DV52 guild acoustic pickup problem

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
I have a guild DV52 acoustic that I had a pickup installed in a few years ago. Acoustically the guitar is one of the most well balanced sounding acoustic I've ever heard.

It didn't have a pickup when I got it. I wanted to be able to plug in to a mixer in live settings so I had a fishman pickup installed. It was one of the pricier ones with tone, volume, and a loudness button with the sensor under the bridge.

The problem is that the bass strings are MUCH louder than the treble strings. It's pretty much useless when plugged in because of the imbalance between the top strings and bottom strings.

I know...I should have taken care of this when the work was first done but that's all water under the bridge at this point.
Is there a way to remedy this or does the pickup just suck?
 
muttley600 said:
Which Fishman you got on there now? That will point you in the direction of troubleshooting it.
Click to expand...

Hell I dunno.
It's the one that has the volume and tone adjustment inside the sound hole. It also has a "loudness" push button on it.
The dude that installed it may know. I'll try to give him a ring.
 
OK, Thats an under saddle piezo system. The first thing to check is that the saddle is a perfect fit and that the bottom of the saddle and slot is dead flat. Nothing should be pinching and everything should be a snug fit. Any gaps or excess pressure points will result in loss of clarity and poor response.

The pickup doesn't "suck" and you should get a balanced sound from it even if it does have that typical piezo quack...
 
It's really important that the piezo pickup that lies under the saddle fits perfectly. If there are gaps anywhere it will cause an imbalance in the tone. This can make it favor the bass strings because there's more tension on them. It might be as simple to fix as cutting a new saddle.
 
JCH said:
It's really important that the piezo pickup that lies under the saddle fits perfectly. If there are gaps anywhere it will cause an imbalance in the tone. This can make it favor the bass strings because there's more tension on them. It might be as simple to fix as cutting a new saddle.
Click to expand...

It's normally the bottom of the saddle slot. Most techs don't have the patience or skills to level out a narrow slot properly. Leveling the bottom of the saddle is childs play.
 
When I called the guy that installed it he said to get something thin enough to fit between the string that also has a little bit of weight and tap the bridge between the weak sounding strings. I guess that's to make sure there I'd good contact with the bridge.

First I will make sure the bridge is flat and the pickup is sitting in there right. I haven't really messed with it any. I didn't know what to check actually.
Thanks guys.
 
I'd start by carefully removing the saddle and making sure that there is nothing in the slot or under the foil piezo strip. It should be loose fit and the wire will be through the bottom by the bass strings. You can ease it up gently at the treble side with out damaging it. Blow out any dirt and dust. If you can check to make sure that the hole for the wire to pass through is clean and has no burr so much the better. I wouldn't go hitting it too much just yet...;) The contact made by string pressure is ample unless the fit is bad. Hitting IT could make it worse. Then again it could give you a miraculous fix. I doubt it..YMMV.
 
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