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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | This is a 1981-ish head stock, No TRC...
This is an older model, with TRC...
This may be a stupid question, but are the newer ones "just for looks"?
The original idea was to have the stacked wood for stability. Y'know, different grains going different directions...
The ones with no Truss Rod Cover have a Kaman Bar, so those are just trying to look pretty, right?
Yes, No, Maybe :confused: |
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Location: SoCal | Yes. It's now pretty much "just for looks"...... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | ... but it's a "good" look. |
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Location: SoCal | A great look.... |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | ... 'classic' look! |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | The 5-pc neck avoids possible problems. One pc of mahogany has a LOT of strength in it if it decides to bend a little over time. Granted, there's a lot of factors in the new necks that lend stability, but every now and then you'll get a pc of wood that wants to go south a little. A 2 or 5 pc neck pretty much eliminates the possibility for those few necks that might cause trouble.
The new neck design is pretty much a copy of Taylor's new neck design (except for the finger-joint). It's the best design that present technology can provide. All other things being equal, I wonder how many one pc Taylor necks cause problems down the road compared to 2 or 5 pc necks from Ovation.
John <>{ |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Just a point of order, some of them have middle stripe of ebony, as opposed to the usual mahogany, maple, mahog, maple, mahog. At least my mewp does, while the 1976 country artist sports a normal stripe. |
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Location: Sydney, Australia | I think I'm more confused after reading these posts (sorry guys). The ones with Kaman bars are adjustable inside the body and the truss rod covers are adjustable at the head. Is there any difference in the 5 piece necks apart from the truss rod and the types of wood used?
IMHO the non-truss rod cover models look more attractive, but are they mechanically different apart from the type of truss rod? Some newer models (e.g. 2008 Collectors) have the truss rod cover, so its not just a new/old thingy. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | The ones with no truss rod cover, and are adjustable from inside the bowl, have a Kaman bar.
The Kaman bar is a square aluminum tube with the truss-rod inside of it..
If you have a five piece neck with a TRC, it just has a truss-rod in a wood channel. Now, one down-side of this is if you try to tighten it up too much you will blow-out the wood in the five-piece neck at the headstock. This happened to my Pacemaker when I first got it. Some jerk tried to lower the action with the truss-rod, which is not what it is made for, and blew-out the back of the neck. They fixed this at the Factory for me when the gave me that new top?bowl.
They didn't replace the neck, so I don't know what they did. But I will be real careful if I ever have to adjust the truss-rod. Amazing what they can do with Crazy Glue...
The first pic that I posted is an image off of eBarf. I was just curious if a five piece neck makes any difference when there is a big square chunk of metal running down the neck.
But it do look Purdy!
Also, I believe some of the Adami have a carbon fiber stripe running down the back. |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | My '97 Collectors' has a Walnut center stripe.
Richard...don't be confused by all this. It's just the evolution of the Ovation guitar as new and better designs have been developed over time.
The Kaman bar was an improvement in stability over the original design. It was heavy and required the neck to have a "V" to make room for it.
With the development of new fiberglass technology...leading to a lighter bowl, the neck was now way too heavy. Along came the CNC miracles making the new neck design possible. This new neck was lighter and at least as stable as the K-Bar neck. So no more K-Bar, and back to a TRC...this time with a double-acting truss rod.
John <>{ |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | The guitars with the k-bar have less wood in the neck. Some people think this effects the sound.
Dave |
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Location: Sydney, Australia | Oooh oooh oooh! My W597 has a black stripe down the centre of the 5 piece neck. Is that ebony or carbon fibre? Looks like ebony to me. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | 5 piece necks with black center strip are ebony. The original slotheads, 47RI, OFC and Magnum guitars had a 3 piece neck with Graphite.
Dave |
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5 piece neck - Are the new (80's and later) ones Real?