Unity Day 2006

When we got down to the gig, I had my guitar, drum, bass amp... but no bass.

The bass was sitting in our dining room, ready to go, but kind of tucked away which is why I missed it when we packed. Everything else was on the porch all neatly organized and ready to go. Audra agreed to go back to the house and get the bass - a little over 2 hours additional driving. She came through though and it arrived within 15 minutes of our start time. Of course I felt like a complete idiot the entire time and was just glad to get home. Now I'm gradually working off the favor.

During the second acoustic song, my Taylor cut out, so when I got home I did some more troubleshooting and just decided something had to be done. After a year or more of problems with the pickup system, I finally broke down and decided to send it for repair. Taylor guitars used to have a Fishman pickup system, but back in 2002 or 2003, they switched over to their own custom Expression System (ES) which includes a series of transducers, a pickup and a preamp that provides a low impedance signal (instead of the typical high-impedance signal from other systems).

When it works, the system sounds great. Very clear and natural. Very little of the peizo "thwack" that is customary with Ovations and other acoustic-electrics. Some owners with early versions of the ES system have experienced problems, and it looks like I am one of them. The problem is, the ES system takes two AA batteries, which sit end-to-end in a compartment like a hot dog. There's a number of flaws with how the battery makes the connection inside the compartment. There’s at least two places (the knob and where the two batteries meet in the middle) that can fail. So on some gigs I'd have sound for one song, but then after jostling around a bit, I wouldn't have sound for the next song. Since the only time I really make use of the electronics is for gigs, that's a problem. (The guitar plays and sounds great acoustically, so when I record I just use a condenser mike). I've had problems with the guitar at almost every gig this year. Then, recently I started to get some other rattles inside the guitar, which could have been from all the jumping around troubleshooting it. At that point I figured it was best for the experts to look at it. Now I'm on pins and needles waiting for it to get back safely. The shipping and insurance were outrageous, but I figure if this helps me solve the problem, it is worth it.

Here's some picts.
http://www.mindspeak.com/unity06/index.htm