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Under saddle piezo


steviedee
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Hi I recently picked up a Washburn AB35 acoustic bass it's lovely to play acoustically, though obviously not loud and it has a great sound plugged in but the G string is considerably louder than the B.

I switched the saddle round and the situation was reversed obviously it's not making proper contact, any tips on how I can fix this.

Cheers

Stevie

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Sounds like the problem is with the underside of the saddle not making proper contact at one end. If it's just the B string that's isn't as loud as the others then try putting a small strip of adhesive copper shielding foil on the underside of the saddle at that end.

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[quote name='ikay' post='1306455' date='Jul 17 2011, 10:16 AM']Sounds like the problem is with the underside of the saddle not making proper contact at one end. If it's just the B string that's isn't as loud as the others then try putting a small strip of adhesive copper shielding foil on the underside of the saddle at that end.[/quote]
I agree, though if copper shielding gets stuck to everything you could try building it up with strips of standard wet and dry sandpaper.. the grit is nice and solid and transfers tone well and it's easy to cut and handle..

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Can't add much to this in the way of "do this, it may help", but I do remember my fretless being set up with individual piezo saddles by a well known luthier.

It was a time consuming and painstaking process to get the saddles at the correct angles and heights to give an even output across the strings. To summarise, it may be a case of just spending some time to get things correct across the board, rather than a one - stop solution.

Hope it goes well for you

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I've had this problem a couple of times before. I my case it was actually a poor electrical contact between the piezo 'crystal' and the contacts either side. What I did was to unwrap the pickup strip, remove and clean each piezo segment and both contact plates, then reassemble. Take care not to lose the piezo elements if you try it.

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[quote name='steviedee' post='1306407' date='Jul 17 2011, 08:55 AM']Hi I recently picked up a Washburn AB35 acoustic bass it's lovely to play acoustically, though obviously not loud and it has a great sound plugged in but the G string is considerably louder than the B.

I switched the saddle round and the situation was reversed obviously it's not making proper contact, any tips on how I can fix this.

Cheers

Stevie[/quote]


Sounds to me like the saddle isn't flat on the underside. Take a flat edge and line the saddle up against it, I'm willing to bet it's curved up on the B side and not flat therefore not making good contact with the pickup. It's an easy fix if you're handy with a file.

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