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Location: atlanta | Hi folks -- I hope someone here can help me with info on this guitar my older sister gave me when she was in hippie college -- very early 70's. I was told it was a protoype. The serial number is 292. It is in serious need of a neck reset at least since it plays like a dobro at the moment. Basically I'm trying to figure out if it has any historic or collectible value because that would affect if and how I looked into having it repaired. Here are some pics of the beast.
ancient balladeer |
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Location: South of most, North of few | Welcome! The only place to get it repaired would be the factory. I wouldn't trust it to anyone else. Looks to be around a 1966 if I'm not mistaken, which I may be. Someone else with more knowledge will be along shortly. |
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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Nice Balladeer!
I certainly don't have more knowledge than TJ, but I agree, the only place to get it repaired is at the factory - a neck reset will mean heating and reshaping the bowl; not something I would trust to the shop down the road.
If you decide to sell it instead, be sure to let me know.
Oh, and welcome to the board! |
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Location: NW Washington State | The experts on old Ovations will arrive soon. Looks to me like it's worth a trip to the factory, especially if it has sentimental value. In the meantime, we can check out Fred\'s tunes. Nice work!
-Steve W. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | An old Deluxe Balladeer.
Send it to the factory for a set up.
Welcome. |
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Location: South of most, North of few | ...and he should know. |
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Location: Indiana | When I die I want a five point rosewood bridge on my urn. |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Jonmark Stone:
When I die I want a five point rosewood bridge on my urn. You mean like this one?
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Location: Tennessee | You store ashes inside that Ovation guitar??? :eek:
Sandwich (mind if I call you Reuben?), you have a pretty early guitar. What Beal said. It's worth it to send it to the old factory and have them give it a once over. They'll let you know what may need to be done. Stick around and let us know how it turns out, Rueben. :cool: |
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Location: South of most, North of few | Rueben.....funny.... |
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Location: Vernon CT | Welcome, good advise above. Good luck! |
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Location: Seymour, Tennessee | Welcome, nice to see another old shiney bowl has turned up.
Send it back and have 'em look at it.
I'm sending my Dad's 1968 DB back when I get home. |
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Location: atlanta | Wow -- this place is active! Thanks so much, good people. Looks like a consensus to get in touch with the factory. (And yes, I'll answer to any sandwich -- provided I've heard of it ;) |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | First of all, welcome to the Ovation Hive Mind!
Second, nice job on your first post linking to the pics, plus the sig line!!
Lastly, SEND IT OFF TO THE MOTHERSHIP!!!  |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | And yes, I'll answer to any sandwich -- provided I've heard of it Muffuletta??? |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by cholloway:
Muffuletta??? Day-um Colin, don't type with your mouth full... |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | As seen on the Factory's Repair Shop Door...
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Location: Milford, MI | I will give you $50.00 for it, if you pay for shipping... Just kidding! Very nice even if it does need a neck reset.
Keep us posted please. |
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Posts: 43
| Slow down on this neck reset and factory work,take it slow.I have fooled with guitars all my life and have made alot of dumb mistakes.
Take that guitar and remove the strings,wipe it down a little with a clean cloth.Dont take anything apart.Put new strings on,tune up and then loosen.Put a quality humidifier in it,put it in the case and forget about it for a couple of months.Just keep that humidity up.These guitars are always dried out.This guitar is 40 years old,take your time.After awhile,tune up and work the truss rod a little.Tune,check action,and adjust truss rod,over and over.Remember,1/4 turn on a truss rod nut is alot.This has worked for me.Too many times I have ripped apart cool stuff to make it "Better".Cars,guitars,cycles,furniture,you name it. |
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| Ultrafan - with all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. You've been here all of 8 months (with 25 posts in that time). The people who are giving this advice have YEARS of experience with Ovation and Adamas guitars of every era, model and condition. Most of them (myself included) have had the factory repair/restore/tune up guitars with fantastic results. It gets REALLY old saying this, but do a bloody search for all the testimonials.
NO other major guitar maker does that kind of work. Even for warranty work, they send you to a local luthier (if you're lucky to live near one) who's been "certified" to work on that builder's products. Most luthiers are not equipped to do more than the most simple setup jobs on Ovations because of their round backs. The Ovation factory, on the other hand, has a service department fully and uniquely tooled to work on their guitars, and the corporate culture and imperative (for the moment) to do so.
Shiny bowl Balladeers are a rare breed, an icon of American innovation, and an example of a product that changed the music industry for professionals and consumers alike. A specimen in salvageable condition needs the loving care that only the people who built it in the first place can give it, and they WILL treat it with the respect it deserves.
EDIT: I just read thru the whole thread again. One of the people whose advise you recommend blowing off probably built this guitar, then went on to run the company. Probably worth listening to. |
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Location: Colorado | Gotta go with G8r here. |
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Location: California | Just wondering, what is involved in the setup at the factory, what kind of things do they do? |
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| Originally posted by hwebster:
...what kind of things do they do? Everything. From something as simple as polishing the frets and the top, to adjusting neck relief and action, to repairing finish cracks, to repairing top cracks, to top re-finish/(re)painting, to neck resets, to shaving fretboard to get rid of divots, to fixing broken "ears" on the paddle headstocks, to re-attaching broken headstocks to the neck, to replacing the bridge, to repairing loose/broken braces, to complete top replacement. They're only limited by how much you wanna spend.
Seriously, search the archives for testimonials about the various repairs and restorations people have had done. |
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Location: atlanta | I've sent an email to the mothership. Will advise.
--mufuletta |
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Location: New Hampsha | Originally posted by G8r:
Ultrafan - with all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. You've been here all of 8 months (with 25 posts in that time). The people who are giving this advice have YEARS of experience with Ovation and Adamas guitars of every era, model and condition. Most of them (myself included) have had the factory repair/restore/tune up guitars with fantastic results. It gets REALLY old saying this, but do a bloody search for all the testimonials.
NO other major guitar maker does that kind of work. Even for warranty work, they send you to a local luthier (if you're lucky to live near one) who's been "certified" to work on that builder's products. Most luthiers are not equipped to do more than the most simple setup jobs on Ovations because of their round backs. The Ovation factory, on the other hand, has a service department fully and uniquely tooled to work on their guitars, and the corporate culture and imperative (for the moment) to do so.
Shiny bowl Balladeers are a rare breed, an icon of American innovation, and an example of a product that changed the music industry for professionals and consumers alike. A specimen in salvageable condition needs the loving care that only the people who built it in the first place can give it, and they WILL treat it with the respect it deserves.
EDIT: I just read thru the whole thread again. One of the people whose advise you recommend blowing off probably built this guitar, then went on to run the company. Probably worth listening to. Too bad on the reread you couldn't have turned the "polite" knob up to "2".
There's nothing in the advice that was given to warrant that tone and rudeness. He merely told the person to take things slow. And he did it politely.
But wait - it's G8R - rude and combative?
that's normal. |
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Location: closely held secret | Mitz, you the attitude police now?
Maybe mufuletta doesn't want to wait "a couple months" to find out he still needs a neck reset.
Ultrafan's advice was bad in a sea of good. |
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Location: SoCal | Hey Mitz, you want rude and combative, I'm here.
But there's no need for that. Gator's spot on with his advice (as usual) and should be heeded..... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | It's nice to be a spectator for a change ... |
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| Fortunately, unlike T28, I do have enough middle fingers to get my point across when necessary. |
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Location: Vernon CT | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
It's nice to be a spectator for a change ... Yeah, but for how long? :D |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | ANYhooooo.....as mentioned. One of the advisors on page one of this thread can be highly certified by everyone else here to know what their talking about. (with regard to Ovations and Av gas only...)
Hang around a while and you'll get a sense of the character and characters around here. |
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Posts: 43
| Hey,I'ts me again.I would never tell a guy to send his guitar to the factory without seeing the thing.Could be something simple.This lucky guy has a nice old Ovation.A neck "Reset"? Seems to me a little much at this point.Leave it as it is,research it,and learn about guitar care.To have 15 guys telling someone to send it off to the factory for a neck reset without ever seeing the guitar is not good advice to a new O fan.Take it slow and enjoy the story of this old O. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I'll assume you didn't blow up and look at the photos. Trust me there is no amount of removing the strings, wipe it down, and string it up again that's going undo the need for a reset on this old cheese cutter.
Yes, best to examine the guitar in person, but the poster wrote this request for opinions and I doubt he anticipated sending the guitar around for all of the experts to give their hands on feedback. Smart money says put the damn thing in a box and send it to the one place in the world that can make it like new.
Taking it slow and enjoying the story is wonderful advice, but I am afraid that it will do nothing to improve the condition of his guitar. But you're entitled to your opinion.
CLICK. |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by G8r:
Fortunately, unlike T28, I do have enough middle fingers to get my point across when necessary. You guys do know that before he shaved his mustache, Gator was a second cousin 3 times removed of a Columbian drug lord (I haven't had the heart to tell him that drug lords don't tend to go to school at Columbia U.). I wouldn't mess with this guy!
Well, actually, I would, but you shouldn't...... |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Ees thees the hombre??
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
I wouldn't mess with this guy!
Well, actually, I would, but you shouldn't...... ... swim against the Serge!! 
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Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Out of curiosity, if you send a 40 year old guitar (with a 40 year old, dried out top) to CT, for a neck reset, will they re-humidify the top before setting the neck angle? |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | No-one can do it BETTER than Mom .. |
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Location: atlanta | I did get in touch with the mothership and was told to send it and we'd go from there, but I never did.
I'm just going to sell it and use what I can from it to duct tape my ruined IRA. (who knew toxic mortgages would destroy the global shipping industry? Yet another thing I never saw comin'!) Anyway, shoot me an email if any of you want to make an offer. everysandwich at gmail. I'll also go post in the classifieds section. Carry on brilliantly, fine persons, and thanks so much for allt he advice on this thread. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | One other advantage with using the Mothership is that they'll inspect the guitar and provide accurate recommendations. If it needs a neck reset, they'll certainly recommend accordingly. If not, they'll give you an accurate estimate of what repairs do need to be done. No more, no less. I once sent them a guitar that I thought needed alot more than it did. Of course, you can have it refinished and pay more, but that may be different than just making a repair. They're great folks. |
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My ancient Ovation