I just bought an American made MM68. It has great sound when not plugged in but very low volume on the E string when amplified. Does anyone have the same problem or suggestions on how to fix it?
I just bought an American made MM68. It has great sound when not plugged in but very low volume on the E string when amplified. Does anyone have the same problem or suggestions on how to fix it?
Never seen one, but if it has the original multi-piezo pickup, one crystal might be broken or disconnected. Could be easy to identify with saddle removed, or the shims that establish contact. Not a simple layout. You could also pick up the signal before the preamp to see if the latter is the problem. Ovation guitar players may be a larger source of information.
Apologies if I’ve got this all wrong.
I think you got it totally right Richard.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
also check that the saddle is making good contact with the piezo.
It appears to be an intermittent problem, I can play it thru an A-B switch and it works sometimes. Is there a replacement Piezo you can recommend.
I repair electronics professionally. I do not see how an intermittent bad connection would
affect just the E string. My ovation mandolin is currently fully disassembled (even the bridge
is off, the hard way) and I think there is only 1 wire (plus ground) going from
the piezo pickup to the preamp. If something is intermittent and only the E string
is affected, the fault must be on the piezo pickup assembly somewhere (or acoustic coupling
from E strings to piezo). I am now curious and I will go look at this assembly more closely.
It took me a few days to visit my office, take pictures and post them here.
As I remembered, there is only 1 signal wire plus ground coming out of the assembly. The white stuff is plastic (a bit softer than graphtec), the black base U-channel is metal. The assembly is sealed, cannot be opened. My physicist expert and myself agree that inside is likely one long piezo crystal. (not 4 small per-string crystals). Quality of soldering is very good.
To return to OP's problem, it is possible their piezo crystal is cracked between the A and E strings (terminal wires are on the G string side).
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