Replacing/Repairing Fishman Nashville PU in Beard Odyssey

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I picked up a Beard Odyssey round neck a while back. I never got to try the pickup until a few weeks ago. It sounded very good, but unfortunately, string 3 was dead. I bought the guitar used, so there's no need to discuss warranty, etc. I read up everything I could find online - the consensus was, just replace it, it can't be fixed.

Not necessarily taking that at face value, and figuring that since I couldn't tolerate a dead string, I decided I had nothing to lose by fiddling with it. So I loosened the strings with a capo at the first fret, took them out of the bridge, took off the cover, pulled the pickup, and inspected it. I found a small hole under the (ebony?) saddle in the maple, that appears to run the length of the saddle. I thought of a couple of possible failure modes - the element could have lost proper physical contact, or possibly could have lost electrical contact. So I figured that by pushing a piece of copper wire just slightly larger than the hole under that string's position to apply both pressure and/or electrical contact, I might restore one or the other.

Admittedly, this was a crap shoot, but it worked. My suspicion is that the issue was electrical contact, because until I cut the copper wire (attached to a long spool) it hummed like crazy. But when I cut that short and used some heat shrink to isolate the wire from the spider, it quieted right down.

I played a couple of rehearsals and gigs with the guitar, it sounded great. But then I put it away for a week, brought it back out, and string 3 was dead again. I fiddled with it some more, to no avail. So it looks like I need to replace the pickup.

My question is simple - is the fine-trimming of this NV saddle pickup out of range for someone who is reasonably experienced with guitar repair? I routinely cut and fit bridge saddles and nuts on acoustic guitars, and this seems more or less in that type of ballpark. Also consider the fact that there is already an output jack installed. So I don't need to drill the end block, which seems like the trickiest part of this installation. So I should just need to fine-trim the base of the new embedded pickup-in-bridge to set the action and give a good friction fit, remove the output jack, and then unsolder the old connections and solder in the new connections, and put everything back together.

I'm trying to figure out if there is some difficult and subtle thing I'm missing. Obviously, I don't want to butcher a $220 pickup. But I'm definitely used to doing this kind of work myself. I have a Krivo on the guitar now, but the NV pickup sounds signnificantly better to me.

Knowledgeable advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

It is a crap shoot. I’ve done it with success and also have eaten $220. I’ve had strings and whole sides go dead. I recently had one come apart while I was changing strings, doing nothing rough. That was one that Beard put in for me two years ago. So….if you have experience just be careful, especially of those wires that come off the sides. Take it very slow. Very few regular luthiers know beans about dobros and fewer know about these pickups. Do it yourself or send it to Paul is my advice.
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Mark Eaton · Posted 26 Jan 2024 2:59 pm

Per Kevin's suggestion, you may want to contact Beard and see if you can send it to them for possible repair - or at minimum to get some advice on the matter.

Another option would be to contact Fishman and see about sending it to them. Though not with this pickup, when I have had occasional issues or questions about Fishman gear, they have been quite helpful.

FYI - the cap material isn't ebony, it's a man-made phenolic plastic. When they were developing the pickup years ago, they trialed use of actual wood caps like ebony but ran into problems, there was some chipping and breaking during the manufacturing process, so they went with a phenolic material.
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Mark

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Yup, I figured either do it myself or get it to the Beard shop. I have a couple of good guitar repair guys here, but I tend to doubt that they've ever done one of these. Not that they couldn't figure it out, but I think I probably could too.

I don't need to ship it to Beard - they're down just south of Waynesboro, PA. I'm not that far away, and I get down around Gettysburg and Baltimore periodically. In fact, I'm making a quick trip to Baltimore next week. But I don't have a replacement pickup yet, and the Beard site shows out of stock. I'll send them a message and see what they say.

Mark Eaton · Posted 26 Jan 2024 10:38 pm

You have v2 - with a metal bottom?

I wasn’t aware of a version with a metal bottom.

The original Nashville pickup was introduced around 2009 and had a metal bar “sandwiched” between the cap and the base.

In 2013,improvements were made - the one with the black cap below - they eliminated the metal in the middle so that only the very thin piezo ceramic element was between the cap and the base. Better sound transfer when plugged in, and better sound when played unplugged.

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Mark

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

When I said 'bottom', I was talking about the metal base at the bottom of the dark (top) part of the saddle. Here's a shot that I made when I put the copper wire in. I figured if that fix worked long-term, I'd post it as a possible fix for a dead string. But alas, it just lasted about a week before it broke down.

Mine doesn't look exactly like either of the photos you posted. The top is dark, not white, but it has the metal base under the dark saddle. But I obviously got some bad information - is miine v1 or maybe v1.5 before they came out with the final version in 2013?

Anyway, hopefully v2 will work better. Looking at the wire attachment on v2, I definitely will have to be careful with the wires if I do this myself - those connections to the pickup/saddle look more fragile than on mine.

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

John French · From: Louisiana, USA

I think you the folks at Beard guitar are top notch. They are definitely leaders in there field. A quick call to Denny may be all you need.

Mark Eaton · Posted 27 Jan 2024 9:18 am

Dave, you appear to have the first generation Nashville, but with a black cap rather than the whitish cap.

If Beard or Fishman can get it working correctly without charging too much - great - or perhaps they can advise you on a relatively easy fix.

We will be interested in what you learn from them. It may turn out that you’re just better off replacing it with the newer version of the pickup without the metal “sandwich” between the cap and base.
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Mark

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Just to confirm that it's an earlier Gen 1 pickup. There's no performance difference between a whitish/blackish upper.

Gen 2's have a reputation for reliability.

In terms of 2 piece (upper/lower) inserts or pickups, they both require some care when setting up and installing. The pickup isn't any more fragile than a ebony/maple insert.

Just more $$$ to replace.

My .02
ymmv

h

Stephen Cowell · From: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Dave, C.B. Gitty sells cheap piezo arrays... worth a shot, them NV's are expensive!

https://www.cbgitty.com/guitar-instrument-parts/10pc-3-string-rod-piezo-for-cigar-box-guitar/
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