Never knew what Piezo quack was... HELP!

[simondylan]

Originally Posted by talonted

Short and sweet... Breedlove J350ef, jumbo guitar, been gigging it for 2 years, perfect guitar for me. LR baggs stage pro with preamp. Sounded fantastic until I got a setup to drop action a bit for more lead playing. Guitar sounds fine now, but when I dig in I get this horrible "quack" on the initial attack of each strum. Any ideas on why or how to fix?

Well there you have about 8 or so different approaches. They can't all be right, right? Listen, I don't mean to sound arrogant but I have a lot of specialized experience with this.
First, you are NOT crazy that when you lowered your action that the perceived "Quack" became more prevalent! What is known as quack is a result of where and how a UST pick's the sound up from the guitar. This is why all UST's have the same issue, all be it, some more than others. When closely observed, one of the biggest contributing factors to the "quack" sound is the string touching the fret, milliseconds before the note is completely fretted, but also as you un fret a note. It is a naturally occurring thing but it is just amplified more from how the UST hears the guitar. So what are the real solutions? Well the best solution is to use a two-source pickup system because there aren't truly any single source pickups that can do the whole job adequately. (I know that is debatable, but I'm trying to be brief). However if you for many understandable reasons must stick with the single pickup, the most significant fix is going to be in the signal processing both pre and post, ie, gain, EQ, compression, reverb, etc. Also as you pointed out, set-up does matter to some degree, for one example, too much back bow on your neck will make things worse. I know it isn't as tricky or fancy sounding as some of the other answers, but it's true. I encourage you to experiment for yourself. Be weary of people talking about putting clay in your saddle slot! Just saying.

[elroyjetsn]

I've heard many good players playing EA guitars that quack so bad! Somehow it never seems to bother them. One of life's mysteries...

[elroyjetsn]

My old 78 Ovation Anniversary was one of the first to use an under saddle piezo and I like their use of individual saddles for each string and the saddles are in some sort of sockets? Normal playing it's pretty "quack-free".

My Stagg ABG is the only other guitar(that I know of) that uses that same design bridge and saddle/string piezo system. It pays off with a it's beautiful full tone.

[elroyjetsn]

Tried placing some teflon tape (the pink tape that plumbers use) over the saddle slot before sliding the saddle into the bridge. My theory was that it would help prevent binding of the bone saddle against the wood under string tension so the saddle can transmit the string vibrations unhindered to the sensor.

It really worked great. The only thing is that it sounds pretty bright like new strings, but the quack is pretty much eliminated. When I cut the high mids on my amp to 50% and raise the bass a bit the sound is very natural.

I used it on my Martin DC-1E and it doesn't help preserve the Martin "woodie" sound, but it does eliminate pretty much all of the nasal quack.