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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 93
Location: Canada | How much should I pay for a used UK II in a reasonably good condition? No major dings or scratches. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I see them from 400ish-600ish on eBay. When shopping for a UKII, pay close attention to the pickups. I have seen several sell over the years for a decent price that had replacement pickups. As far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have the UKII pickups, it's not really a UKII. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | miles,
since the pickups were ovation made, i guess a replacement pickup would be pretty obvious and might be "cobbled" into place further reducing the guitar's value.
a couple of mine had almost imperceptible corrosion on the pickup switch contacts, and made me really scratch my head, as both came on in the center position but one or the other wouldnt work in single pu position. a good cleaning with 400 grit emery and finish with crocus cloth, then a film of dielectric silicone grease was all it took. i guess the guitars were stored in a single pu position and created a tiny spot of galvanic corrosion at a point that changed in the 2 pickup position. so far all of my ukII pickups are working great.
another quick modification that i have made to the ones i have with an ovation metal bridge assy, is to smooth up and chamfer the edges where the ball end of the string goes. i regularly had strings breaking right at that point as they lost the battle to the sharp edges. i also greatly reduced the angle where the string comes out of that same ball end slot, another common breaking point. third, i regularly polish the slots in the adjustable saddles, as a galvanic corrosion occurs amazingly fast with steel to brass contact. lastly, with a tooth pick i apply a tiny amount of 3 in one or the equivalent to the points of contact between the steel strings and the brass bridge. before these modifications, strings would break during the second gig (even d strings!!!). i use 10's and all brands i tried failed before the smooth up. now they last without failing until their weekly change. a dremel and a set of harbor freight cheapo diamond burrs works great on the brass. i reccommend removing the bridge to keep the metal dust out of the guitar and for easy access to the bottom of the bridge. you will probably be amazed at how much crap has accumulated under the bridge in the last 20+ years so knock off both birds with the same stone. and this might sound stupid, but BUT PLEASE USE THE RIGHT SIZED SCREWDRIVER FOR THE BRIDGE HT SCREWS. except for the ones bill sold me, my other ukIIs are major ugly from too small of a screwdriver being used. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Good tips.. My comment about the pickups was a guide. Someone asked about a good price and I noticed several UKII's over the years on eBay that either the seller didn't know the pickups were swapped, or chose not to mention it, and the pictures unless clear did not necessarily reflect it. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Of all the Ovation solids the UK11, because of the body construction & the pickup surrounds is the most difficult on which to swap pickups. On all the others it's just a case of cutting the pickguard & routng the body. Having said that I've seen a few UK11s made virtually worthless because of attempted pickup swaps, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because the UK11 pickups are killer. In my opinion the value an Ovation elecric is seriously compromised without original pickups. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I'm right withya Paul,
All of the Ovation solids except for maybe the Ultra GS and GP have a very distinct and unique sound. In many cases like the UKII and the Viper you can achieve the more "classic" sounds, but there still is a little tonal difference which makes it nice. The guitar "finds" that really get me are the Breadwinners or Deacons with replaced pickups. That's just silly.
Having said all that, I have a Viper that has been seriously modified, but then again... I won't ever sell it, and would not really expect to get any serious money if I did. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | I'm with you guys on this one. I think the best thing about an Ovation solidbody are the pickups. These guitars were produced during the heyday of the pickup replacement craze. It's ashame that so many old Ovations had horrible pickup modifications. Kinda makes me wonder if the original owners ever really plugged them in and hear how good those original pickups really sounded. My favorite is the Viper. Killer tele tones, just a beautiful sounding guitar...Paul Hebert |
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UK II Price