Remedies for a "quiet" guitar - THE RESULTS ARE IN!

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by vindibona1

Are you using TITANIUM pins, of the Martin Liquid Metal pins? If Titanium, where did you get them?

They are Jellyfish titanium bridge pins. Only $20. There was some question if they would fit my guitar but I took a chance and it turned out they did fit. A lot cheaper than the $100 Martin Liquid metals.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-of-6-SI...kAAOSwpdpVb6BH

[Pura Vida]

Paul, glad you found a solution that you're happier with. Not to burst your bubble, but the Ernie Ball AB strings will mellow out after about a week. For many (myself included), they sound better once they're broken in, but for your darker sounding guitar, they may sound a little more dull soon (hopefully not!).

I agree with the other suggestions to remove the UST pickup and replace/shim the saddle. This can have a much more direct impact on the guitar's volume (more than bridge pins), especially if the current saddle isn't making good contact at all points.

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

They are Jellyfish titanium bridge pins. Only $20. There was some question if they would fit my guitar but I took a chance and it turned out they did fit. A lot cheaper than the $100 Martin Liquid metals.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-of-6-SI...kAAOSwpdpVb6BH

Not to go on a detour, but I think I may try those pins. I've ordered some (ultra) cheap pins off eBay ... bone and ebony sets ... and I will try those as all of my guitars just have the plastic pins AFAIK. I do have a set of brass pins but I've lost one of them through the years and I don't know of any 5-string guitars I could put them on, except an electric bass.

[AcousticWoody]

Originally Posted by lowrider

Good for you! I'm glad to see this. I would have hated to see you give up on such a beautiful guitar.

I still think you should remove the UST. Even if you just shim the saddle with credit card shims, you should get a big improvement in sound.

I don't care for UST's either. I once removed some plastic shims when replacing a plastic saddle with a bone saddle. WHAT a difference it made, even though I wasn't expecting it. I make my own saddles, so it was easy to adjust the height.

It turned a nice Parlor guitar into a really nice Parlor. Given my experience, I would remove all shims and replace the saddle with a correctly adjusted one. But, that is just me since I haven't plugged in in more than 10 years.

[B Chas]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I'm loving my new Martin OMC-16 with Ovangkol top, back and sides except for one thing---it's a very quiet guitar. I have been thinking what things I could do (short of always using an amp) to get some more volume. The only two I can come up with would be to get a luthier to drill a sound port and/or replace the bridge pins with titanium pins.

Any opinions on those two ideas or any other idea. Other than the volume this is an outstanding guitar.

Note. I primarily am referring to the volume when playing fingerstyle.

UPDATE: I put on some Erinie Ball Aluminums and also some titanium bridge pins. Wow! There has been a noticeable increase in volume. Maybe not as loud as my other guitars but close enough that I will be happy to keep this gem.

I wish I knew how much was due to the pins vs the strings. Maybe the next string change I'll remove one from the equation.

If you remove the strings, you'll loose all the volume, unless you use it as a bongo (sorry I couldn't help myself)

[zoopeda]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

They are Jellyfish titanium bridge pins. Only $20. There was some question if they would fit my guitar but I took a chance and it turned out they did fit. A lot cheaper than the $100 Martin Liquid metals.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-of-6-SI...kAAOSwpdpVb6BH

What pins did you have on before switching to titanium?

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by zoopeda

What pins did you have on before switching to titanium?

Black Tusq