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Joined:
March 2009
Posts: 6
Location: Miami, Florida | I am a believer in the "Never a dumb question" rule. Has anyone here ever heard of or retrofitted the older square preamps to one of the newer Kidney shaped ones? An OP-50 lets say. I think there's a bigger diference in the newer frequency responses than in the older preamps?????
Today's phrase that pays is "NO PAIN - NO GAIN"
For all of you out there in guitarland. Not that it makes a bit of difference! Chris is leaving California for Miami In 2 days. Had a great visit to the San Fransisco - South Bay area. But im old school 305 and I'll feel much safer on my home turf, LOL! |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | The new preamps don't fit the old preamp holes. The factory won't do them. Either the bowl would need considerable work to build up open area around the newer preamp left by the old preamp, or a new bowl would be needed..... |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | I have done others but here are some pics of an OP 30 into a 1115-4.
Pacemaker Plus |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3603
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Pardon me for interjecting an OT-
Michael, why did you cut a hole in the bowl of that 1115? |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Fine slothead Woody , real nice..Well Done.
V |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Originally posted by seesquare:
Pardon me for interjecting an OT-
Michael, why did you cut a hole in the bowl of that 1115? Didn't anybody ever tell you about the cat? |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | Yes, because I could!
Also because I have long fore arms... |
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July 2003
Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | is there a sound fifference plugged in?? |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | Back to the original question...
It's all about fiberglass work. If you're fairly good at it (or just brave) you can make the change you're suggesting.
1) Take out the old preamp, remove the retaining tabs on the inside, then close up the hole with a handy fiberglass repair. Now you have a bowl with no hole in it.
2) Cut the new hole needed for your new preamp, and install.
The tricky part that I think scares people is you have to make the finished bowl look like it came this way from the factory.
I had installed a small B-Band preamp in my 1115. Then I removed it and installed an OpPro. The small rectangular hole from the B-Band was about half inside the space where the new hole would be. You can see the repair if you pay any attention at all. I was neat, but I wasn't interested in doing a perfect; just a "pretty good" job. What you want to do is entirely possible, but it would fall more under the "labor of love" catagory than the "cost-effective" one needed for the factory to consider it.
John <>{ |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 2487
| To help answer you qurstion; Actually many of the bowls have nothing to do with Fiberglass work, I could be wrong but I believe some early bowls were fiberglass and actually had a crisper sound to them. For most Ovations I have some two part resins that I would tint black and they ought to work quite well. Problem is there are guy's (like myself and others in the OFC) who can patch the hole and in the correct shape and correct exterior texture using molds made from other Ovations, and then recut the new hole and install the new elecronics. It is the time involved to get this change to look perfect that is the problem, it is not worth the price of the change. And no gaurantee it can be done without some blemish showing even with all that work. If I was to do this you'd have to pay the shipping both ways and at least $200 or so for all the time this would take. And that is cheap as I or anyone could easily put 20 hours into something like this. $10 per/hr for a luthier is pretty resonable. Just not worth it in my estimation. If you see my point. That is the problem with a lot of the fixes many great guitars need. The labor involved has to be accomplished by someone who does it as a labor of love. The owner is often the best choice for this sort of thing. Many good luthiers started because they wanted to fix their guitars and could not find the worth in sending them out.
Hope this helps. With the rectangular changes the OP 24+ is the best there is and it is not too bad. Even this took some modifications to get fitted I did it on the Adamas Mike has now from an OP24. Worth the effort.
Randy |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by Northcountry:
$10 per/hr for a luthier is pretty resonable That is a major understatement! It does come down to a 'labor of love' though... |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | You could see if the factory has any more Optima preamps. Everything you could want in a preamp...in rectangular form. |
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PREAMP Retrofit?????
