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Location: Vernon CT | A good friend of mine has a Standard Elite which he attempted to lower the action by removing the 2 shims under the saddle. He is now saying that the
6th string (E base) "literally sits below the bridge". He would like to know if any of you have experienced this problem with any other "O'S" and
is there a solution to this? |
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May 2003
Posts: 425
Location: SE Michigan | If you place a straight-edge (like a 3-foot ruler) along the top of the frets, when it passes over the bridge (the wood part that holds the saddle), there should be a good 1/8 inch of space or more. If less it means the guitar needs a neck reset.
What happens is that over time the top of the guitar bulges out making the bridge higher with respect to the fretboard. Only real fix is to remove the neck and adjust the joint where it attaches to the body so the neck angle is corrected. Definately a job for the Ovation factory or a very experienced guitar repairman. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | This is what I was trying to tell Mark... |
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March 2005
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Location: Boise, Idaho | OK, this is the issue I brought up regarding my 30th Anniversary Custom Legend. If you have the same problem I had, it has nothing to do with the neck reset. My saddle just sat below the level of the front of the brige. You'd have to have at least 1/4 inch of clearance at the upper frets in order to get the high E to clear the bridge. The bridge was simply thicker on that guitar than on any of my other Ovations, or any other Ovation that I had ever seen. I sanded down the bridge on the high E side and it's fine, although the bridge is still thicker than my other Ovations.
If your friend's bridge doesn't slope more toward the high E side than it does toward the low E side, he has the same problem I had. If he bought the guitar new, he should contact customer service and have them fix it. If he didn't, he can do what I did. He described the problem much better than I did. I should be ashamed, given my profession. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | It took me so long to type that, Jeff got in there ahead of me.
For Jeff's sake, the top surface of the saddle was actually lower than the top surface of the bridge. In other words (I've forgotten the measurements, so I'm estimating) if the saddle was 5 mm thick, the bridge was 6 or 7 mm thick.
In other words, if you took your straight edge as Brian suggests, and placed it across both the saddle and bridge, it would be at about a 30 degree angle off the front of the guitar. In other words, my end pins of the saddle, after removing the shims, were below the surface of the surface of the bridge. The bridge was just made too thick!!! I don't know how else to say it. It was couple of millimeters thicker than any of the dozen or so other Ovation bridges that I measured. A neck reset would have fixed something that wasn't broke. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | o.k. - I'll leave it alone... |
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Location: NJ | Mark;
D'you buy that guitar new?/used?
If new, that shoulda' went back to CT . . . |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I bought it used. I suspect that Dave O was correct when he said the new carved bridges were made without a taper either way, so they could be used on right or left hand. But when they routed out the slot for the right handed saddle, I would think they would taper the front of the bridge.
Tony's is the only other that I've seen and it seemed the same as mine. It didn't bother him, but his action was a little higher than I like. Mine only took about 15 minutes of sanding and I was way more careful than I needed to be. I should have taken a little more off, but I'll probably do that the next time I change strings.
Budny agreed to take a look at it, but it was something that I could fix easily, once I found one of the original Custom Legends to compare it to. I was trying to find out if all the 30ths were that way, but no one could figure out what I was talking about. If I thought I could get a good picture, I'd post them, but I don't have any daylight to work with. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | OK. I measured the thickness of all the bridges. The 30th is a full 1/8 thicker than the 1537 and 87 Collector's. The 87 is a carved bridge, too. The OFC and Ute have slightly thicker bridges, but they are still about 3/32nds thinner than the 30th. Most all the saddles stick above the bridge by about 1/8 inch on each end, but the 30th is the only one that the saddles are almost flush with the bridge. It still has a shim in it and some of the others don't. The bridge is just thicker than it should be. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Mark, I assume you are measuring from the surface of the guitar top finish to the top edge of the bridge. But the bridge is glued to the soundboard, not the finished clearcoat and I would bet that your 30CL has a much thinner finish than the old 87C or 1537. This would make the 'visable' part of the bridge seem thicker on the 30CL.
I had a similar 'thick bridge' issue on one of my elites and I just had it planed down about 1/8 inch and all was perfect.
Dave |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Your assumption is correct, Dave, but the difference in finish thickness would be much less than 1/8 inch. Planing, or sanding was an easy answer once I figured out the problem. Rubbed a little stain back on and it looks good as new and plays much better. It wasn't getting much play time because the action was too high for me. Now it's an every day guitar. |
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Location: Vernon CT | what's the name of the repair guy the O.F.C. is always talking about at the Mothership for my friend to contactfor this problem? |
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| Kim Keller and John Budny are the customer service reps. 860-379-7575 |
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Lower action
