Different volumes on each string

Gear & Tools Talk 🎸 Guitars, Instruments & Maintenance
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Did it ever happen to you? It got me almost crazy over Christmas time. I use my little cheap Amp only twice a year to accompany the children 'singing at school parties with the families…so I definetely never bothered too much to understand how the Amplification system of a guitar works…Well now I have to bother! After panicking in December I had to be rational to assess how much the horrible sounds were due to my a bit innacurate technique and objective problems in the Amplification itself.

At the beginning of this week I tried the Amp again after months: the first day it sounded just fine and I was already “hooray I don’t have to take it to the Liuther!”…but only the day after the horrible sounds nightmare popped up again :sob:

I asked the AI on Google, as suggested I released the tension from the tuning pegs, removed the strings from the pins and now I finally have the knowledge of what an electric piezo pick-up is :see_no_evil_monkey: Shame on me for not paying attention before :speak_no_evil_monkey::grimacing:

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The pick-up moved as I delicately touched the cable fron the inside…I thought maybe it shouldn’t move to give more stability? :thinking:

Putting the saddle and the strings back has solved the problem for the moment but without me understanding what happened and as far as I know it might easily pop up again tomorrow. So I did some further research, found this video from a well appreciated italian guitar teacher and now everything is clearer!

What I have learnt is that the tension of the strings might pull the saddle so that it doesn’t touch the pick up evenly and that it needs thus to be nicely perpendicular to the pick-up piezo. Also there’s this little tool which I’m going to buy to help restore a good saddle position when needed. My husband is going to help me to understand if the piezo underneath is positioned correctly and it’s stable and how to do the job properly (given that he understands himself) - any tip or suggestion is much appreciated!

EKO Piezo Booster https://share.google/SBZ3AQ80D3tWEOlYC

This is what it does:
Bridge Adjustment Device
The Piezo Booster is Eko Guitars’ bridge adjustment device, essential for correctly restoring the bridge’s pressure on a piezo pickup. The result is perfect volume balance between the strings and a dB gain in output volume.

The Piezo Booster mechanically restores the bridge to a perpendicular position, thus correctly discharging the pressure onto the pickup. The result is always balanced string volume and a few dB gain in overall volume.

To use the Piezo Booster correctly, simply place it on the bridge (as shown in the photo) and strike it 2-3 times with a moderate amount of force, and the bridge will immediately realign perfectly.

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Hi Silvia

I looked at the EKO Piezo Booster and tried to find some reviews on it for which there are few. I am not too sure about this for several reasons.

  1. The bridge should fit snugly in the its slot, and so any rotation of it should be very limited. If it is a loose fit then maybe it needs replacing with one that fits properly.
  2. The wooden part of the bridge is glued to the top of the guitar and yes it does have a lot of force on it to retain the strings, but putting a sharp force threw it may not be a good idea.
  3. The top of the guitar, whilst braced, may not be strong enough to take the bridge being bashed hard.
  4. Piezo pickups are quite sensitive, putting a shock through it by bashing the bridge may not be the best.

Maybe if you know a good luthier it would be best to ask him/her first.

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Thanks Adrian, your points make sense. I’ve found this other video where it’s shown how to use it.

The saddle seems very well located in its spot and maybe there’s no need to use this tool either…

I thought it might be as well the pick-up cable inside which is not stable. My husband will check and we will try to understand, if we can’t understand we’ll go to a Liuther.

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Have checked that the actual white bridge is dead flat. Not been sanded at an angle (front to back) or uneven. You could check it against the edge of a steel ruler

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I have a steel ruler and I will check! There’s no reason though, why it should be uneven since it’s always been there in its spot. The Amplification always worked well, until December. Thanks Adrian!

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Silvia

I have a piezo pick-up under the saddle of my Breedlove acoustic. The advice I as given was to change the D and G strings, then the A and B strings and finally the high and low E strings. This minimises movement of the saddle and maintains the relative positions of the saddle and pick-up.

This information may be a little late for you: it may give you, and others with similar guitars, another option in future.

Brian

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I have good news! :sweat_smile:

After the quick fix suggested by the AI on Thursday afternoon the amplification worked well on Friday morning when we counted elephants on the spiderweb with the children and played and sung for about 30 minutes.

Today it was still working well and it probably didn’t need to be touched anymore.

But I wanted to show my husband and have his point of view…and I had the doubt of the pick-up piezo being moving…no, it doesn’t move, if I had been a better observer I’d see it has a very defined location so that it can’t go anywhere.

After removing the strings and checking things we reasoned together on a few things and we wondered whether the saddle is something which should be changed because of a natural wear process or not. Mine was fine underneath but it had many signs of the strings above…is it normal?

We decided not to go for the Piezo Booster, which is a specific tool Liuthers and more experienced people should be able to use properly and effectively.

While putting the strings back I did some pressure on the saddle with just my finger to contrast the tension moving it toward the neck. I then tuned and tried the Amp noodling around for a 15 minutes…it worked! :sweat_smile:
Now I will practice everyday with the Amp for the rest of April and in May we’ll have Rehearsal at school most everyday…I’m planning to change the strings in a month or so, I was thinking at least a couple of weeks before the party. This way I can keep it monitored.

I think that at some point I will want to practice and play more with the Amp…I think I’ll then take the guitar to the Liuther so that he can optimise everything, put a bone saddle (I now know why a bone one is better than a plastic one!), put a new piezo if necessary…and then I will be more careful when I change the strings and do as Brian suggests.

Remember when I got wrong the direction of the winding while changing the strings? Something might have happened back then, even if I fixed it after only a couple of hours.

For the moment I’m quite happy for learning all this…also that releasing the tension, remove the strings from the pins, adjust the saddle and put them back takes in all only 10 minutes.

I wish I was smarter and learn well right from the beginning…but no, I seem condemned to always go through the trial and error before I really understand something :see_no_evil_monkey:

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