Any cure for uneven volume of ABG strings?

[SuperSloMo]

I bought a Guild B-240E acoustic bass guitar this week via mail-order. I played it through an amp this morning, and I'm very disappointed in how it sounds. The lowest string is an order of magnitude louder than the highest string, with the middle strings falling between the two extremes. I tried adjusting the bass, middle and treble on my amp and the bass and treble on the bass's preamp, but it didn't make any difference. Do any of you own a B-240E (or a B-140E -- the standard scale version of the Guild ABG)? Does it behave like this? Is there anything that can be done to fix the problem?

 

[mikezimmerman]

Just to be clear, are you talking about acoustic volume, or amplified volume?

Uneven amplified string volume is a not-uncommon issue on amplified acoustic guitars, usually caused by uneven pressure of the bridge saddle on the piezo pickup. A decent acoustic guitar tech will normally be able to sand the bottom of the saddle to fix that.

I bought a Guild B-240E acoustic bass guitar this week via mail-order. I played it through an amp this morning, and I'm very disappointed in how it sounds. The lowest string is an order of magnitude louder than the highest string, with the middle strings falling between the two extremes. I tried adjusting the bass, middle and treble on my amp and the bass and treble on the bass's preamp, but it didn't make any difference. Do any of you own a B-240E (or a B-140E -- the standard scale version of the Guild ABG)? Does it behave like this? Is there anything that can be done to fix the problem?

 

[GrapeBass]

Are you sure it's not the pickup under the saddle? I had an issue with my Stagg AGB which was remedied by my luthier making a new saddle and reseating the piezo underneath. If there's shims under the saddle it would affect the pickup.

 

[lz4005]

Generally it means that either the bottom of the saddle or the bottom of the slot the saddle fits in are uneven. You should first see if there's sawdust, or other debris under the saddle, in the slot. Then put the sadle on a perfectly flat surface to see what the state of the bottom of it is.

Also check the wiring. If it's a two element piezo, one side could be defective or disconnected.

 

[Smokey Lynx]

SSM , just wondered if you had any success taking your Guild bridge saddle out yet ?
I might take my saddle out and look at the underside . Maybe sand it a touch as string height is on the high side around 9 or 10 frets up.
I purchased my Guild a couple of months before you and notice the 4th string being louder than the others.
Over weeks of daily playing the top has vibrated some and the sound has evened out a little . I changed the good, but bright and squeaky stock phospher bronze strings for GHS Precision Flat Lights and they seem a good match .
Much more than the Chromes or La Bella strings I tried .
The tube compressor I use also provides a little smoothing and makes a better impedance match for the input on my Ampeg amp with the Guild b-240.
YMMV

 

[SuperSloMo]

It was ridiculously simple to fix this problem. I loosened the strings, popped the bridge off, and saw that a thin cable that was either the pickup or connected to the pickup was only stretched halfway across the groove under the bridge. I pulled across, put the bridge back on, tightened the strings, and the bass played with equal volume in all strings. Sometimes it doesn't pay to worry about a possible big problem before checking even the low hanging fruit.

 

[Smokey Lynx]

Just wondered if anyone has sanded their Guild B-240 bridge saddle down ?
I don't know about others , but mine had it's saddle sitting much too high.
I took one millimeter off the bottom of the bridge and it plays more easily, especially at the higher frets.
Used a fine tip technical marker and 6 inch metal ruler to mark a line on both sides then a flat surface and sandpaper sheet to remove one mm of saddle . Another .5 mm could come off , but I won't for now.
It took a few minutes of playing to get the saddle to seat all the way.

 

[SuperSloMo]

Just wondered if anyone has sanded their Guild B-240 bridge saddle down ?
I don't know about others , but mine had it's saddle sitting much too high.
I took one millimeter off the bottom of the bridge and it plays more easily, especially at the higher frets.
Used a fine tip technical marker and 6 inch metal ruler to mark a line on both sides then a flat surface and sandpaper sheet to remove one mm of saddle . Another .5 mm could come off , but I won't for now.
It took a few minutes of playing to get the saddle to seat all the way.

I wouldn't trust myself to do this, but I had a local music store technician lower the action of my B-240 and it plays very nice now.

 

[KeithAlanK]

I have sanded the underside of the saddle on an Ibanez AEB to both lower the strings and to even out the string response. The bottom of the saddle wasn't flat enough to contact the entire length of the piezo pickup strip equally, so some fine grit wet/dry paper and a sheet of glass for a truly flat work surface + 5 minutes of work and the bass was transformed.