Lowering Acoustic Guitar String Action | Ovation Celebrity
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Lowering the action on a acoustic guitar. Lowering guitar strings. Ovation Celebrity. Mechanical Madman, for a reason. Never have intent to resell... don't care how effects value. Now plays so much... So SO much better!!!
Check my channel for more videos, and more to come. Thanks guys.
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I'm surprised that Ovation would release a guitar with rediculous action like that. I had a nylon Ovation in the past and the action on it was perfect all the way. You have balls of steel man. No way I would Dremel that guitar.
I know man... My heart dropped when he pulled out the Dremel!
There are also shims under the bridge. He only took out the shims under the saddle. A luthier who specializes in acoustic guitars can fix these problems easily for minimal $$$ and minimal invasion.
@@toddwilliamson8557shims under the bridge ? The bridge is glued to the body isn't it?
Not just glued, but many times it's glued onto the lacquer. My first acoustic ever was an Ovation CE-768 which was like $1600 and 20 years later I heard a loud snap one day and the whole entire bridge had pulled away from the top. Come to find out they didn't glue the bridge to the wood and then paint it, they painted it and glued the bridge to the finishing. It pulled up so much finish. I found some badass Luthier on youtube who had a video showing this same issue on another Ovation and he fixed mine really well. It's a shame they didn't build these correctly; hopefully the new ones are glued together properly. @@andrewbevan4662
"Accidental Luthier" tip of the day: This video inspired me to be bolder, yet not as aggressive as routing out the Rosewood Bridge part that's glued to the deck of the guitar. Anyway, get a Harbor Feight set of needle files and channel the saddles where the strings are supposed to go with the narrowest tip of the rounded shape needle file. Obviously the shim removal part of the adjustment is built into the process for lowering string action. What I also learned after channeling out the plastic saddle part. These Ovation Applause/Celebrity guitars live/love being down tuned a 1/2 or full step to Standard D & D#/E# tuning. Use a Capo on the 1st-3rd/4th frets to get to the next higher alternate tuning options while still being able to use your Standard E chord patterns. Just understand that Capo on those frets and a 20 fret neck loses a few highest notes for making the guitar a 18-20 fret neck. This method is more like cutting the nut slots lower, only that the saddles are what is cut & channeled/slotted out. Currently, the saddle piece as a replacement part for a CP100 Piezo pickup is $ 7-10 online. Your choice, you can risk screwing the modification of a sub $ 10 saddle piece or risk screwing up the Rosewood bridge block & the slot the CP100 pickup is fitted in. Power tools can remove the material too fast. The needle files simply are a slower & more controlled process. The saddle & pickup intonates as string action is lowered. I went level to file away the saddle material, the intonation improved significantly & playability is ideal at the lower tuning of Standard D. That string with the deeper channel & notch goes nowhere, the string tension holds it in place with the alignment, there is no binding of the strings that break them at the saddle & nut after the surgical procedure. Trial and error for filing, just like the nut slot cutting process. I'll call my method "saddle slotting". And it looks better for not having to refinish the Rosewood bridge part. The shims Ovation puts in the saddle slot were already removed, one can buy replacements on line as one can also buy a spare saddle part or even CP100 Piezo pickup. Be careful about dismantling the pickup, there is a plastic retainer inside the metal tray for the 6 individual piezo crystals. Those piezo crystal blocks are brittle, they can chip & crack. And if the plastic retainer gets pinched, that can deform & cause issues for the pickup assembly. The strings are closer to the Rosewood bridge, yet a sufficient gap exists for any of the 6 strings to vibrate. Just retain the intonation stagger of the saddles for filing away saddle material. The guitar should/will be outstandingly playable when you are done with it.
Thanks that is incredible instruction.
I've had an Ovation Balladeer for 50 years, one of the first ones ever made and I've never had to make any modifications on it. I took one of the two shims from under the bridge out when I first bought it and have always strung it with Phosphor Bronze 12's (primarily D'Adarrio's as of the last several years). It plays and sounds like a dream. I've had several people over the years offer to buy it from me but it will stay with me forever. Even had on fella offer to trade a Martin D-028 straight up. No dice. I had the great fortune of having Harry Chapin play it for a concert at the local club where I was stationed in Germany with the Air Force back in June of 1980. Unfortunately, Ovation hasn't maintained the level of craftsmanship that they were initially known for.
,,, But they will stand behind the guitar and warranty it's setup potential. I have a 20+ year old Ovation 6868. Bought local at Woodwinds and Brasswinds in '98 or '99. Compared the Ovation, Martin, Fender, and Gibson unplugged, and the Ovation won in all areas. We were all surprised it sounded and played the best. Not as boomy lows but tight lows...
Still setup nicely after all these years, though I just checked and could use a slight neck adjustment. I had a slider that fell out of the Electronics, from one of the kids about 5 years ago. They sent me an exact replacement, for free. At the time I didn't know I had a lifetime warranty with the USA made.
HE trashed the whole bridge... He likely over adjusted the neck to begin with. Look at the string fret relationship @1:50 from the start. Neck needs a bit less bow and action will drop down nicely. He probably ended up sending it in or ordered a new bridge nut, and got the neck adjusted correctly. Live and Learn :D
He took the comparison pics at different angles. Likely the thing buzzed below the 12th fret, and dead above the 12th. He doesn't really show it's adjusted quality. Don't do what he did. Get it set up for personal preference by a good guitar tech/luthier near you. Or...
Call Ovation for a custom setup, and they come with a very good warranty.
www.ovationguitars.com/info/warranty-information
Warranty by Series to the original purchaser when registered within 10 days of purchase:
Ovation USA and Adamas models come with a Lifetime Limited Warranty
Ovation imported models come with a Five Year Limited Warranty
Applause Models come with a One Year Limited Warranty
I have a pre-owned Applause AE128-4 and I wouldn't do what he did to that without trying the shim removal. And like an electric guitar, when restringing it with new strings, you can help the strings bend over the saddle pickup. The Applause has pretty low action doing it that way. No dismantling or destruction necessary.
holy crap..you could take a nap under that string action lol
watsonvillian - lmfao!.... this is so true.
With your feet pointing straight up!!! : 0
Why do guitars come from the factory with such high action? The action on your Ovation before you made your modifications would make it nearly unplayable towards the 12th fret. I can't imagine anyone preferring such an action, even for slide.
It's one of those time-constraint things I think. They've got hundreds of guitars to get through every day, so they don't really have the time to fine tune it. I think they kind of approach it as though miles-high action is better than fret buzz.
@@BrianEaly All of Ovations Guitars have a rounded back made out of plastic.
Hi, I had a crappy Ovation Audition for twenty years, the 'E' string sounded 'F flat' at the twelfth fret. A buddy of mine saw your video and asked if he could have a go at said guitar. He returned it and it now does what it says on the tin. Many thanks.
@@raddydydy you do know that is intonation and not string height?
When i was a younger man every ovation i ever seen had a crack down the back. Couldn't pay me to play one.glad it worked out for you.
love the ovation. . best guitar I've ever bought.. this one on here is absolutely beautiful piece of work...
Thanks... I love this guitar as well... been playing it every couple days since I did the video.... she is now my ride or die! Take care.
I had the same problem with my new Ovation Celebrity Standard. I watched a few how to videos and I removed a shim or two. It lowered strings just right. So much easier to play. Great action but recently I'm getting a slight buzz so I may have to go back in the saddle. Also I think I screwed up my electronic connection but I never use an amp with an acoustic. Ovations have a deep rich tone but the top of the fret board is too narrow for my fat arthritic fingertips have difficulty not muting strings, they say that the ovation guitar is a stratocasters favorite acoustic
Please do a video doing your own dentistry
yeah buddy, this guys crazy...lol
Just that is a good one. If I had to read that one I wouldn't have wasted so much time writing what I did right.
Thanks for the video! I didn't have to go as far as you did but removing two shims had this Ovation acoustic playing practically like a shred machine; Uncanny. Play on!
Nothing feels better than low action like that. But you can only do it on a brand new guitar. Once theres the slightest bit of fret wear there will be buzz and youll have to raise the action or redress the frets
Good job! I have the same guitar in a more blonde front and I love it. Super easy to play and sounds fantastic. Thank you.
Your jimmyrigging about turned my stomach, until I remembered that it was a celebrity. Hats off for tackling the challenge yourself.
Hello, what is the name of the guitar model? Thanks!
Hey man...thanks for the inspiration!!..After watching this I did the same thing to my Ovation 12 string!! And it is AMAZING now.
Douglas Allegar - awesome man! So glad it helped you. I love mine now... couldn't even play it before! Take care!
Cool, I've got an Applause by Ovation that I just removed saddle shims & sanded down & it's still way to high. Will do the Dremel trick this weekend instead of trying to shim the removable aluminum neck. Thanks
Brand new guitar and shaving the bridge ?? If the truss rod is adjusted correctly this guitar it needs a neck reset not a bridge shave.
The guy obviously doesn't know what he's doing. And you can't prove it to us that he didn't ruin it because he can't play it. Have you ever seen anyone that was any good at working on Guitars That Couldn't play one? You don't know what's right and what's wrong if you don't know how to play it. Please people ignore this video
I'm sure most people can think for themselves. It's your comment that that needs to be ignored. Do you really think that asjusting the neck is going to lower the strings just in the lower part of the neck? Haha no no no. It cannot be done.
I bought my nephew a used Yamaha fx335 for Christmas. I couldn’t afford a pro set up and practically stole the guitar but the action was sky high. The piezo pickup had me a little scared. This solved my issues and now he has a really nice sweet playing guitar for Christmas. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!
Chris Browning -good to hear... thanks for taking the time to leave feedback... take care. Have a Merry Christmas!
Thanks Brian. I didn't know lowering action on an Ovation was possible at all!
They never get them right out of the factory and a complete set up going over by Luther's is worth every dime.
Yeah I just picked up a shallow body applause ovation and I was worried because it look like the bridge was too hot but after watching your video I’ll get my Dremel tool in there artistically and make it look beautiful.
Thank you so much for this video brother
Too high LOL
I was skeptical at first but you did a great job. Guitar still sounds great after your modification. Congrats!
Jeffrey Prokopowicz - thanks! A lot of people hate me for this / a lot love it... but end of the day I couldn't play it before, and play it all the time now. Take care man!
Great job man, I just came across your video, picked one up at GW, for around $75 bucks, I'm going to start with the truss rod, then check out the shim's ... Once again thank you.
I have a 1986 Collectors edition white American made plays great! Looking to pick up a 1866 Legend 12 next 1989. These guitars are awesome.
I didn't see this vid before lowering the action on my Ovation C157 but I had already removed the shims some years ago however I decided to use Elixir 011-052 bronze phosphor strings ( a bit heavy but sound great) so wanted the action lower. so I honed down the bridge bottom edge on fine grade paper on a flat board. All good. I really don't think Brian needed to valley out the wood as there was plenty of clearance, else, thanks for sharing Brian.
Kills your volume while unplugged. If the angle of the string coming off the saddle is too slight, your projected volume drops. Ovations are usually plugged in though so you probably don't mind. Nice job on your work though.
The strings being that high before your mod and assuming that you had correctly straightened the neck via the truss rod, then either the neck was set at the wrong angle or the guitar has dried out over time causing the neck angle to change. If the neck angle is correct you should be able to slide a straight edge down the fretboard from the nut to the bridge and it should just clear the top of the front edge of the bridge (not saddle) - if it bumps up against the bridge by more than 1/8th inch the neck angle is wrong and the only remedies are a neck reset (expensive/difficult) or shaving the bridge as you have done.
As someone else said the strings also look a little high at the first fret, filing the nut slots a little deeper should make it play even easier.
Good vid, Thanks.
This is the correct fix....neck reset is the only fix that makes sense. IF the bridge is sanded/shaved and the break angle of the strings is not steep enough off the back of the saddle, the intonation suffers as well as the sustain.
That’s hard work. Reset the neck. Undo two bolts and you can slide the neck closer to the string.There are tutorials on RUclips how to do it.
I'm Bill, this is my wife's account. I have an Ovation 12 string that has this same problem, only worse because it's a 12 string. It's nearly impossible to play. I'm doing a precise fret level job on it so I can get the strings very very low with no buzz. I'm going to need to do the same thing Brian has done here to make it play nice. Only I plan to go even farther with lowering the strings, Brain did make his much lower, but they still looked pretty high to me. Thanks for this video, I now feel confident on how to fix this thing. Dear Ovation, why the hell do you make these with such high action, especially on a 12 string. It's impossible to play this way. I'm not impressed!
Brian, I've spent about 3 years thinking about such an operation and I finally did it last night. I certainly didn't indulge in sanding the body, but I did take some 120 action and am so excited with the difference. I also invited some 10-52 sweetwoods on board and my $250 ae148 applause is in a different league. I have a touch of play in the truss with the lower gauge strings so I may tighten it up a 1/8 turn... but really not critical. no string buzz, action reduced by what feels like 3-4ish mm...
Lech Naumovich - awesome man... I have had so much hate mail about this mod. The thing people keep - seem to misunderstand is that my guitar was completely unplayable. The action you could slide a cheerio under. Literally. Since then, now I play it, now I love it. Tune and annotation somehow is perfect. Wish you the same. Take care man!
The action is so low it kills a lot of the bass and midrange response, not to mention the sustain. Because of this problem, I have long used a graduated action - low on the 1st string rising to high on the 6th string.
I did a similar mod to a cheap Chinese acoustic guitar called a "New York Pro" that I bought for $100 at a local music store. After lowering the action much like you did, I went all the way and replaced the acoustic strings with a set of electric light gauge strings. Now the neck feels like my Telecaster's. I did lose a little volume and bottom end, but since I almost always plug into the PA or an amp for live performance, I can add volume and bass as needed.
Thanks so much for the video,i have a 12 ovation,i tighted the truss rod as far as it would go,to lower the action,but was scarded to fool around the bridgemdidn,t know they had shims under the saddle,it,s my first ovation,always wanted one,so now i have the courage and a little know how of how of how ovation guitars are set up.I must say,they are a different breed of guitar,and i love the 12 string,so now i will try this,thanks again for the post.
Having to do this on a new guitar is a FAIL from both manufacturer and consumer.
some people like high action. it allows you to play harder without buzz. There is a reason, or reasons, why fancy pants performers change their guitar on stage after each song, as silly as it is.
I have to disagree too, it's how you play and I own two and never had to touch them.
Third respectful disagreement: most acoustic guitars - at least the ones I’ve seen, top notch ones - have the action set higher than your average electric guitar… and, as others have stated, even electric guitars usually arrive with higher action than I’d prefer, simply because other humans like higher action and its effect on tone/volume/intonation. So manufacturers try to accommodate that broad median/mean, rather than my extreme.
@@danopticon It's well known manufacturers ship with higher than optimal action to ensure climate changes don't result in fret buzz before they get in consumers hands.
With that in mind the guitar in the above video was defective. A known issue with some import Ovations which have incorrect neck sets.
The strings needed FAA clearance from the factory. When the consumer is putting channels in the bridge to make it playable he's supporting shoddy manufacturing and doing a disservice to casual players that may think this is acceptable on a new guitar.
Side note.. bought a used Ovation Celebrity used from GC online a couple years back. It was immediately clear the original owner dumped it for the same reason in this video. (as did I)
No new acoustic guitar should require saddle work to achieve decent action.
I have owned an Ovation Celebrity for well over 10 years and my action has always been nice and low from day one. Much lower than this guys guitar even after he did all this work to it. Unfortunately he bought a defective unit and in my opinion, it looks like it still had really high action after the work was done to it. My two cents… he should have kept looking or demand a refund.
Wow dude that allot of saddle you removed! surprised that guitar saddle still any vibration
Right!? I thought he was just going to bevel the edge a bit LOL!
Fantastic video. I was blown away. In Gods name , why doesn't Ovation make them like this in their manufacturing production as well. Ovation should hire a clever man as yourself. Thank you, Brian Ealy.
Jerry Englerth - thanks man, I really appreciate it! Take care - happy ThanksGiving
Got my Sambora Signature Elite dialed in now......You my friend are awesome,ty Sir
At 1:49, we can see the action at he nut. It appears to be to high. It must be at 0.020". You could have sand down the nut before working on the bridge. The guitar would have been even easier to play.
You really came up with some awesome ideas. My bridge was a little too high on my Taylor. I had to settle with my action a little higher than I wanted. Not now! Cool!!
It's now November of 2023, and I'm looking to get one. That being said, I wonder how much they have factory changed this due to customer response.
Hey good video and congratulations on your new guitar I’m a LP player and learned how to play in ovations and I recently got myself a 77 balladeer that’s got a saddle that’s higher than I’ve ever seen on an accustic and although it’s good for slide I’ve gotta shave the saddle to get it playing normal I had to go to D standard just to be able to bend in the cowboy cord position…….I understand what you’re doing here but if you already removed the saddles shims and judging from how low it is if you lower it more your going to reduce the brake angle of the strings at the bridge and run into buzzing dead sounding notes possibly having your strings move around the saddle the best way / what most luthiers would do is remove the bridge and shave the bottom of it now to help fain some brake angle back after what you did would be use your dremmel with a ball end mill bit and deepen the string ramp groves on an angle going down away from the saddle it’s going to be a delicate operation but it’ll take it from sounding good and playing good to grate it’s a little trick I’ve seen twoodfrd do in his RUclips videos many times when he’s got a maxed out saddle and bridge to help gain some extra brake angle
Nice! Great idea thinking about doing that to my 12 string ovation
Before you go do this extreme fix , check out Michael Thames on YT , an adjustable saddle very simple . It's a tapered saddle that slides from minimum to total height.
I have performed this operation on other guitars and am about to do likewise on an Applause. Brian Ealy, you must have been bummed to HAVE to do this to a brand new Celebrity. You had no other choice. You HAD to do something and you did it. You are to be commended. Jim in central Iowa
Jim Collinson - thanks man... exactly... I took so much hate for this video but people didn't understand that the strings were like 3/4" over the neck... completely unplayable. You could go to play a chord and the strings would roll around your finger before they met the fret board... risk was worth it and paid off major! Take care man. 👌
Brian Ealy, ..... After watching your video I contacted Ovation to explain that I was planning to reconstruct one of their guitars like you did in your video and, going one step farther, I'm going to ad electronics to it also. The Ovation tech offered some very supportive, helpful tips and information, as well as a warning that my work would void their warranty. (No surprise )
Anybody has the option of waiting to see if they can be approved for warranty work (and I do mean waiting ). Others on the other hand, (you and I among others), are not afraid to dive in and correct the problem as we see fit. Granted, there are some that absolutely would not be comfortable taking on a job like this and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. They should take advantage of the warranty by all means. You and I, however, tend not to be intimidated by fixing the problem. Nothing wrong with that either. Thank you for recording your work on video so I can learn from it. Maybe I can do the same and help someone else by example. I hope I can contact you if I should have any questions that only experience could answer.
Jim
I would be concerned with the bridge cracking,since so much material was removed from the front. Now there's very little wood on the front side to stabilize the saddle
I wouldn't worry a great deal about it, since there is a lot of downward force holding it in place. I had a travel acoustic that I had an aftermarket Tusq nut and saddle on, and the nut was only held in place by string tension. Never had an issue at all and sounded amazing.
Great Effort . Now to get stuck with my Adamas
I just shimmed the bridge with an old credit card I cut up. Sounds and plays incredible.
I have played several new martins that the action was too high for me. I own two and both had to have the action lowered. It's easier to lower the action than raise it. I've heard the reason for this is they were set up with blue grass players in mind.
this guy is cool as one can be happy go easy and excellent way of lowering action. peace out man hv a Gr8 time !
Okay I need to add some further info on what I found out as a result of the adjustments I had made to lower the action. You would have noticed that the plastic bridge piece has a unique shape to its design and that is in relation to how it sits on top of the metal pickup piece underneath. on first look, that pickup looks like a single copper strip but under neath that, you can see the 6 string positions of the pick up. When I removed the plastic bridge, I must have accidentally moved the pick up along in the slot. they became out of alignment and so the 1st and 6th strings barely picked up. The comment from Tim Travasos re: the notches is a valid observation because they are there for a reason and I figure they are to prevent pressure from possibly damaging the pickups. luckily I did not hone the bridge down too much. Some comments tell us things we need to know and some challenge the manufacturer. We must not forget that their designers and engineers are themselves guitarists and they know their trade well. As for the action being so high for many, perhaps it is so people can lower the action to suit their style but apart from removing the shims, I think the manufacturer would recommend taking your guitar to a qualified person. Always a benefit to pay for skilled trade. Their service is supported by liability insurance and should be. I hope this helps
That’s a pretty major job to do. Don’t think I’d shave the bridge block though.
I shaved the plastic saddle on my 1993 Ovation Balladeer recently, tweaked the truss and it’s pretty good now. As I’m not a full time acoustic player the action being a little high doesn’t bother me.
When action is too low you loose tone dynamics.
How do the new Chinese Ovations compare to the old USA made models? I’d love a USA with the feathers in a non cut-away.
if you have to take a grinder to the bridge like that - you've got more problems that action
I wonder why Ovation would send the guitar out to the consumer with such bad string action?? Also wondering why you didnt just return it and get one with better action and proper string adjustment...
I have several Ovations and it seems to be the standard way they are sent out. They play excellently right out of the box, but the high action in the back is a drag
That dremel routing is ghetto AF. I’m really surprised you didn’t use a router with a shallow round over bit with a guide
He probably only needed to angle the bridge anyway for additional clearance ?
Thanks buddy, I have the same guitar. its brand new with no buzzing yet, but the action is way too high on the back end . I don't feel comfortable enough to start drastically altering the guitar, but I will remove those shims from the bridge.
I just ordered a new celebrity. I will need to change orientation and adjust height like you. Glad I saw your video!!
don't, you gonna forever damage it. take it to a luthier
Really helpful, thank you. My brand new Ovation Celebrity arrived with too high an action and I when saw the pick-up was connected to the bottom of the bridge I was scratching my head. I didn't realise there were removable shims under the bridge. With a bit of experimentation I found that removing two of the four shims provided me with the perfect string height. I'm now very happy indeed with the way the guitar plays. Thank you.
I believe with newer models they add shims under the bridge so you can simply remove some for lower action
he said he had taken them out already and it still wasn't low enough. they always have come shimmed and with extra shims.
@@jackhammer111 In addition there are actual shims under the wood bridge not just the saddles, you can see them in some of his camera shots.
I didn't think that could be done without calculating the minimum clearance at the nut and bridge to prevent buzzing. I think you went a little too low on the front of the bridge that could weaken it. And I thought you would have had to leave the original notches above the pickup. Brave move!
Yeah not like Ovation put the notches there for no reason. Guess they put the notches at the head end for the hell of it too lol. He happy with it that is the main thing.
thnx sir because of u i can now play my guitar easily ....my guitar axen was also too high
seem most of what he wants to do could have been done with the truss rod.. He doesn't show us the finished saddle. I have a feeling he messed it up. If he recut notches i think he'd brag about it. there was how way to be precise with the belt sander did you see the bridge jumping around on the belt sander?
it's not a good idea to take material out of the bridge. you take weight away from the bridge and it kills the volume. it's the mass of the bridge that moves the top of the guitar and make sound. more mass in the bridge the more it resonates. also, you kill volume when you take so much of the saddle that you have a low angle of the strings over the bridge. you want a steep angle of the strings going over the bridge.
this guy doesn't know squat about what he's doing. Don't do it as he did. He doesn't know how to play the thing so there was no way for us to hear it when he was done
@A Lucky Man! When you say too high are you referring to hard to play? Like too much work for your hand to push the strings down? were bar chords hard to play? are you a strummer or a picker (not necessarily talking about fingerpicking, more about picking out individual notes) the advantage to high action is volume. you can strum hard and use a stiffer pick with high action. if you play mostly first position open chords it's not as much a problem as when working higher up the neck? the more you play up the neck the lower action you need so things become a compromise between making it easy to play while not having too much string buzz should you rock out at times. I adjust mine with the shims out so when I start getting sting buzz I can use the shims to see if it helps instead of putting more stress on the truss rod. But if you haven't got i low enough with the rod take the shims out one at a time and see what that does before you go back to the truss rod You want to site down the neck and see at least a little downward relief in the neck. at least a tiny bit. if it gets really hard to turn the wrench and you still can't get it low enough take it to someone. Another thing this didn't address was the nut. Obviously, the nut is closer to your left hand and can have a big impact on the action. But I don't trust myself to make changes in the nut. It's something I leave to The Experts. Take it to a luthier if you can't. People who have the skills to make a guitar usually don't as much money building guitars as they do on working on guitars. Set-ups are often their bread and butter often luthiers will have an assistant like an apprentice that can do setups under their supervision. I had a guy like that for years but he semi-retired and builds guitars at his leisure. Find someone who has a reputation or someone you've worked with before and trust. If you don't have someone like that take it to two people and see if they agree on what it needs. They are always going to want to do a setup because that's what they do so just get a read on what they say and see if you want to spend the money or not. But I say be cautious because there are bozos like this guy out there. How long was his truss rod presentation? Just a few seconds. Brand new guitar and the first thing he wanted to do will start taking Mass out of the bridge. You don't really even want to take very much off of the saddle because it changes the angle of the string over the staddle and because the saddle has mass, the hardest mass. But the big thing was attacking bridge the way he did. That's crazy unless you got serious problems with a guitar. The bridge is what moves the top and creates the sound. The less mass in the Bridge the less volume not to mention what it can do to tone. What this bozo did was try to outsmart the people who have been making guitars longer than he's been alive. So he took mass out of the saddle and took mass out of the fridge and lowered the height of the saddle in the bridge at the very place that will change the string angle the most. So now it's practically a straight line from the saddle to where the string is attached. Everyone I've ever known who was good at working on guitars was a good guitar player. This guy's a joke. What he's done he plucks a couple of notes stums a couple of chords and says oh what a good boy am I.
I totally agree. I about crapped my pants when he went to town with that Dremel tool. Do not do this to your guitar.
That was balls-y yet awesome. But... Did you wind up with any dead spots on the piezo pickup? I took out the factory shims and got it about 2 mm down, then tightened up the truss rod for another 1.5 mm, and it played great and sounded amazing acoustically, but when I plugged it in there were two dead strings on the piezo under the bridge, the G and the high E. I frigged with trying to even up the contacts for hours and could never get the high E string to register on the piezo. Even the built-in tuner has trouble hearing it (for the same reason).
Respect for doing what this guy did. I have the same guitar with the same high action but don’t have the nerve to try this project due to the concern of what happened when you tried it. It’s not worth paying a tech to lower the action so I guess I’ll just live with the higher action. At least it sounds good and the electronics all work but I would prefer a lower action.
I just got a Copy of one of these a Vester Made in Korea , its a nice Guitar rather the Origional tho
Action is measured from the string to the top of the fret ,not the fretboard ...
I SAW AN OVATION FOR THE FIRST TIME I LOVED IT THEN I PLAYED IT & THEN I HEARD THE SOUND OF ECSTASY 👍🎸
Why did you have to sand down the bridge ? I'm not sure how that helped. I have an ovation with the same problem and really want to fix it too!
Nice job. But why do you keep calling it „saddle“ while it really is the bridge?
Nice job Brian my only wish was that you would have plugged it in man. Keep up the great work, nice playing , more mod.s '..
rick caruso - thanks man! I appreciate it... take care.
If you never did this before, be aware that the Dremel head will sand smooth and be very controllable in one direction. But wild in the other! It will try to dig and run across the guitar etc Be careful
That's a very clever mod. Can't believe you had to do that to a new guitar though
My ovation guitar built in pick up is broken so i use clip on pick up than the original pick up that built in on my guitar but the tuners is working but the equalizer/preamp is broken due to fishman issue also.
I would tighten the trust rod a hair .Nice job!
I have an Ovation 12 string with the same problem.
I saw that guitar years ago... thought it was beautiful.... but ... yeah.. poor action... good job.. u do what youd got to do
Brian, nice video. I have lowered the action on dozens of guitars and never had to router down the actual bridge. That's crazy, I wonder if they set the neck wrong. That just should never be necessary especially since there is so much saddle showing. Glad you got a good result though. I am a sucker for low action acoustics as well, can't play them otherwise!
Keith Jason - thanks man... I dunno... I have never seen anything like it... brand new guitar out of the box with straight neck, and I could slide my pinky in between the strings and neck... completely unplayable. Something was really wrong... At least, I hope they are not all like that... take care bro!
The neck angle is wrong! Fretboard comes in towards the bridge too low. I have the exact same guitar and the exact same problem. Have no clue how these guitars made it past Ovation's quality control !! The setup on a guitar is EVERYTHING!! Who cares how exotic and figured the wood is. If the setup is wrong the guitar is worthless!
Cool. I'd be scared shitless to do that.
Wow great video ! I removed one little shim and its the world of difference. String buzz No more !! (insert happy face)
Thermal Chill - thanks man! Glad it worked for you... nothing will ever beat the tone of an ovation acoustic... take care! 👌
Fender bought & owns Ovation. Eventually Fender closed down the Connecticut USA plant. Since then, it has been reopened, but for a while there the only Ovations were either Indonesian or Chinese.
Happy for you, good job
Personally I'd get another saddle for mods and leave stock alone!
Bridge ? I'm not sure how I'd go about that, glued on I do believe!
I just grabbed a CS 257 ovation black on eBay and will restore it and keep it. It has a chip out of the left upper head.
I have an ovation celebrity says it’s made in Korea but on the Lyrchord, it says ovation USA the model #0057, The serial number is 255-9738 I bought this guitar secondhand it was said that it was owned by by Stompin’ Tom Connors if there’s anywhere I can check the number or find any information out about this guitar please help.James Scott Nicholson Ontario Canada
I had the exact same guitar but I sold it cus the action was to high I wish I new more about this back then
Not that this didn't work, but geez... You might've just routed the bridge cavity with a small tool. Even a Dremel. Very slowly. I would only recommend this to the extremely impatient, with as you say "no intent to resell".
WAR OF AGES!!!! Good old fashioned Christian metal!
Brandon Warr - aww yeah man! Your the first to know of them! Take care bro!
I would be very careful with such things. 1st , why should anyone do this on a brand new kinda not cheap guitar ? 2nd , these kind of mods always spoil and affect the overall original craft. 3rd, acoustic guitars are always a problem with such things. When you give this to a luthier , you never know how they handle the guitar and what mods they need to perform at the cost of sometimes irreversible work steps. 4th, why do not they make all acoustic guitars adjustable for everyone ? There should always be a set of shims for each level of string action. Many people make mistakes lowering the action too much - on electric guitars you can easily do this but if you lower the strings too much on acoustic guitar ,the sound is gonna suffer. So once again , acoustics are a hard piece of Art.
Love what you did to lower the action. Beautiful job.
That's a good video of how not to lower your action, but if you're happy with it rock on.
mark dearborn - ehh 'mechanical madman' - this is what I do. When you have action you can slide a waffle under.... send me your answer.
I have exactly the same guitar and want to do the same adjustment. Your video was great, but it didn't show how you fitted the bridge back into the piezo after sanding it down. That to me is the really tricky part! the piezo is fitted to the bottom of a small a metal channel, and the bridge slots into that channel. How did you manage to get it fitting snugly back into the channel again? The bridge is "stepped", with the upper part being wider than the channel, the lower part of the bridge (with the lugs) is narrower so it can fit into the channel. Did you sand the lower part to leave just enough so it could slot back into the channel again? Grateful your advice. Regards Michael
I had to do the same thing for my 12-string ovation. The saddle work took about 2-3 hrs due to the shape required to fit back into the metal saddle pickup. I also carved the same notches that were at the original bottom as well. A LOT of sanding, scraping, fitting, repeat.
Yes, he made it sound a lot easier than it actually is. Great you took your time and did all the necessary shaping, I haven't attempted anything on mine yet, it all looks so incredibly detailed to get exactly right. I wonder how many people have done this without the required shaping, and just shoved the bridge back in so that it sits on top of the channel (but not inside as it should be!). Good video and concept, but it missed out this critical stage, and hence it's somewhat misleading. It just isn't that easy!
when I did mine I just laid it flat out on sand paper and took the entire side down to the correct with to fit back in the metal channel. the critical issue is to not chance the bridge where the strings come over the top. the intonation is controlled by the shape of the very top where the strings touch. it is a must to get the bridge set solid in the channel or the pick up will not hear the strings. contact is the most important for tone and sustain. it is a tricky job for sure. if your scared don't try it.
Good job!
Wouldnt that change your intonation ?
This is huge mistake. I had same problem. You MUST change the neck angle. The strings should have bigger angle at the saddle which you made flat. If watch the video with paying attention you can see a little gap between the fret board and the top. So, your neck connection is wrong.
Superb job.
Would have been easier if you had removed the neck and adjusted it for the height of the bridge/saddle combination.
I agree very brave of you but what the hell nothing that cant be fixed give it a go. The break angle looks on the light side the sound appears more dead be careful it is easy to go too far.
Nice creative way, love that! Does the guitar have any string-volume balance issue at all after that? I notice a uneven string volume after i sand down the saddle (yet i do it very very flat). Also the saddle (bone) being thin, it breaks easily. You do not have any of these issues do you?
Congratulations. Better definitely!
dinomark lee - thanks man! Appreciate it!
Good vid. Thanks. What about intonation? I guess you should put lower gauge strings on.That may also be good.Lighter the strings easier to play.
I bought a used Ovation Celebrity thinking (hoping) there would be still be shims under the pickup. (It seemed in good condition otherwise.) There was one shim but action was still real high. I took to my local luthier; he called it unplayable and conjectured the neck hadn't been installed correctly. Ok, lesson learned about buying an A/E used. I'm up to try to lower the height of the saddle. I'm wondering what technique you used to carve (narrow) the saddle so it fit back in the pickup after you sanded it. You noted having to do it at 4:40 but didn't mention a detail. Do you recall how you did it?
FWIW: After adjusting the truss rod and removing the one shim, my action on the 6th string, 1st fret is about 0.025 and 0.125 at the 12th fret. Glad your mod was successful.
great job thanks and hey sweet Ovation!
Paul Crow - Thanks man! Much appreciated!
Very good instruction- video, but it is a shame for the Ovation factory to take about 2-30O USD for a new very nice guitar who need future, expensive adjustments in case a buyer can’t do this himself. I observe the same Action-problem with other guitar brands in the same price class. For to have a right adjusted new guitar, a buyer must pay maybe the double.