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Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio USA | I have a Celebrity CC-68 Made in Korea. I don't have the serial number in front of me right now, but I would like to know what kind of a preamp/pickup that I have and what I can do to improve the performance of this. There is no external battery door, and no visible battery receptical inside. What model of preamp/pickup is this and what can I do to upgrade to a better setup? |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Welcome TimothyLee!
One of these guy should know this stuff, but I can guess.
I had a CC57 two-knobber. As far as I understand yours doesn't really have a Pre-amp...
Just an undersaddle Piezoelectric pick-up and two potentiometer knobs for for volume and tone.
I'm guessing that you could maybe get a different undersaddle pick-up.
Don't take this as an insult to your guitar but before you spend a coupla hundred bucks upgrading it, you could just get another guitar. But you could just shop around for a pre-amp system. The problem would be where to put the battery.
Stick-around... We'll help you spend your money! :cool: |
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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | Hi Timothy,
If you post a picture of the preamp or describe the controls (if any) it has, someone here will be able to help you. If the controls are shaped like a kidney,
e.g. like this:
then the battery is behind it - you push the release button on the left. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4025
Location: Utah | Yeah, post pics of your guitar and the preamp.
Generally speaking, Ovation preamps have a battery, but there are some passive units and you may have one of those. You could install an active preamp, or you could use an external box. The Aphex compressor for $139 would be an excellent external box that would provide preamp, compressor, and DI functions all in one. A factory drop in preamp would require some minor surgery to the bowl to install the can. eBay pricing for Ovation factory preamps run in the same range as the Aphex unit, though I would very strongly recommend that you call AlPep at lostartvintage dot com to get his pricing on a new factory direct unit rather than a used unit of unknown origin on the 'bay.
Your pickup is under the saddle. It probably would be just fine to keep it no matter what you do in the way of a preamp.
The other option of adding another Ovation to your collection is an excellent one right now. Used guitars are selling for give away prices. You could pick up an outstanding guitar for prices you won't see again when the economy picks back up. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Originally posted by FlySig:
The Aphex compressor for $139 would be an excellent external box that would provide preamp, compressor, and DI functions all in one. The Aphex Punch Factory is an optical compressor/DI combo, but does not function as a preamp. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | If you need an external pre-amp. I would look into an L.R. Baggs Para-DI. Runs on a 9V battery or phantom power. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4025
Location: Utah | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Originally posted by FlySig:
The Aphex compressor for $139 would be an excellent external box that would provide preamp, compressor, and DI functions all in one. The Aphex Punch Factory is an optical compressor/DI combo, but does not function as a preamp. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Yep, pretty much. You'll get a compressed version of the sound you have without a preamp.
The one thing that can help to some degree is an extremely high input impedance. The Aphex Acoustic Exciter has an input impedamce of 10MegOhm in passive mode, this will go some way to stop a piezo pickup being loaded down, and will restore some lower mid and bass frequencies. The acoustic Exciter plus the Punch Factory is a good combination, but is still something of a compromise without a dedicated preamplifier |
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No-battery preamp and poor sound
