Ovation problem

Richard - Richards Guitars

In 16 years I have never experienced this problem.

Took in a part exchange on an Ovation electro acoustic guitar.

Technician sets it up, tests it, customer wants to buy it, plugs it into my acoustic amp - NO output.

Back and forth we go, working perfectly in the one amp and not the other. Plugged it into an electric amp, no problem, bass amp no problem, back into my top notch acoustic amp - dead.

PLEASE can someone help me understand this problem and any potential way around it?

My techs are not around today. Will speak with them but hoped someone here may be able to help.

DaveBass

I've come across many weird "unexplainable" electronic faults over the years. There's always an explanation if only you can find it. (The weirdest one, in terms of symptoms exhibited, came down to an electrolytic capacitor the wrong way round. And not where you'd think of looking: it wasn't on one module or the other, both of which checked out fine, but on the motherboard linking them.)

I don't know the setup, but here are some assumptions; tell me if they're wrong:

* The acoustic amp is switched on! (Always check the obvious first.)

* The acoustic amp has been tested with other guitars (and leads) and found to work.

* The faulty (?) guitar has active electronics in it.

If that's the case, I would suspect that the input of the top-notch acoustic amp has a dc path to earth, whereas the other amps tried have dc blocking capacitors. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but if there's a fault in the guitar's electronics, the dc path might be interfering with the electronics.

Of course I could be completely wrong. It's difficult to diagnose these things remotely.

Dave

Richard - Richards Guitars

 Originally Posted By: DaveBass

I've come across many weird "unexplainable" electronic faults over the years. There's always an explanation if only you can find it. (The weirdest one, in terms of symptoms exhibited, came down to an electrolytic capacitor the wrong way round. And not where you'd think of looking: it wasn't on one module or the other, both of which checked out fine, but on the motherboard linking them.)

I don't know the setup, but here are some assumptions; tell me if they're wrong:

* The acoustic amp is switched on! (Always check the obvious first.)

* The acoustic amp has been tested with other guitars (and leads) and found to work.

* The faulty (?) guitar has active electronics in it.

If that's the case, I would suspect that the input of the top-notch acoustic amp has a dc path to earth, whereas the other amps tried have dc blocking capacitors. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but if there's a fault in the guitar's electronics, the dc path might be interfering with the electronics.

Of course I could be completely wrong. It's difficult to diagnose these things remotely.

Dave

Blimey!

I will show this to Chris my tech when I see him on Tuesday.

The customer has taken the guitar home and found exactly the same issue. The guitar works on some of his amps and not others.

Because he wants to take the guitar to gigs and jam sessions he understandably does not want a guitar that only works on some amps!

Never seen it before in 16 years!!!

Thanks for the feedback.