Sounds Huge!

[SpruceTop]

Prior to my Line 6 L2t's impending sale to a fellow AGFer, I've been playing several of my guitar/pickup-preamp rigs through this PA speaker placed on the floor in a monitor position about 15-feet away from my playing position. Right now, I'm auditioning my recently-acquired Korean-made, Ovation ExoticWoods Elite Plus Deep Contour Acoustic-Electric guitar with onboard Op Pro Studio Preamp and OCP1 UST Pickup (bought on sale for $699 with hardshell case) through the Line 6 L2t and it sounds HUGE with all EQ set FLAT on guitar and on the Line 6 L2t. This is without any of the EQing on the Line 6 L2t that I've done with the other guitar/pickup-preamp rigs I've auditioned through the system! The OCP1 pickup amplifies both string and top/body vibration and it has a useful, focused zone on the clarity of the fundamental notes so that any melodies and flourishes are distinctly heard with just the right amount of overtones to complement the guitar's tone. With the onboard OpPro Studio Preamp, additional Aphex Aural Exciter-like bottom- and top-frequency overtone enhancement can be mixed in to taste. There is also an onboard compressor circuit and the onboard EQ section of the OpPro Studio preamp is very useful should more tone-shaping be desired. IMHO, I firmly believe that Ovation pickups and preamps are the equals of anything that has been developed and may even be superior under more live-performance situations than anything else.

SpruceTop's Trick! In the past, I've taken the circuit-board-like shims out of my Ovations and replaced them with a one-piece ebony shim that I've made by meticulously thicknessing a piece of ebony to the same thickness and length and width size as the two or three circuit-board-material shims that are factory-installed under the pickup. In many Ovation models this ebony shim matches the ebony bridge of the guitar and makes for maintaining a continuous same-material interface of bridge-to-pickup and I believe I can hear a more woody-like tone from the Ovation's pickup/preamp system by doing so. Nowadays, Stewart McDonald offers headstock veneer in various wood species (especially ebony and walnut for Ovation bridges) that can be easily cut and thicknessed to the desired size for replacing the Ovation factory-installed circuit-board-material shims. I've yet to do this to my new Ovation but I may soon do so.

[SpruceTop]

Looking at the construction of the Ovation OPC-1 pickup, I'm thinking it may have the piezo elements suspended in a medium within the pickup assembly and that accounts for a reduced quackiness of this system as the piezo elements are "bent" to generate an electrical signal rather than having a preload compression on the six piezo elements as do most UST systems. Your informed and speculative thoughts on this matter are desired. Thanks!