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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I don't actually have this in my hands yet...FedEx is still zigzagging across North America with it, however, I will post this anyway.
I was very blessed to be able to add this to my little collection; one of the very first Country Artist guitars built for GC. The coolest thing is that it is fitted with the extremely rare Prismatone pickup made by Baldwin.
As many here know, there were a few guitars fitted with these as a temporary solution while Ovation developed their own pickup, although ironically, Glen continued to use Prismatone equipped Country Artists until at least 1979, years after Ovation had their own pup. I just hope the pickup works...can you imagine trying to find a replacement for that?
It looks like it needs to have a new nut and a couple of finish cracks sealed but over all, doesn't look too bad for a 41 yr old.
Many thanks to Scott, the previous owner for allowing me to convince him that I should have this thing :) and thanks also to a certain OFC member who turned me onto it!
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/wreid/X014%20New%20Pics%20Small/Ovation...
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | 
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Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Congratulations! Can't wait to hear your report when it arrives.
Nick |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Nice Git!
I read where there's a guy (Sam Kennedy) in Houston making a repro called the Prismatone II.
Or, at least he was! |
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Location: Nashville TN. | sweet I imagine it incrediable tone |
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Location: Paris/France | Congrats Wayne,
This beautiful guitar deserved a good home and found the best she could ever dream!! ;)
J :) |
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Location: Tennessee | Very cool. It's definitely in the right hands, or will be soon. Congrats! |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks, guys.
Yes, Bobbo, hopefully here very soon, after completing it's first North American tour in close to forty years!
The previous owner never did learn to play so it has been sitting in his attic in California for the last 30 years or so, and I am looking forward to getting it back to 100% condition.
The old Prismatone may be just fine...it has a Cannon output jack (pretty advanced stuff in 1970) and the owner had simply never had it plugged in to anything.
According to what very little Prismatone info there is on the net, these very much need the 22.5 volt power supply to make them work properly...perhaps it was built right into Glen's acoustic amp just like the old Baldwin amps that Willie Nelson uses to power Trigger?
Actually, here is a video of one of Glen's early Ovation amp clearly showing a 3-prong Cannon input. Perhaps Beal or Paul T could shead a little light on this. |
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Location: California | Wayne,
So this is the one you told me about it. Congratulations! It looks in a good shape. It seems to have a classical guitar wide neck?
Model: Custom
Serial: X014
Interesting to know what is on the label on the prototypes.
Hector |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Hi Hector;
If is is like production Country Artists it will have 1 7/8" neck width. I think the idea of the CA guitars was to give steel-string players a guitar with the nylon sound, not really a classical guitar per se. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Gorgeous guitar, and some REALLY nice pictures! Love that wideneck! |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Scott did a great job with the pics...unfortunately for me, the back yard was not included in the sale! |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | How much for the duck? |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I already tried for the duck, Beal...NFS. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Nice guitar, Wayne. |
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Location: Angoulême - France | Hi Wayne,
Congrats for that so beautiful old lady. Could you tell us something about the acoustic sound and also about the Baldwin Prismatone sound compared to usual 1624-4 ?
Remy |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Remy;
I'm afraid that I don't know yet how it sounds...after FedEx's "two or three day service" took the guitar on a meandering tour of North America that took ten days, it arrived here with the headstock broken completely off.
It is now in the process of being repaired and hopefully I will have it back by next weekend to try out. |
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Location: Angoulême - France | Ouhhh....This is a so beautiful part of Ovation History... no doubt the luthier (or factory) will make a good job on that broken headstock. Tell us when definitively back to her new sweat home !Remy |
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Location: Angoulême - France | I'm interested by this part of the story about Prismatone pickup on Ovation guitars and I don't find it. Can you tell us ? |
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Location: SoCal | Remy,
Glen had the Prismatone p/u put on his guitars while Ovation developed their p/u systems. There's video on youtube where he's playing a GC Artist w/ one.
But evidently he liked it on the nylon strings. He played a CA w/ one until 77-78 (that I know of, and maybe later).
If you really want to learn about Prismatone p/u's got to the chetboar and dig around. If you want to sound like Jerry Reed, then the Prismatone p/u is the only way to go. You can even find information on somebody who's now building it again (an individual guy, not Baldwin). They are highly prized.
I think that Temp had a whole box of them once and tossed them because nobody wanted them. Fads come and go...... |
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Location: Tuscany, Italy | Here another example of 1624 on ebay fitted with Baldwin pickup ..... not the GC one, and no mention of the vintage pickup in the item description ... :confused: |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | That's and interesting guitar on EBay. No doubt it is one of the early A/E protypes.
The way it is mounted to the bridge is interesting though...it seems to just be sitting on there. Mine has two small studs that extend through to the back of the bridge and are each secured by a barrell nut. This not only secures the pup to the bridge but also allows some adjustment for intonation.
Someone should grab this. I have never seen another one of these on EBay, ever. And the condition is virtually NOS.
Marenostrum; There is mention of the pup further down the add but they state that they don't know what it is but that it sounds fantastic. |
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Location: SoCal | That auction sucks. They list out a bit of wrong information and list personal information with no permission.
Somebody should point out that the p/u isn't original and see if they can get the price down considerably.
I agree that somebody should buy it. It must be one of the very first CA's...... |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Paul;
Why do you think the pup is not original?
I did notice they are using info from Dave's site. |
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Location: SoCal | Wayne, what I meant was that it's not an original Ovation p/u. The whole ad reeks of somebody who doesn't really know what he's got. Tell him it's not an original Ovation p/u and see if he'll bite on reducing the price.
I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't one of the first CA's built for Glen.... |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Someone got a heck of a deal ($650) on a nice piece of O history. |
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Location: SoCal | I don't think it sold.... |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | The auction page says it is sold and they emailed me to say it was sold for $650. I had made and inquiry as to what exactly was on the tag. Were 4 digit serial numbers ever used around that period?
I hope someone here got it. |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by moody,
I think that Temp had a whole box of them once and tossed them because nobody wanted them. Fads come and go...... [/QB] 20-odd years ago maybe, I had a box full of Prismatones, probably a couple of dozen, along with a bunch of preamps, given to me by the late Jim Burns. Yes, they are highly prized by the Chet, Jerry and Willie freaks, but nobody else cares. I chucked them because in my opinion and for my taste they didn't work very well and didn't sound very good at all. The preamps were less than stellar too. I've since played a couple of original Baldwins that did nothing but confirm that. Amazing how Artist association can elevate something to almost mythological status, whether it deserves it or not. Ultra GP for example. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | what he said. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I never did update this thread with the end result of the story.
I took the guitar to a local luthier that I use when there is something I don't want to tackle myself and he did a great job on the repair. You have to be looking for it to notice and it is definatly not detectable to the touch.
The verdict is that I love it and play it ALL the time. It's got a nice tone unplugged although it's not very loud. Plugged in however, it sounds great with the Prismatone pup.
It doesn't have the onboard preamp so I run it out straight into my LR baggs Paracoustic DI which is a great improvement over the original Baldwin preamps.
One curious thing about it is that the volume knob is reverse taper which makes one feel a little dislexic the first few times you use it but you get used to it!
I shimmed under the pup with a piece of plastic to get more break-angle on the saddle but I have some rosewood veneer ordered that I will use to make a better (and thicker)shim.
And last but not least, it is a beautiful, insanely rare instrument built by one of the best guitar companies ever for one of the greatest artists to ever spank a plank... or to quote an old Ovation ad, "The Worlds Best and Played by the World's Best".
Yeah, I like it... |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Congrats Wayne...cool story and great guitar! |
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Location: Paris/France | Congrats again Wayne !!
J :) |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | And thanks again to you, Jérôme, for giving me the chance to get this. Without your help, it would never have happened. |
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Location: SoCal | Wayne, w/o saying WHO you bought it from, who did you buy it from? |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Paul;
I got it from a guy by the name of Scott that lives in Torrance, California.
In 1980, a friend of his found the guitar in a pawn shop located in Hawaii, where they both lived at the time. Scott was learning to play guitar and his friend agreed to sell it to him for what he paid for it, which I understand was not very much, perhaps because of the repaired headstock and maybe being mistaken for a production model signature series GC model. How it ever got to the Hawaiian pawn shop in the first place remains a mystery.
Scott had eventually moved to CA and never did get into guitar playing much so the guitar spent most of the next thirty years stored in the attic.
Fast forward to late 2010: Scott thought he would find out a little more about the guitar and perhaps sell it. I'm not sure how he found out about Jerome and his website but I assume it was via a web search.
Jerome thought he might know a good home for it and contacted me (Merci, Jerome!) and eventually, Scott and I worked out the details.
Jerome;
Feel free to correct me on any of this or fill in any information blanks that you know about! |
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Location: SoCal | Wayne, the Adamas SSB Country Artist that was built for Glen ended up in a pawn shop in the Phoenix area. Glen went to the same church as the owner of the shop. It was purchased by a guy who gigged with it for quite a while. Then sold on eBay to the current owner. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Paul;
The sister guitar to that one, the SSB GC Adamas I proto also came form a pawn shop in Stillwater OK.
I don't know how that one got there either. They had it advertised on Ebay as a 'GC Artist Balladeer'. |
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Location: Thailand | Congratulations.
povation |
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Glen Campbell's Country Artist Prototype X014