Tapewounds

[patman]

Put some GHS tapewounds on the Pace upright

Two strings sound fine, and two don't sound at all--seems like there's not enough downwward pressure on the piezo element to make a good tone?

Anybody else experience this with a piezo bridge? and is there a fix?

One idea I had was to put a couple of washers on the ball end of the string so that it will pull the silks back an eighth of an inch or so off the bridge. Maybe they will sound then.

The strings that sound have pretty good tone.

Thanks

Pat

[nofi]

remove the saddle and make sure there is no crud in the piezo groove. if that does not fix it you can cut the saddle in half. this will help to distribute the string pressure more evenly over the pickup. i did this a long time ago and have never had that problem again.

this works on abgs but i'm not clear about how the pace is set up. btw are the ghs strings flats or rounds. can't find any info on that.

[Pilgrim]

One refinement to nofi's suggestion - DO NOT alter the original saddle. Buy saddle material form Stew-Mac and make a replacement using the original as a template...and modify the replacement, not the original.  That way if you screw it up, you have a fall-back. Mess up the original saddle and you are in trouble.

[nofi]

my original saddle literally blew apart so there was nothing left. my repair guy made a new one from bone and that's the one i cut.

[patman]

Well here was a fix that worked....

The Pace is a EB type piezo bridge--it apparently wants to have steel on steel contact to make the tone.

What I did was coat about the last 3/8 inch of nylon tape on the strings with thin super glue so that it wouldn't unravel--then I cut off the last 2/8 inch of the black tape with a pen knife, exposing the steel core so that it could make contact with the steel piezo saddle in the bridge.

Strings sound evenly now...actually sounds pretty good...thanks for all of your suggestions...I really appreciate the input.

What a PITA, though...my never ending Pace love-hate relationship.

GHS Tapes look like light gauge boomers under the black wrap. The black wrap is super smooth and feels almost like gut under your fingers.

[Pilgrim]

my original saddle literally blew apart so there was nothing left. my repair guy made a new one from bone and that's the one i cut.

WELL then, that's a bit different, innit?? 

[uwe]

Optimizing piezos that feature an acoustic type plastic or bone bar bridge is not such a daunting task. It's almost always down to pressure/contact. On my Washburn AB-40 the G was always weak until I stuck some window pane isolation foam (!) Underneath the piezo strip to increase pressure/contact to the bridge.

[Dave W]

GHS Tapes look like light gauge boomers under the black wrap. The black wrap is super smooth and feels almost like gut under your fingers.

That doesn't surprise me. LaBellas are 40-98 rounds underneath. The Rotos are a similar gauge but the core is thick and the round wrap thin, I doubt if it would sound right as a round if you unwrapped it. And Fender used to advertise that their tapewounds were wound over a roundwound string.

[patman]

the fenders are definitely a different vibe.

The Fenders Mwah...these don't, but the GHS's certainly subwoof and sound very uprightish.

[nofi]

the fenders are indeed tapewound and in imho the absolute worst of the bunch. a lot of peoplle like 'em but they probably never tried labellas.

[rahock]

I've got a set of Fender tapes that are unopened, they were a gift. I can't imagine life without La'Bellas on my Olympia ABG
Rick

[Dave W]

I tried the Fenders once in the 90s. The taping was lumpy and uneven in several places and they didn't sound like tapewounds.

[patman]

Well..

this weekend I re-strung everything I gig with..

Tapes for the Pace

Flats for one Dano

Pressurewounds for the other

All GHS--haven't used any of their products  in lots of years...though I don't know why because these were all reasonably priced, well made, well silked, and all sound good.