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| Hmm...Didn't think of low tuning. |
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Location: south east Michigan | My guitar came with just one shim. The set-up that came from the factory could not be improved upon. |
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Location: NJ | I never changed the factory set up of any of my guitars. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Al...I can't tell if your kidding or not! I think we all have seen some awful setups on the showroom floor. |
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| Originally posted by Slipkid:
Al...I can't tell if your kidding or not! I think we all have seen some awful setups on the showroom floor.
He must be serious. I didn't see one of these ;) . |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I shim. I play with Med. gauge strings and with no shims...Buzz-o-matic...
or Snare Guitar :D |
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Location: NJ | seriously all my O's and A's have the factory set up, but I tend to like the manly higher actions and heavy strings |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | My 1858 elite came from the factory set up played some perfectly. I have however Played a few Standard EliteLX's ad Balladeerlx's where the action seemd a little high at the store. The strings were nice and it rang good it was just set up a little high to my taste for a 6 string. Of the ones that I've played in the stores I did have 1 Balladeerlx set up perfectly. so it must be the shims. Only thing i can figure. |
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Posts: 56
| Since I mainly play an electric, I like it as low as possible with no buzz. The 6751 was playing easier than the lx, just didn't seem like that was right. |
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Posts: 9
Location: Irvine, California | My opinion on this is that if you change the original setup, you disagree with the guys at Ovation and I think those guys have way more experience in how a guitar should be setup then at least my-self. I play elecric guitar too and playing a harder accustic actually makes my fingers stronger and better to handle to electric guitar. I would reccomend that you work to get stronger fingers instead of taking out the shims.
Remember: Playing guitar isn't for everybody. You need strong fingers and yes...your fingers are supposed to bleed. ;-)
But hey...that's just my silly opinion. |
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Location: SoCal | The other thing to keep in mind is that when you lower the action you also decrease the tone. |
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January 2005
Posts: 56
| Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
The other thing to keep in mind is that when you lower the action you also decrease the tone.
How does that happen? |
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Location: Midland, MI | How does that happen?
Well, you see, there's a lot of tone stored up in the bridge. Not many people know it, but tone is volatile. When you disassemble the bridge to get to the shims that you want to remove, a lot of it just evaporates into the surrounding environment.
That's why when you play in the same room you change your strings in your guitar sounds better than, say, playing it in the bathroom. Antoher bit of trivia: removing the strings reduces tension on the saddle, which makes for a tiny little gap between the saddle and bridge and then...yep, you guessed it, a little more tone leaks out.
So, there you go. It's supposed to be this big secret, and MWoody and cliff will probably swing by and get Bailey then come over and beat me to death for telling you, but...well, you seem like a nice enough O-fishy-and-otto. I suppose worse case, they make both of us 'ride the llama.'
EDIT:
I just read what I posted and it struck me...great name for a member duet: O'Fishy and Otto.
Or maybe it's the wine. |
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January 2005
Posts: 56
| Oh, I see. I guess if I plugged that great big hole up in the front of my guitar I could keep a lot of the stored up tone to stay in my guitar? Where's my glue gun... |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Originally posted by kkyle:
Oh, I see. I guess if I plugged that great big hole up in the front of my guitar I could keep a lot of the stored up tone to stay in my guitar? Where's my glue gun...
See, now that's what a lot of people think. But, then again, a lot of people are wrong. As an aside, whatever way you see 'the crowd' heading, go the other way. Doesn't matter what the circumstances, you'll come out ahead in the long run. But, I digress.
We were talking about losing tone. Tone is stored up in the bridge. The soundhole on the front of your guitar is called, what? Right a soundhole. 'Why is that Uncle Crusty?', you ask. Well, because that's where the sound comes out. Clearly, if you glued up your soundhole, you would do nothing more than keep the sound all bottled up inside the bowl. I can't imagine that'd be pretty when it finally busted loose...all those D-7#13aub5majDomPerignon chords coming out at once, clashing with the ChristMasdec25 augmented flatted fourth fifths. Not pretty at all.
See, keeping the sound plugged up in there isn't going to do anything to keep the tone from leaking out of the bridge. Two different things. Apples and Chevrolets, my friend. Sure, sure, tone is what makes the sound, well, sound so good. But, don't think that keeping the sound in will save your tone. No siree.
Just ask StandingO. |
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Posts: 555
Location: Wooster, Ohio | I was in a large music store in Nashville and had a lot of time to play a lot of instruments. I have commented before the LX is set up higher than the vast majority of guitars. The majority of the Celebrities had better string action. I just think their choice of this high action is a mistake. Because I think many people will not deshim but will go on to the next guitar with the better action. Why not make that action lower and put a shim in the case for those who want to exercise their fingers. |
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January 2005
Posts: 56
| Originally posted by 45flint:
I was in a large music store in Nashville and had a lot of time to play a lot of instruments. I have commented before the LX is set up higher than the vast majority of guitars. The majority of the Celebrities had better string action. I just think their choice of this high action is a mistake. Because I think many people will not deshim but will go on to the next guitar with the better action. Why not make that action lower and put a shim in the case for those who want to exercise their fingers.
Tone leaking out of the bridge, losing tone by lowering action aside, my sentiments. |
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Location: East Tennessee | Hi,
As originally posted by cruster " Your guitar sounds better than, say playing it in the bathroom"
I've never tried that!!!
To shim or not to shim THAT Is The Question.
Have a Great Day. :cool: |
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Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | The purpose of the shims is to improve the action, just like an electric guitar bridge. As we know,that's what Ovation describes in its owners manual. Tone? That's a new one on me. Obviously you don't want the strings to buzz against the frets, but slight changes in action should not affect the tone at all. My guess is the Ovation sets their action high, so the owner can remove a shim or two.
Tommy |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | I was kidding about the tone leaking out of the bridge. Obviously, tone is stored up in the nut. |
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Location: closely held secret | Looks like the nut might be leaking, at this point. Or maybe it's the wine. Or maybe the nut's leaking wine... |
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January 2005
Posts: 56
| Originally posted by cruster:
I was kidding about the tone leaking out of the bridge. Obviously, tone is stored up in the nut. Tone in the nut? I always heard tone was in the fingers. See, if you cut your fingernails, tone decreases because you're letting little pieces of it fall on the floor. If tone was in the nut, no one would ever have that operation to keep from having babies. |
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February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | Back to the original question, I suggest there is no one answer. These guitars are individuals that are handmade, and are affected by aging and environmental factors. You may have the same model number and same brand/gauge of string but have a different number of shims depending on your personal preference and playing style and how these interface with the extant neck angle on the guitar.
Just my modest, as always, opinion. |
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Does anyone actually leave the shims in?
