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Location: NJ | Please don't take this as beating a dead horse, because that is NOT my intention, but....
Bill's earlier mention of his #35 Adamas (by the way Bill, the very thought of that being in storage till the battery "mutates" makes me pucker where one really shouldn't pucker!) and his writing "35" inside the truss rod cover re-opened a mental wound (thank you, BILL!!).
Anyway, when first I got involved in this odd consortium the first thing I learned was that my Adamas that I had long believed to be a "prototype" #20 of 26, was actually a "SlotHead" #54 of the 27-60 series. Fine. I readily and wholeheartedly accept that. BUT..........
Why (oh why!) did somebody painstakingly carve the number "20" inside of the truss rod cavity and on the backside of the cover???
Does anybody posess/have seen/know the whereabouts of the original #20 prototype??
Is it possible that it didn't survive (top/bowl failure) and the neck was later "recycled" and went onto my 54? Could it be that when the necks were carved, somebody scratched a number on the components so that when they were assembled the correct parts "matched"?
I know for a fact that the dealer got it that way because she (the dealer) took off the cover and showed me the number(s) and the original receipt is for "Adamas #20".
Does anybody (Bill/Sam?) know (or have any documentation) of what the actual #20 prototype looked like? How many of these guitars survived?
PLEASE forgive me if I seem to be a pest on this, but this is REALLY buggin' the shit outta' me!!!
Anybody got any possible insight? |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Cliff,
Sorry to stir this all up. #20 would have had round holes with a wooden rosette kinda thing with three bars through it, all made from walnut, the bars were inlayed fret wire (think 55 Buick porthole)
It would not have had a slotted head. There were 3 like this, 19, 20 and 21 I think, They weren't really finished into saleable guitars, I don't think they were painted and they had a different ring (binding)pattern. Marcel wound up with 19 and I don't know where the others went. At this point none of the aesthetics had been configured, paint schemes, ring design, fingerboard shape, material and inlays, sound hole configuration, epaulette design, peghead shape and configuration or the carved heel or the bridge shape and carving.
Why yours is 20 I don't know. Here's a guess. The neck was the 20th of the batch they were working on at the time. They were numbered so that when the heel would be glued on they were the right set of two parts. Necks and heels were carved separately and bonded together later.
Now number 35 didn't have a number in the truss rod hole and my other slot head doesn't have one either.
There was probably a year or slightly more between when 19-21 were made and when #26 rolled off the line. In that time they got all the aesthetics sorted out.
Maybe (a young) Al went into the store and wrote in the 20 just to mess witchew?? |
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Location: NJ | hmmm....
...Maybe mine was assembled on a late Friday afternoon and somebody scratched the numbers in to remember where they left off come Monday mornin'!!??
Thanx,Bill!! |
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Location: NJ | I get no respect |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Al, It takes a brilliant mind to plant the seed 26 years ago and be driving ole Clif crazy now. |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Cliff, just to follow up on what Billybobtwo said,#20 would not have the multi soundholes and no walnut carved neck.These guitars were fitted with regular ovation 5 piece necks as they were test models...I doubt many protos survived.If they did employees probably have them.I know i have two and Charlie Kaman has one but i doubt many made it out of the factory alive..My guess is they were chopped by a band saw and tossed in the dumpster? Here are pics of # 7 and # 12.It shows some of the experimental soundholes that were developed....
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/adamproto1.jpg
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/adamproto2.jpg
[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: samova ] |
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Posts: 15680
Location: SoCal | Sam:
Which one is which? And I'd still love to see a picture of the Jerry Reed THead.
Al, you'll get respect when you deserve respect. Listen to my mother. She knows best. |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Paul, the six string is # 7 and of course # 12 is the 12 string.It may be the only 12 string proto pre # 26 in the bunch? Bill any help?
I know that my # 33 is the only 12 string in the #26-62 slot head models..
I 'll post a pic of the Jerry Reed model soon.... |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I guess some things are better left unknown.
Thanks for all of the insight.
It's somewhat a shame that so many of these potentially "historic" guitars fell prey to either pilferage or dismemberment. Perhaps we need to make a consciencetious effort to track down and document/catalog what may be left of the SlotHeads (that is, if Bill can stop turning them into ChiaPets!).
"..billybobtwo.." HAAAH!! I like that!
and Al,..........uh, never mind.
Thanks Guys!, I'm still so very glad I found you. |
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Location: NJ | Cliff you have to remember that the guitars are not historic when built but only after the fact. |
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Location: NJ | Yeah, I know.
They were kinda like the Sigourney Weaver "clones in jars that did'nt quite work" in Alien Ressurection". |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Paul,here is the pic of the Jerry Reed Thunderhead you asked for.Notice the differences..Volume knob on pickguard ,gold ingraved ovation logo and signature on pickguard,different style pickups...
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/Jerryreed.jpg |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Sam, Sam, Sam...no one should have so many wonderful Ovations stashed in one place. You should send about half of them to Nova Scotia for safe keeping!
Wayne |
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Location: SoCal | Send them to Nova Scotia??? Are you nuts? They should obviously go to southern California where the temperate climate will help preserve these beauties.
Sam, are you certain that the difference in pickups isn't just the difference between a Tornado and a THead? |
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Location: Scotland | I have now seen 4 different kinds of pickups on the Storms. Most of the Tornados & Eclipses I've seen have pickups with a rail-type polepiece, like the one in Sams picture. My own Tornado has what I understand are Schaller single coils, though they have 12 pole-pieces without the rail. Then there's what looks like Dearmond singlecoils on the Thunderhead & something else on the Jerry Reed model, though they look like they could be Dearmonds with the polepieces hidden. Any ideas anybody? Bill?
[ September 19, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | The Jerry Reed is a one off. The toronado's had the schallers with the pole pieces, theads had d'armond and then there were the budget schallers with the bar. That was it, I thnik. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | In looking at the ones on San's tornado, I don't remember seeing these. This must be a very early guitar, short neck and all. Probably are Schaller pickups before Helmut got his design sorted out. |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Heres the rest of the storms..Hurricane,Typhoon,Tornados,Thunderheads....
http://www.ovationfanclub.com/gallery/group.jpg |
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Highway 20 Revisited