opinions on Ovation "refurbished"

slush Posted 2012-11-18 1:33 PM (#462009) Subject: opinions on Ovation "refurbished" Joined: November 2012 Posts: 15 Location: New York, NY I'd like to hear opinions on Ovation guitars that have been factory refurbished and are stamped "used" on the back of the headstock. Warranty is gone, for one. Old Man Arthur Posted 2012-11-18 2:06 PM (#462010 - in reply to #462009) Subject: Re: opinions on Ovation "refurbished" Joined: September 2006 Posts: 10777 Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR USA Ovations are not stamped "USED"... USA Ovation used to be "Factory Refurbished Guitars" that had a sticker that said just that. "USED" Ovations with that stamp used to only be Celebrity guitars because USA Ovation didn't sell container loads of reject guitars. USA Ovations were fixed "in house" before they left the building. "USED" guitars are usually Asian made factory rejects that are sold in bulk to secondary companies that clean them up and re-sell them. They will not have any manufacturers' warranty because they were counted as a Loss. Now that the "new" Ovations are made in Korea, there are a bunch of "USED" Balladeers and Elites out there. All that said, I have owned many "USED" guitars including Celebrity's and Ultra's and they were just fine. Many "USED" guitar only have a finish flaw... Messed-up binding, discolored fingerboard, scratched finish, something like that. Some listings for "USED" guitars will tell you exactly what was wrong and what they fixed. If you buy one from a reputable dealer with a return policy, you can return it. If you buy a pre-owned "USED" guitar... it is just like buying any other used instrument. The guitar probably worked just fine for the previous owner, so the "USED" stamp is irrelevant. BTW-- When manufacture of the Elite T was moved to Asia and became the TX series, there were hundreds of "USED" TX's available on eBay before the first TX was ever offered by GC or MF... So those factories create a LOT of "USED" guitars. Damon67 Posted 2012-11-19 1:20 PM (#462065 - in reply to #462009) Subject: Re: opinions on Ovation "refurbished" Joined: December 2006 Posts: 6996 Location: Jet City There was a time when Ovation would stamp a "2" on the back of the headstock FlySig Posted 2012-11-19 4:27 PM (#462069 - in reply to #462009) Subject: Re: opinions on Ovation "refurbished" Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4081 Location: Utah The 2007BCS I bought through Al was an FRG. It had a sticker inside the bowl which said FRG or Factory Refurb or something similar. There were no other stampings or markings on it. The only flaw I ever saw was a piece of dust caught in the clear coat finish.