Ovation Questions. Strings etc

chilipeppermaniac

chilipeppermaniac

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OK I have this Ovation guitar I sort of inherited through now being with my girlfriend for 10 years. I believe it was her son's or ex husband's guitar. It is one of those classical type guitars with 0 strings on it now. It has those goody sideways tuners and they fall out of the sides of the head when no strings are in it. I also lost the little saddle piece since I have no strings on it.

SO, first, does anyone know anything about which Nylon strings to buy, and 2nd are those bridge saddle things a pain to get just so, such as I need to sand it, and put notches in etc etc?
 
Love to help chili, but my Ovation is a steel stringed guitar. Bridge and saddle are a bit different than what you have there. Not 100% sure what you’re missing. Does this guitar have a piezo pickup and electronics?
 
iblive said:
Love to help chili, but my Ovation is a steel stringed guitar. Bridge and saddle are a bit different than what you have there. Not 100% sure what you’re missing. Does this guitar have a piezo pickup and electronics?
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YES it has electronics, I am pretty sure Piezo too. Not sure how it works with these. Hope it works once I get a proper saddle. This one guy takes his out and sands it down, so I have a better idea what to shop for now.

 
Be careful with that. Your guitar uses nylon string. Generally they need a bit more action than steel strings. Sand the bridge down too much and you’re gonna get a bunch of string buzzing that you won’t be able to undo. The guy in the video has a steel string guitar more like mine.

Also. Pretty sure the nylon string guitars don’t have a truss rod like the steel string guitars have.

I’d figure out what if anything is missing. Restring and try it first before modifying the bridge saddle.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
The Ovation is called a Celebrity by Ovation Model CC53

Bridge looks like this:

View attachment 77678
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1. You are talking about the pickup assembly, the saddle is part of the PU. Not all PU assemblies are the same one.
2. You e mail ovation and find out which assembly fits your guitar model.
mailto:info@ovationguitars.com
3. The replacement PUs are:

Replacement Parts - Ovation Pickups

www.ovationguitars.com www.ovationguitars.com
4. Maybe that might sell you just the saddle, but find out.
5. The action is adjusted by shims and maybe you can ask for some shims too.
6. The battery:
Keep a fresh battery inside the guitar, because it can leak and corrode the battery holder.
If the battery holder is corroded replace it, Ovation has some replacement battery clips.

The strings I use are called " silk and steel" classical guitar strings.

Anyway sounds like a lot of work and $$$ to fix it to a playable condition. You may wind up spending $100 to get it running again....
 
Re. Shims. On mine. If I took out all the shims action was so tight strings buzzed if I picked up the guitar. Add a shim. Too high. So….. I sanded one of the shims down. Figured it can’t hurt. I still have three or four to use. On hindsight. I probably could have used a trimmed down piece of masking tape…. Or two to achieve the same result.
 
iblive said:
Be careful with that. Your guitar uses nylon string. Generally they need a bit more action than steel strings. Sand the bridge down too much and you’re gonna get a bunch of string buzzing that you won’t be able to undo. The guy in the video has a steel string guitar more like mine.

Also. Pretty sure the nylon string guitars don’t have a truss rod like the steel string guitars have.

I’d figure out what if anything is missing. Restring and try it first before modifying the bridge saddle.
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Thanks IBlive, I pretty much knew the Nylon string vs Steel strings would have an impact. Also, I figured the sanding down part like in the video is not a thing I was intending to do right off the bat just from watching a video. As is usually my M O when it comes to solving an unknown diagnosis and repair of a piece of equipment, appliance etc, I see what is right vs what might be wrong and then fix what is off kilter. Pretty sure I am looking at just needing the saddle and maybe some of the shims, the pickup part seems to be intact.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Thanks IBlive, I pretty much knew the Nylon string vs Steel strings would have an impact. Also, I figured the sanding down part like in the video is not a thing I was intending to do right off the bat just from watching a video. As is usually my M O when it comes to solving an unknown diagnosis and repair of a piece of equipment, appliance etc, I see what is right vs what might be wrong and then fix what is off kilter. Pretty sure I am looking at just needing the saddle and maybe some of the shims, the pickup part seems to be intact.
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What about the battery holder?
Can you spray out the pots and jack? It probably needs cleaning for sitting so long unused.
 
Thank you Ampman for your link and advice too. Now I have to learn what strings work best for this. I did find a spec sheet which showed their current Nylon stringed "Timeless Classic" as being D'Addario YB-EXP46N
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
What about the battery holder?
Can you spray out the pots and jack? It probably needs cleaning for sitting so long unused.
Click to expand...

Ampmad, thanks again. I have to look into that battery, EQ slider type controls of the Kamen unit. It is a basic 2 slider "tone" and " gain" functions controller.
 
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Amp Mad Scientist said:
What about the battery holder?
Can you spray out the pots and jack? It probably needs cleaning for sitting so long unused.
Click to expand...
When the snap on battery cap broke on mine, I went to Radio Shack and bought a package of them. Soldered new to old harness. The battery clamp inside the bowl was still viable, so didn’t need to change that. Mine is a 1974 model. Old school electronics. Only a volume. No tone. The preamp inside the bowl died on me. Fortunately under warranty.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
YES it has electronics, I am pretty sure Piezo too. Not sure how it works with these. Hope it works once I get a proper saddle. This one guy takes his out and sands it down, so I have a better idea what to shop for now.

Click to expand...

Can't believe that came with such high action..o_O
 
Session 5 said:
Can't believe that came with such high action..o_O
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Nature of the beast Norm. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a nylon stringed classical style guitar that had low action like we’re all used to on our steel stringed guitars. If action was lowered to match a steel string guitar, it would be practically unplayable due to fret buzz.
 
The recommended action for the classical guitar is 4mm for the sixth string and 3mm for the first string, taking as a reference the top of the 12th fret and the lower part of the string whilst the instrument is properly tuned.

Which is approx double a steel string guitar.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
YES it has electronics, I am pretty sure Piezo too. Not sure how it works with these. Hope it works once I get a proper saddle. This one guy takes his out and sands it down, so I have a better idea what to shop for now.

Click to expand...
Finally watched the video. Be aware chili. This guy is working on a steel string Ovation. You have a nylon string Ovation. Set up is different between the two. You HAVE to have more action with nylon strings than with steel strings or you won’t be able to play it without buzzing the strings. Tuned to standard E…. Tension on nylon strings is way less than steel strings.

Consider tuning one of your electrics down to standard C…. Then put .007s on for strings. The tension on nylon strings tuned to standard E is probably still half that. I have played a nylon string guitar with action that was most likely to high…. It was still easier to play than a properly setup steel string guitar.
 
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