Hi all.
On this new Italia bass I just got, there is a magnetic neck pickup and a piezo pickup in the floating wooden bridge.
There is an issue with the piezo. The E string sounds significantly lower in volume than the other three strings.
My assumption is that the piezo isn’t shoved far enough across the bridge (enters at G side) to properly pickup the E string.
It appears that the wooden bridge is constructed of two pieces to allow and that horizontal white line is the separation point. Only way I can see to get In there to correct. I tried simply pushing lightly in the piezo to see if it would go further in but didn’t want to ruin it so stopped when it didn’t budge easily.
I don’t think I’d repair this since it’s new, awaiting the shop in CA to call back and sort.
Any other ideas on what’s going on or do you think I’ve got is figured right?
Not easily at least from what i tried (I did not force anything very hard.
Since its brandy new I did not want to break anything until someone came along and said “oh yeah, just pull hard, its ok” or similar
its a super common problem with piezo’s and a real pain in the ass. both my ubass piezos did this occasionally. the problem is there is a microphone under each string and the downward tension of each string needs to be pressing on the microphones with relatively the same pressure or one wont be as loud. this problem literally will come and go. you can try unwinding the strings and re-tightening them (try a different tightening order), that sometimes works. sometimes pressing forward or backward on the bridge with your thumb helps. sometimes taking it to a luthier that knows piezos and having him level the bridge surface will help. none of these are foolproof. it seriously makes me wonder how piezos have been around for this long, they seem completely unreliable.
Ok, Thanks, I remember that thread now. @John_E, I like that bass. I am not usually a fan of black or white or black / white basses, but that tuxedo looks really cool on this bass. Everything but the headstock reminds me of a Danelectro.
Its not that I don’t like black or white, I just find them too common for my taste, when on the usual suspects, like P, J, Stingray, etc… It’s just my preference, I like something that is visually LOUD, why my favorite color is Orange.
I think it’s piezo condition and design based on weather it’s executed properly.
The Italia has a hollow body and plastic top (on purpose) which causes loads of additional vibration for the piezo to pickup giving it something very unique
I mentioned this elsewhere but just to close out this thread, apologies if you read it elsewhere.
The bass was not fixable (nor serviceable, another issue). The piezo was in fact not installed far enough across the floating wooden bridge to properly pick up the E string.
The bridge is a two pieces of wood epoxied together, piezo glued inside. Even if you carefully pulled that apart to replace the piezo, you can’t get in the bass to unsolder and resolver the piezo.
The body is two parts, back mahogany, top acoustiglass (aka plastic) fused (aka glued with a rubber grommet between them. There is no control cavity cover to unscrew. Only a battery door.
So although Italian design is stunning, they forgot to account for anything potentially going wrong. Not sure how they anticipated cleaning electronics over time.
A shame, but net/net it was a blessing in disguise that there was an issue that forced a return on the seller’s dime, to avoid issues later on it the bass’ life.
Literally, and I mean literally, as I was loading the bass in my car to drive to FedEx, I got a Reverb alert for a Gretsch G5123b limited edition bass I had an alert set up for. The ‘other hollow body’ i had my eye on. I took it as a sign.
It is on it’s way, and I now can happily join the @T_dub Orange Bass Club.
It’s a medium scale, my first, 32”. Has a larger body than the current G5440LS, and supposedly better quality pickups too. And cost $100 less than the Italia. Woot.
Welcome to the club.
Funny thing is I only have one Orange bass left. The Ibanez GSRM50 Mikro (mini scale). I don’t really play it, I have kept it for my daughters to learn on, AND cuz its the only Orange bass I have left.
I would love an orange Stingray, but closest I can get it the Orange strings on my Stingray SLO. I couldn’t even find a decent Orange pick guard for it.
Anyway, that bass is a beauty, glad things worked out for the better with this deal.
It arrived today.
Mint condition is an understatement.
It’s much more orange than original pics did justice.
Cleaned it up and reset it up. Not crazy about whatever flats they have on, will get labellas.
Plays great. Love the sound. It’s also quite loud unamped, enough to practice while watching tv.
Not sure what flats came on this, they thought they were Labellas, they were certainly not.
They had red silks on top and bottom, but not nearly as smooth as Labellas.
Swapped them out with Labellas and oh that thump.
Now I really need a good course on pickwork and lots of practice as this thing with a pick and those flats are a whole new world of sound. Amazing.
