Ovation breadwinner problem

[frankpaush]

I just reanimated my Breadwinner (putting back the two 9v blocks and trying to remember, why they are needed )

I bought it several years ago an it spent quite a lonely life in its case since.

Now I managed to fix it to proper intonation and tried to lower the bridge, but *shock* when I reach a certain point the single bridges begin to turn around the screws and loose contact to the brigde plate, decimating the area with bridge to plate contact, which causes massive loss of sustain and clearness.

Is there any trick to avoid that? (except not turning it that low ... )

search google, no find.

http://www.doremi.co.uk/breadwinner/
is nice and simple, but no hints there (fans don't seem to have critical reviews there )



update: there seems to be a screw in the center of the brigde plate that can be seen from the back of the bridge, but how to reach it ???

[jedistar]

Few helpful Ovation sites

Forum
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/cgi-bin/u ... matebb.cgi

Info
http://www.ovationtribute.com/index.php

Mine has the nylon bridge from first year of production..




_______________
www.jedistar.com

[frankpaush]

ah, the second link brought some detail found under the patent section, thanx.
btw: your bridge ist quite identical to the later model, except the plate metal used (mine has brass, yours look at least chrome plated), or are your single bridges made of nylon ???

the screw/nut found in the battery moulde and used there for grouding is controlling the bridge plate angle as well, strange construction .... learn from my fault: strings should be tuned down when turning it

But still after recalibrating the angle the bridges behave like described before, the space between bridges and plate became smaller, but no final solution.

[jedistar]

Yes individual bridges are plastic....My main frustration with the guitar is lack of sustain - dies very quickly....

[frankpaush]

... that could be an angle calibrated to flat.
After some hours of thinking an screwing again, I guess I finally get the idea of that bridge unit a bit more than before.

Part of the "no touch to the plate" prob seems to came from the angle between the two screws left and right from the bridge.

if the tone is fading to fast, it's worth a try to turn the nut that can be found in the battery moulde. (turning right = sharper angle = the backside of the bridgeplate moves towards the body)

[jedistar]

Never thought of that - will give it a try.. These guitars have amazing necks - If I could get sustain out of it -it would go back to my main guitar...I have had it since '79

[frankpaush]

another week point is the extremly flat angle between tuner shafts and nut, playing open cords the high e does definately have a problem here, a string tree wouldn't harm that, but I resist changing the original .... another solution I got is using lots of string windings from top to lower on the tuner pin.

EDIT: after some time of experimentation I am definately through with it. The bridge is a misconstruction in some points, quite sure now. If I lower the back of the bridge plate, saddle screws incrisingly lift the saddles, when I lift it, the strings get caught at the top of the hole in the plastic cover an tend to resonate with the cover. Could not find a position, where string action is moderate, saddles are lying on the bridge plate and strings go centered through their plastic cover holes. I ended up with a compromise.

... mine is incredible heavy, unfortunately. ok, the sound is great, no doubt, but it is far from being an optimized instrument for live performance ... or maybe my shoulder isn't optimized for this guitar

BTW: could you tell me the head diameter of the screws used on your pickguard? (here there are Strat/Fender-style philipsheads that seem to be wrong, to big, a case of misreplacement by the former owner ... around 5,5 mm, the screws used on the head bell seem to be too small to use it at the pickguard with around 4 mm )

EDIT: the Gibson pickguard style screws with 4.2 mm are fitting, problem solved so far