Lowering Acoustic Guitar String Action | Ovation Celebrity
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 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.
/ wheat113
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.
Need a parachute if you jump off those strings
shaved my bridge a bit and bad news! pickup is no longer working... do not recomend doing this. i will try to balance it out to make the pressure even and see if i get the sound back... but yeah. To everyone watching this video i dont reccomend doing this is you like to plug in. Really hope that i can fix this and that your video didn't make me have to buy a new bridge....... plays good tho. unplugged...
Did lowering the action change the intonation??
Nick Loz - No I got lucky... it still holds perfect on a tuner at both open strings and the twelfth fret. It also seems to have kept note substainabilty. I'm still really happy with it. Thanks man, take care!
I thought those shims were magnetic needed to stay lol
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.
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'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
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.
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.
Sorry, but that's truly cringe-worthy. The action, as shown at the open, counts as --> unacceptable
"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.
if you have to take a grinder to the bridge like that - you've got more problems that action
I bought a really beautiful used ovation celebrity at guitar center and didn't know that the celebrity series has this godamn fucking height issue. Very nice mod!! Im glad to see it CAN be done, BUT I don't understand why the fucking hell they wouldn't make the bridge like the way you customized it. Why do guitar companies fucking suck ass?? Why do we ALWAYS have to fuck around with our guitars to make them work??? Its godamn stupid. I just want a 100% graphite guitar that doesn't move and just works works WORKS!! Fuck wood! Who cares about tradition!! I want a no bullishly guitar that um........ WORRRKS!!!!!!!!!!
Ron Thunders swear much?
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.
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 ?
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
I'd offer ya $5 bucks for it , but you pay shipping. I need a parts guitar.
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.
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.
A "How to", do-it-yourself, D.I.Y. UA-cam video on how to screw up a $300 guitar because you are pretty sure you can do what you just watched.
300 is nothing for a guitar
Sorry to say. But wtf!!
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!
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
That’s hard work. Reset the neck. Undo two bolts and you can slide the neck closer to the string.There are tutorials on UA-cam how to do it.
This Guys a butcher. I did exactly the same work but did it with finesse. Why use a sander with 80 grit?
David Haswell - would never leave a sand with 80 grit. I would think it to be common knowledge to step it up. Sorry videos can't be 47 minutes during sanding. Thanks bro. 😕 #23chromosomes
Brian Ealy great job man
OMG That bridge is hacked. Lost support and contact area by taking Hacking too much away from saddle.
Dave Pinkerton - it’s still doing its thing... a year later... settle down bruh. String height still the same. Holds tune over weeks unplayed. Nothing has changed.
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
Brian means well but never do these kind of guitar repairs yourself unless you have done them before and know what you are really doing. Practice on $10 flea market guitars first if you must. Support your local Luthier - your guitar will be happy you did. Just the process of sanding the base of a bridge saddle should be done by hand and on a flat surface and slowly. Belt sanders over-shoot your target instantly as he did and the saddle also starts to melt and distort quickly and usually flies away when you hold them with needle-nose pliers. A total red-neck approach and should never be performed on any new or quality instruments. I am sure he lost some tone and sustain when he reduced that back angle of the string into the retaining holes at the bridge off the lowered saddle - simple guitar physics - you can't fool mother nature. Also, those Piezo flat saddle pick-up transducers need real even pressure to vibrate properly and in a linear manner (note the special saw-tooth pattern at the bottom of the saddle which he sanded away - they were that shape for a reason for that style pickup or design in order to focus the saddle pressure under each respective string to the transducer for better tone). I would never use any shims between my Piezo pick-up and saddle if I could avoid it since the saddle needs to vibrate as one block so to speak as far as vibration goes - having layers or shims can act as mechanical filters and actually interfere with the vibration transfer - again - basic physics. Get a good book on guitar repair and maintenance also.......and always finger-pick Hillbilly music whenever possible.
Blah, blah, blah......what book was that BS in? Brian, you done good my brother!
too harsh. Give the kid a break. Just an ovation it's not gonna last forever.
All you have to do is help the new strings make a slight bend over the bridge when you first install the new set of strings. And by all means take out the shims, trying that first, to see where this ends up for action without altering the guitar. This is an acoustic-electric not an electric Les Paul or Strat..He took out too much material on the saddle bridge pickup and then had to add shims back to adjust the action. Another way would be to create a deeper slots where the string contacts the saddle/bridge pickup locations. That would be like the same process of lowering the nut and cutting the slots at the headstock. Then you could mark the bridge where the string is and take way less material on the front edge of that wood if you absolutely have to do that. I hope I don't run into this guitar as a pre-owned sale anywhere. Glad it's his Ovation & not mine, it needs a new bridge & pickup as far as I'm concerned. I'ts a Celbrity so it's a sub $ 500 guitar. Maybe do what he did to a least expensive Applause, where the action is probably higher anyway.
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.
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.
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
Excellent work!!
Glad you're happy about it!!...
Too bad them Ovation acoustics sound like a tin can with nearly zero warmth or sustain. I know i own 2 : a celebrity & 1517 acoustic electric.
Hello, what is the name of the guitar model? Thanks!
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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".
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.
Yaz bout time guitar companies started makin' acoustics that have easily adjustable intonation and action FFK'S sakes gees . I have a Fender CD - 60 ( I think it is ) with the cutaway , love it but the action is like 1/4 " off the frets , so bad I don't even like playing it , help !!!! LOL
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.
Why would they fabricate such a horrible bridge?
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.
Would have been easier if you had removed the neck and adjusted it for the height of the bridge/saddle combination.
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.
Too bad the older ovations aren’t the same pickup and bringing g the bridge down isn’t an option. The bridge on the ovations the biggest POS. You can drive a car under the strings and shims are gone. Ovations are Korean pieces of crap and if mine didn’t have massive sentimental value, it would be long gone. The action on even a new one is a joke.
Scratched it at ~4:01. I cringed.
Wow nice catch! Dident see that untill you brought it to my attension... I think over time the action will be to low and also the bridge where it was carved out will cause sustain issues and will have issues staying in tune.
If your guitar doesn't have scratches and rockstar dents then you haven't been using it enough.
@@BenWoods There is use and then there is abuse!
Nice job. But why do you keep calling it „saddle“ while it really is the bridge?
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!
see here at:1 47 how low string action hight can be ua-cam.com/video/5DLarpRwC8w/v-deo.html
Can some one tell me why the actual duck are ovations like this. It’s so got dang annoying.
You ruined that bridge on that guitar man fuck me all you had to do was shave down the saddle to should of never took a dremmel to that bridge
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?
Ovation should consider your bridge modification.
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 ...
Great Effort . Now to get stuck with my Adamas
Oh, no… Don’t butcher your guitar like that…
if you practiced more, your fingers will be able to press down on those strings..
Lol you just butchered a new guitar. I would never own Ovation anyway that's what you get when you buy an Ovation
Dude, This was so painful to watch! lol
Truth be told, a slightly higher action sounds better and these modifications shouldn`t be necessary on a well engineered instrument. If you want Les Paul action then play a LP. The benchmark for guitar, is actually the gut string classic instrument itself. If I eat cereal, I choose oatmeal, not Lucky Charms.
Mmmk
I have an Ovation 12 string with the same problem.
Ovation guitar now are garbage , brand new guitar and u have to fix all that .
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!
I just shimmed the bridge with an old credit card I cut up. Sounds and plays incredible.
Wouldnt that change your intonation ?
I would tighten the trust rod a hair .Nice job!
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
Great video, and well done using your skill to get the action right, but if this guitar was made where it used to be made in the USA you would not have had this problem. All that work you did on a nearly new guitar is way out of order!!!
Can you say, "Hencho en China"?
I’d probably mess up the guitar if I tried.
Not a lot of angle coming out of the bridge
Why can't they just make an acoustic guitar with an adjustable bridge??
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.
Cool. I'd be scared shitless to do that.
After all that he didn’t know how to play
This video could be called why you don't buy an ovation
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.
How did you etch out for the pickup?
Nice video. Wher you located
Thanks Brian. I didn't know lowering action on an Ovation was possible at all!
Did it mess with the nut height at all?
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.
So much for your warranty. I will bet that you have lost a bit of sustain is relieving the angle of bend over the saddle. You really need to learn about "finesse" though. Your instruments will thank you.
Yea, that string angle over the bridge is important for sustain and volume. It depends on guitar design though. Some have really low bridges and shallow angles which doesn't leave much room for good adjustment. I don't care for this bridge design.
Bradford Guy you can tell by the sound that he fucked his guitar up and lost all the sustain, what an idiot.
Now grab your hole saw and make the sound holes bigger... and put in more of them for more sound! yee-hawww - Swiss cheese guitar!
Not to mention a framing hammer to make sure the nut is set in the slot, right?
I'm not a luthier, but I can do simple repairs and set ups. I was screaming, "NO NO NO, don't do that!!!" during the whole video.
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!
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.
Now learn to play it.
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.
Way cool dude :-)
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.
That low E sounds dead
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.
This is the most dangerous stuff somebody could do with an Ovation saddle height !! I have serious doubts that the pickup executed well after this procedure and also the neck angle on newer Ovations like this one ,especially China made ,sucks ! Last thing the after sale value of the instrument after that kinda stuff dramatically drops ! So it s obviously a no -no for me!
Is he drunk
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.
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.
Good job!
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.