This was one of those guitars I bought with my heart and eyes, rather than my brain and ears. C’mon, we’ve all done it… It’s one of the older original MIK models, with Chet’s signature on the headstock and the ”ashtray” fake soundhole insert. It was just soooooo pretty in the auction picture, with the warm glow of its cherry sunburst... Oh my!

After it landed and I had spent a few hours trying to get it to play decently (for me), I came to the realization that the pickup was only really responding to the wound strings – the high E and B simply weren’t audible in the amp. Oh, brother! After futzing around with the bridge saddle and pickup, I decided the pickup would simply have to be replaced. So, the early verdict was: it doesn’t play well, AND it sounds bad. I just put it back in the case, and put the case in the closet for a year or so.

A few months ago, I finally decided to get it up and running, just so I could trade it away without guilt, if nothing else. First thing on the list, I looked for a replacement for the under-saddle piezo pickup, and found one that claimed it did NOT need a preamp for most applications from Sound Checker. What the heck, the price was right… Let’s give it a try.

If you’ve never opened up one of these older SSTs, they are pretty much like a solid body guitar with some VERY generous routing – no way I would call it any kind of a hollowbody. On the older MIK ones (like mine), the pickup is a completely passive system - there’s no internal preamp or battery, nothing except for plain ol’ mini-volume and tone pots with a cap. The pup is wired straight to the volume pot, with a tone pot and cap hanging off of it like any regular electric (magnetic pickup) guitar, and then goes to the output jack. Period! So, taking Sound Checker at their word, I simply yanked the stock pickup, and wired their pickup to the Epi’s existing volume and tone.

Wow! It works, and they weren’t kidding! As well as fixing the unheard high strings, this axe is as loud as a Strat or Tele through my amp. As for the TONE of the Sound Checker SC2655TL pickup, so far I have only played through my plain ol’ guitar amp, with NO adjustments to the tone controls on the amp. I found that just plugged in to my normal settings it had a typical “stage-mix” acoustic guitar tone, with the harsh brassiness you get with piezo pups – but, as it’s a tone that would easily cut through any mix, it ain’t all bad. Then, amazingly, when I turned the tone control on the guitar down, it cut the harshness out of the sound while leaving plenty of “air and strings” – the tone actually began to sound like a real flattop, with a nice mic. Hey, that works for me! Remember, this is through my regular amp, with all the tone controls set up for my regular Gibson or Fender electric stage-tone. I’m sure with a little time and some extra EQ-ing, you could no doubt make the sound even more convincingly acoustic – perhaps even downright pleasant. No foolin’!

I haven’t tried recording with it or playing through a P.A. yet, but I’m sure that this axe with the new pup would be more than adequate for either of those applications. I may fool around with the cap and pot values to see if I can sweeten it a bit, too - perhaps there’s a bit more fine tuning that can be done - but I certainly find the tone usable as is. With its solid mahogany body, I’m guessing that feedback is probably NOT gonna be an issue at a reasonable stage volume. So, now I’m back at work on the action…

I filed some off the top of the rosewood bridge, and then routed out the saddle groove a bit as well (below the new pickup, of course). I filed the saddle down quite a bit, and was really able to lower the string height. It had come loaded with some medium gauge strings, but after the bridge work I installed a set of D'Addario Extra Light Bronze strings, and we're already lookin' purdy dang good.

The last bit of adjustment that really made this axe "come in" for me was to snug up the trussrod so that the neck appeared to have just a tiny bit of back-bow. Luckily, after I touched up just a few high frets, I wound up with an action that plays as if "straight" from the nut to the 12th fret, and then does the "ramp down" thang through the 20th fret that has become the regular setup for me. Of course, on my electrics I don't start the ramp until the 17th fret or so, but it worked out just fine starting it a bit "early" here. BTW, if you ever check out an Ovation, see if they don't still do the same thing with their fingerboards - that "ramp down" after the about the 14th fret. I sure remember that they used to, back in the seventies when I was selling them...

AND... We are good to go! Far from that disappointing beginning, this has turned into a super little acoustic-electric guitar, and I'm looking forward to pulling it out and flashing everybody at our next jam - uh, with the guitar, of course!