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November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Hello everyone. I just bought a guitar off of ebay, and I might have messed up. I thought it was an older standard balladeer, but after some research, I found out it is a model 1319 Balladeer Special, and according to its serial number it was made in 1981. This is the one with the Urelite neck and no truss rod. The no truss rod thing really bothers me. Can the neck be adjusted at all? Anyone play one of these? Is the top solid or laminated? Any info on this guitar would be appreciated.....Paul Hebert |
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March 2002
Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | 1319???
I can't find this guitar in any catalog. From a 1983 catalog I found the Ultra series guitars. These have the urelite foam necks. I don't see a 1319 tho'. There is a 1311 listed that is an acoustic only guitar. Laminated spruce top, K3 bracing, rosewood fingerboard, and deep bowl.
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Moody, sorry about that. It is a 1139 model. Dang, I am so bummed about this I can't even get the dang model number right! |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The Balladeer special was the replacement for the Matrix & in many ways was an improvement, it had the same ali/foam neck but had a re-frettable rosewood 'board. LIke the Matrix it had a ply top but lost the raised binding. The electric version had the Ovation pickup & fet3 pre rather than the passive system on the Matrix. As far as I recall the Balladeer special was introduced '80/'81 and was replaced by the Ultra in '83. The Ultra & Balladeer Special were essentially the same guitar until Ultra production went offshore.
You cannot adjust the Ali necks, but in theory they should never need adjusting.
Did you screw up? Probably, depends on what you paid, an acoustic-only example is worth a couple of hundred max. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina | Would there be more than 1 type of Balladeer Special? I have a model S771 that has Balladeer Special on the inside Label. By the serial number it was made in 2001. I purchased it new from MARS during their going out of business sale in 2002.
:confused: |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Yes, but the model in question here was from the early 80's and has an aluminum & foam neck. The Balladeer specials you refer to were stripped-down versions of the standard Balladeer, i.e. satin finish, simple decoration. In the current catalog the same models are referred to as "Balladeer" without the "special" |
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November 2002
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina | Thanks for the info. I wondered about the differences. I noticed description change in the catalog.
Dave |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | you're screwed.
smash the guitar and give up. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3665
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Take your lumps, Paul. Resell it, with no reserve. It's probably a very sound instrument, and someone else would be ecstatic to own it. If the 'board is, in fact, refrettable; that is the ideal situation. The "disposable guitar" concept was effectively negated by that design change. Perhaps billing it as the "Original MOB" would get some added notice to your listing. |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Or you could hang it on the wall as ART. I'm serious. Check my photos in the gallery. I have a solidbody and also an acoustic that had the headstocks broken off. I glued the headstocks back on just well enough to be able to string them at almost zero tension. Then I screwed them to the walls in my music room. Very nice art work that cost me very little. Dave |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3665
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | EGAD, Dave!!! What an ignominious fate for those broken critters. I am pretty famous for not letting anything die, or throwing anything away, for that matter (take some heat from the Spousal Unit on that one, to be sure!) My gallery pictures should be posted within the week, so you will all see my handiwork. Eye-yi-yi, screwed to the wall- ouch. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I have a 1983 USA Ultra 1311 that had a Urelite neck that bowed and made the guitar almost unplayable ... and no, there was no way to adjust the neck. I looked for nearly a year and finally found a two piece mahogany neck with truss rod off of a 1312 which i carefully frankensteined onto the 1311. It works likes a champ. Cost me $47 bucks for the neck, I moved the great W. German tuners across, and invested about 10 hours of work in to carefully make it happen. She's very sweet to play again ...
The odd thing about my 1311 is that it has a mahogany top, and is equipped with the old-style Ovation pickup and preamp the volume-only control mounted where the strap button would normally be (and the strap button is on the bowl on the other side of the neck as you play) which I have seen on other guitars of this vintage. All of which seem to be factory.
The Urelite neck by itself is making a very interesting wallhanger and conversation piece ... it's kinda cool to be able to see how the foam was formed around the aluminum channel. |
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April 2003
Posts: 557
Location: Burbank | Foam aluminum necks sound like a interesting topic to "read about" but not experience first hand! Sorry to hear about you situation. How was it avertised? |
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Did I screw up?