1982 Ovation Pickup Noise Cure?

S

soundchaser59

Reluctant Commander
I've been testing blending my built in pickup sound with my mic'd acoustic guitar tracks. I have a 1982 Legend in excellent condition, not the greatest sound in the history of guitars, but the action is superb. It's the deep bowl, traditional sound hole, model 1667, so it does mic ok, but the unadulterated pickup sound is less than stellar.

Problem is the built in preamp is not really clean enough or quiet enough to record anything other than heavy strumming in a big mix. For recording any solo finger picked stuff where all you will hear is guitar and a silent room, it sucks. It has a very soft but annoying noise in it, like half hiss and half hum. It is an active pickup, using a 9v power source, and I assume that is why it has noise??

If I had a passive pickup in it - like a K&K or a Pickup The World - would it still have the noise? I have the LR Baggs Para DI, and I know that's not the source of the noise because the noise is the same if I plug the Ovation directly into the board. The noise increases or decreases depending on the angle I am facing relative to the other electronics in the room. (just like an electric guitar might do) That's why I think it's the active electronics inside causing the nosie.

How can I get rid of this noise without drilling holes in my guitar?

Do I just need a new 2006 preamp from Ovation to replace the 1982 original that's in there? Are the new preamps that much better? Or will I have this problem with any active pickup? Do I have to spring for the passive pickup to get rid of the noise? I really like the way the Baggs Para works, but I cant crank it to the "sweet spot" because it cranks this noise along with everything else.

Thanks in advance for any tips. - SC
 
A new Ovation preamp will make a world of difference, the pickup should be fine.

I had the same problem with my Ovation Custom Legend 12 string; I liked it for stage use because it was so easy to play, but the amplified sound was dated, so about five years ago I switched out the preamp with an OP-24 from Ovation. It will require some cutting on the body for the pre and the battery case, and you'll need to fill the hole where the old pre was (I used a black rubber thingy). Anyway, it looks as if it was made that way. Just call Ovation customer service and you can get it from them. BTW, mine was stereo rewired to mono.

I'm not so sure it'll sound all that great for recording as acoustic pickups never do, but in a blend with micing you might get the sound your looking for.

Good luck
 
Ok, I did some testing.

First, I was surprised and pleasantly relieved to find that the battery did not make any difference. Surprised because I thought the battery would be clean flat dc 9v power, which it is.......and pleasantly relieved because I now know that the Sound Professionals "super regulated perfectly flat" 9v adapter really is spitting out flat, clean 9v dc power, just like the battery does, just like the people at Sound Professionals said it would. So the noise is not coming from the adapter.

I also tried the best cords I could get. No difference in the noise at all between the best, most expensive cords and the cheaper (but not "cheap") cords available at the retailer.

Only two things I could find that made any difference in the level of the noise. One I already mentioned, which is just turning my seat around until the guitar is at the right angle to stop the hum. Seems if I face the guitar due North North East, the hum completely disappears!! I moved around the control room to see if I could find one particular offending device, but I could not. So I conclude that the source of the noise is probably the house wiring (among other various EM fields that pervade myspace.hom) since the only thing powered on at the time was my mixing board.

The other tactic helped reduce the noise by some percentage, to the point that it is enough below signal that I can use the pickup sound as an "ingredient" in my acoustic guitar tracks if I want.....although I can probably never get rid of the noise completely as long as I am using the built in pickup in a residential setting. Mic'ing the acoustic will always be my primary method for recording this guitar.

What I did, after a brief moment of scraping my brain for old tips from various posts, was something I learned from another thread. I turned the volume knob on the guitar all the way off, then I cranked the gain and the output on the LR Baggs DI, gain to about 65% and output to about 75%. Cranked them up until I heard a sudden increase in noise, then backed it off a bit til the noise went away. Then I turned up the guitar volume knob and used that to set my input level on the trim meter. (the trim gain on the board was completely off) It ended up actually sounding a bit cleaner and more responsive, maybe a bit more natural this way, and it needed a lot less EQ adjustment on the Baggs when I set it this way. I think I ended up just cutting the hi a bit to take away some of the excess brightness that the Ovation is infamous for. Doing all of this got it to sound good enough that I can use it, if I want, to blend in with the mic'd tracks to fill in the occasional gaps in my sound.

I think this is a good compromise solution for now. Some day when I have money to burn I'll take another look at the various passive pickups, but for now that will go on my wish list. I'm still more interested in saving my money for the monitors and the Traynor tube amp I have been studying.....the YCV20WR! - SC
 
1982 Ovation

Hi, I have an around 1984 Ovation. My problem with the pickup is different. I am trying to mix sound from a neuman TLM 103 mic with the pickup. The latter is direct injected via a valve amp. This seems to work well except there is some sort of low level but v. noticeable distortion (it sounds like saturation from clipping) coming from the pickup and/or preamp which is spoiling an otherwise nice setup. Any ideas other than changing the 9V battery?
Thxs
 
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