|
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I had a chance to play this guitar a bit more this weekend through two different vintage Fender tube amps and find the pickups to be very hot. This works great for getting that natural overdriven type of sound (especially using tube amps), but I find I have to back off the volume quite a bit (about 1/3) to clean up the sound. Is this normal?
To the UK2 users; what do you find to be the optimal pickup height setting for these pickups?
Wayne |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Wayne, when I use my UK11 into either of my Deluxe Reverbs the volume needs to be backed off to stay absolutely clean. Pickup height is down to personal taste & playing style. They can be pretty much as close as you like as the pickups use a base magnet, the "rails" are not magnets, so will not pull the strings & cause wolf-notes like a Fender-style single coil. If you want the guitar to stay clean keep the pickups away from the strings. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Wayne
Hang on to those pickups, if you can. I'm busy watching the war day and night, but am really interested in them if they are priced less than their weight in gold. I'll email you shortly and discuss them if you don't mind. I'm thinking seriously of putting them in my Viper that I have, any body see anything wrong with that kind of mod, my Viper is totally original?
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Paul, right after my last post I tried lowering the bridge pup to about 1/2" from the strings and it became much more controlable with more 'chime' to the tone. Even at that height, there is still lots of grind when you open the volume up...the best of both worlds! I left the neck pup where it was.
Bailey, those pups would be direct replacement but you probably would want to enable the parallel/series option using a couple of extra switches (or push/pull pot?).
Wayne |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Wayne
I think I could find a place for whatever it would take to make it work right, and I definately would need the advice of yourself and other solid body gurus. I would try to repair the cracks around my cable plug at the same time. What I would like to end up with is a Viper with the UKII sound and I welcome all advice.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Viper with a UKII sound... well you might get close with the UKII pickups, but remember part of the UKII sound is also the body, and the way the neck and bridge are both attached to the aluminum core. The Bluebird is a UKII-esque body in that it is the Lyrastuff over aluminum just like the UKII. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Miles
UKIIish. obviously, only a UKII will sound like one. Curiousity, unfortunately, is a terrible vice of mine.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well I think UKII pickups are great too so you are sortof preaching to the choir. There will be a BIG difference between a UKII and a standard Viper with UKII pickups, but I don't mean to infer that woulf be a bad thing at all. What you may want to do is ONLY do the Bridge pickup and also install the series/parallel switch. In Series it sounds like a hot single coil (Kinda like the original VIper pickup, only a little hotter)... That would give you one helluva guitar. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Sounds like a good idea Miles, everything is on the table. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Hi, I had a chance a couple of days ago to change the strings and do a setup on the above mentioned Bluebird and can clear up the originality debate that went on in the earlier posts of this thread. I have taken a lot of old guitars apart over the years and can say that this one appears to be 100% original. The wiring is all neat as a pin, no re-done solder joints, no extra routing for the series/parallel switches, nothing funky looking at all. The pots are dated 1977 and 1978 (the week #'s are obscured by solder) so, obviously, it was build in '78 or later. The neck has a '32' or '52' (anyone know what these '#'s mean?)on the end, and a 'C' on the bottom of the neck where it bolts into the pocket.
There is a "Urelite" sticker between the pickup cavities and "OK" on a piece of masking tape, and what appears to be a piece of a trade magazine article in the neck pocket as a shim!
I strung it up with 11-49 D’darrios' because I like the added tension (= tone) that they give to short scale guitars.
Here are some pics I took while it was apart.
Wayne
'Bird Guts |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | GREAT PICTURES!! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15686
Location: SoCal | It's still "O" dark hundred hours and I'm working on a report. I popped in a tape of Glen Campbell from 1990 in the UK. The Bluebird 12 string he's playing has the Ovation mini humbuckers, active electronics, and a plain neck (no binding, just dot inlays). In 1982 he played a Bluebird with the proper neck but only an after market bridge pickup.
Just a little trivia for your Bluebird fans trying to figure out what Bluebirds were played when. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | Just out of curiosity: How much does a Bluebird weigh? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | I would guess the bird kind weighs a few ounces or it wouldn't get off the ground. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | :D |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I have never actually weighed them BruDev, but I'm guessing about 6 to 6 1/2 lbs for the 6-strings. The twelve is somewhat heavier (8 lbs?) due to the neck being much larger in width, thickness and length.
Wayne |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | I would think they'd be lighter. Just as a comparison the difference between a UK II and a LP is substantial. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | "I would guess the bird kind weighs a few ounces or it wouldn't get off the ground."
Rest assured, Bailey, that with me playing them now instead of Glen, they had already flown as high as they're ever going to! :rolleyes:
Wayne |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | "I would think they'd be lighter..."
They could be a bit lighter that that perhaps. The only in hand comparison to another Ovation solid I had a chance to do was with an electric Viper and the BB was considerably lighter...60-70% of a Viper's weight, I'd guess.
Wayne |
|
| |
Ovation bluebird
