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I don't usually handle electronics... my partner in crime does that. We have an Ovation that only the wound strings work when plugged in. Has anyone here experienced this? Is this repairable? It's a classical about 30 years old....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Old Ovation tech is really not something that I choose to mess with in my shop. But if you're sure you want to tackle the job I'd just call ovation and see if they can send you a replacement pickup. It's possible that the pickup is just decaying?

You can replace the transducer, that is usually the problem. Ovation used a strange UST with a matching saddle that has ears to trap the UST. That is not available any more that I am aware of so I either modify the original saddle or make a new one and use a generic UST replacement.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Sounds like the pick-up/saddle is the old wide one? (OCP-1K)

Here's what they look like on the inside. They're actually pretty simple. The individual piezos have wires soldered across top and bottom. These rest on two bone rails and all of this is held in place with white silicone.

This construction renders these pick-ups pretty much un-serviceable, but there's not too much to go wrong.

The only way these get damaged is if someone has peeled the saddle off the pick-up and tried to remove the silicone, which is what happened in the last pic below.







You might consider posting this question to the OFC.

Ovation's original pick-up/saddle was the OCP-1K. (wide)

You're describing the latter slimline saddle. The slimline use a standard 1/8" (3mm) slot and can accept pretty much any generic saddle/UST.