More J-45 pick up problems .

[korby]

My son uses his J-45 to lead worship at church . The bottom 3 strings are louder than the top 3. He's using light strings do you think they arnt putting enough pressure on the under saddle ribbon . What gauge strings are recomended for the J-45 . We took it to a luthier who sanded the saddle flat , and it helped a little but still not right . He wanted to put a K&K in for a couple hundred , I'd like to avoid that .

[jefleppard]

i can't help but a church where service is lead by a guy playin' a '45 sounds really cool.

 

[korby]

[ksdaddy]

I think your luthier was on the right track. He may have sanded the saddle flat but the saddle slot itself may not be flat. They need to mate up well or there will be an imbalance in output between the strings.

 

And shame on him for suggesting throwing $200 into a new system. If one under saddle pickup has contact problems, then the next one is like to as well.

[skipm]

Cool! I play worship with my J-45 too :-). I don't know what pickup you have, depends on the year of the J-45. I have an older one with the Fishman pickup. It is not the greatest and I plan on swapping it out. The newer 45's with the Baggs pickups are a lot nicer, plus you get the volume control. Here are a couple of things you can try:

 

Make sure the pickup is lying perfectly flat in the saddle slot and that the saddle is making complete contact with the bottom of the slot. You can also try adjusting the pickup back and forth a little in the slot to see if that improves the balance. The Fishman I have in my 45 sounds pretty flat on it's own, so I run my 45 through an L.R. Baggs PADI and then into the board. It gives you the ability to really fine tune your sound. I have been really happy with mine!

[korby]

His is a 2006 with the baggs . There is no warrenty we got it from a guy who won it . Had Jack Blacks and Kyle Gass signature on it and I had to wet sand it off .

[jannusguy]

i remember seeing that guitar on ebay. i'll never understand why someone would allow someone else to to scribble on a fine instrument. glad you were able to clean it up. not that that addresses your issue.

[rscott4079]

Honestly I've never had good luck with acoustic guitar pickups. I can never get the sound I want. I usually just mic the guitar.

[TWilson]

My son uses his J-45 to lead worship at church . The bottom 3 strings are louder than the top 3. He's using light strings do you think they arnt putting enough pressure on the under saddle ribbon . What gauge strings are recomended for the J-45 . We took it to a luthier who sanded the saddle flat ' date=' and it helped a little but still not right . He wanted to put a K&K in for a couple hundred , I'd like to avoid that . [/quote']

 

I had a K&K Pure Western Mini put in my little Guild GAD30 for $105, including the pickup and the installation. If I would have trusted myself to do it, it would have cost me $85. K&K is now reccomending the Mini pickup be used in all appliations. $200 seems like too much for the K&K IMHO.