Replacement pickup for a "fleur de lys"

[jay]

For a company that has wanted to have a big umbrella, they have scuttled some good ones in the last 10 years:
Ovation/Tacoma/Hamer/and sold Guild to Cordoba. Ironically, Glen brought Ovation to the forefront of guitars and they both have taken their last bow about the same time.

[John Knowles]

The Barbera is the most musical pickup I've ever played. And it ain't cheap.

I think about cost by figuring how may hours of musical pleasure I'll get out of the investment. If you play an hour a day, five days a week, and figure good sound is worth a dollar an hour, you'll get your money's worth in… 80 weeks.

Of course, that doesn't give you the cash to make the purchase.

John

[Skip]

I know You would rather use original replacement for the pickup, and the Ovation will fit, Only thing I'm not sure of is if the electronic's are a match. I have a 2005 Gibson Studio and replaced the saddle and EQ. with the Barbera and it was a big change for the better. But the 2005 has an 1/8th inch saddle so You would need an incert with a slot for the thinner saddle, and that's not a big deal. I have an Ovation pickup I found on ebay just as a spare for My 1993 Gibson Studio should it ever have problems. This picture shows what a Barbera saddle looks like in My 2005 Studio.

[BillB]

Denis,
I didn't have the money when I first wanted to buy a Barbera pickup. I had to set aside a little money for a few months until I had enough. It was well worth the wait and the investment. I think you'll agree if you do the same.

Go for it, man!

Bill B.

[BirdofParadise]

I put a new Shadow in my Chet Atkins CE after the of hex transducer bit the dust. Seems to work ok with goodbalance between the strings. I recall is costing less that $100.

Thanks Jay and Gary.

I had an answer from Barbera, and indeed their transducers are about $400 and only have 2 wires.
There is no doubt that they are way better than Gibson's, but i don't have this amount of money :-/

I also did contact Shadows and the confirm me that they were the ones who built the HexPiezo for Gibson. But unfortunately they don't do them anymore and don't have any stock left.

But they build the transducers for Ovation, the model is Shadows SH066-09 and can be found very easily. No need to contact Ovation. They are the exact same size as the Hexpiezo but only have two wires.
So here is another Gibson replacement, probably not as good as Berbera, but esthetically near of the original and way cheaper.

I getting close to think that this is the best solution to my problem, using just one lead of the Gibson preamp six terminals.

[RonBloor]

Was it difficult to put the Shadow SH066-09 PU in your Gibson CE?? Specifically the 2 wires of the Shadow vs the multi wires of the Gibson PU?? At least I think my Gibson CE has a pair of wires for each string PU! Sorry if this is getting a bit off the original question, but I know many other CBers have Gibson CE and CEC guitars and I've heard of them needing to replace their PUs. My CE is still ok, but who knows for how long. The Shadow PU is dirt cheap and available as Birdo.. has pointed out, so perhaps having a spare while they are available is a good idea. The sound quality of the Shadow is probably very poor compared to the original equipment, but one of the advantages of having had tinnitus for 30 years (in my case), is that my hearing can't tell the difference!! Thanks Ron.

I put a new Shadow in my Chet Atkins CE after the of hex transducer bit the dust. Seems to work ok with goodbalance between the strings. I recall is costing less that $100.

Thanks Jay and Gary.

I had an answer from Barbera, and indeed their transducers are about $400 and only have 2 wires.
There is no doubt that they are way better than Gibson's, but i don't have this amount of money :-/

I also did contact Shadows and the confirm me that they were the ones who built the HexPiezo for Gibson. But unfortunately they don't do them anymore and don't have any stock left.

But they build the transducers for Ovation, the model is Shadows SH066-09 and can be found very easily. No need to contact Ovation. They are the exact same size as the Hexpiezo but only have two wires.
So here is another Gibson replacement, probably not as good as Berbera, but esthetically near of the original and way cheaper.

I getting close to think that this is the best solution to my problem, using just one lead of the Gibson preamp six terminals.

[Kenny]

Denis,

This is my first post on the Chet Board but I thought I might could offer you an alterative since you say that money is an issue. I am currently building a nylon string guitar like Chet's Gibson Studio Classic. I'm about done, but do have to sand it and apply the finish. However I have played it some and have a demo recording of how it sounds. I installed a Fishman Pro AGX - 312 pickup in it and I personally like the sound. Since I devoted all of my time building this guitar I haven't played in a few months, yes it took me that long to build it as I had never built a guitar before. However if you would like to hear how the pickup sounds, I'm providing a link to a recording I made yesterday. Please forgive all of the mistakes as I said, I haven't played in months. While I made this guitar passive, it can be used with on-board electronics too. I hope this is of some help.

Kenny

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cYxYdF23EJb3ZZUmJweGFpUjA/view

[denis]

Hello,

Thanks everybody for your help.
I found a solution that suits me. I found an used OCP1 Ovation transducer near here, and bought it for 35$. It appears to be the exact same as a Shadow SH066-09 and a Hexpiezzo, except it only has two wires.
It was a direct replacement for my transducer, i didn't have to modify anything, and just solder it to one post of the 6 i have on my onboard preamp.

And i must admit... that i'm totally happy with it. It's perfectly balanced, the string height is nice and i must admit that it's sounding better than my hexpiezzo...

So i guess i found my solution, thanks again !

PS : if you like challenges, i now make a post to save my 1978 Super-Axe. Should be easier

DENIS

[albertgen]

That Barbera pickup sounds like a godd idea to me. I have a Gibson Studio and the pickup always bothered me because the high E string has never been as loud as the other strings, but it is better than the CEC solid body I used to have. That guitar was nice but the bass strings over powered the other strings. That Barbera guy sells the insert along with the pickup? Is that the way I understand it? Thanks, Al

[Skip]

The guitar is worth at least a good pickup, if not an original, You may not like the $100.00 pickup then what ? You only get what You pay for, proven many time's to Me by trial and error. You've had some very good guitar player's give You their choice and the Gibson fleur de lys worth a $400.00 investment.