Gibson Cascade pick up problem

[fretplay]

I have a Gibson Cascade with a Schertler Bluestick pickup.

 

The guitar has been fine and records well with a very true sound when plugged into a mixing board. I had some work done on the guitar which included a new custom made saddle. Since then my luthier has had problems with the volume of the strings. At present strings one to five are fine but the bass E is considerably louder.

 

I was wondering if any members have had this problem and nave any ideas how to solve it.

[Buc McMaster]

Since the difference showed up with the new saddle, it sure makes that a likely source of the problem. Still have the original saddle? Drop it in and see if things are back to normal. What is the new saddle material? If it is a natural, like bone, perhaps it's a density thing. It's not unheard of for a piece of bone to have irregular density....not common, but not out of the realm of possibility. Another possible problem is the bottom of the new saddle.....is it absolutely flat and square over it's entire length? I'll admit that having just the low E louder means that the saddle beneath the rest of the strings is not square to the bridge slot......a bit of a weird senario......but chasing a problem means eliminating possibilities, one at a time. It's also possible that something has happened to the pickup. While UST transducers are better built these days they can be damaged, bent, etc. If the old saddle still has the same good string balance, have a new saddle made if you still want a replacement in there.

[albertjohn]

I had a similar problem on a Takamine I had a while back. It was one of those with a split saddle and effectively 2 USTs. The volume on the 2 top strings was much louder I recall.

 

From memory, I had my luthier, Robbie replace the other saddle, which was not seating correctly in the bridge, and this solved the problem.

[dwolf]

I've had a similar problem with a Baggs system that had the shielded cable from the UST. Had two mostly identical guitars (CA Cargos). One was fine, the other had the weird volume issue on the bass E string. The one that was fine had the cable routed back to the end jack with the excess taped to the transformer so that there was no contact between the cable and the back of the body. I re-routed the cable on the other guitar and it fixed the problem. Seems that the cable or the shielding was transferring enough vibration from the back of the guitar to the pickup that it was problematic. It's not something I'd have thought of without having two of the systems in hand to look at. Not familiar with your system, but it may be worth a try and it's an easy and cost-free fix as you can do this yourself.

Good luck.

Dwight

[onewilyfool]

Schertler ( I had the bluestick) has a very interesting under saddle pickup. You actually have to notch the bottom of the saddle to create a space for the pickup. If you don't do this, you will get funny volume and "quacking" sounds. Here is the website:

 

http://www.schertlerusa.com/pdf/BLUESTiCK%20Specs%20and%20Diagram.pdf

 

Note how you have to notch the saddle