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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Fellow OFCer Tal Rickard found this Ovation Glen Campbell Thunderhead (prototype serial #X008) guitar up in the loft his father’s (Jim Rickard) old shop at the family home inConnecticut. It had been there forgotten for over forty years and was discovered only when the home had been sold and they were cleaning things out to make way for the new owners. It needed some TLC to get it back to playable condition after forty years of seasonal temperature swings. The pickups still need to be wax potted and re-backed but in the mean time I have a set of production pickups, supplied by Tal, installed. Custom features are: Glen’s signature on the truss rod cover and pickguard, twelfth fret ‘GC’ inlay and simple vol/tone, three-way switch electronics and proto poleless pickups. The finish is also a custom color somewhere between blond and nutmeg and features a highly figured back. Also included was an early black Ovation gig bag such as I have never seen before... anyone else ever seen one of these? One of the coolest things is that it apparently was built as a set with the Jerry Reed Thunderhead (#X009) as you can see in one of the pictures below. After the original picture was taken, the volume pot was moved off of the pickguard (maybe Glen didn’t like it there?) and into the tone knob hole and a new hole was made for the tone. As well, a new pickguard without a hole had to be made up. Thanks once again to Tal for giving me a chance to get these two guitars re-acquainted after so many years apart. Wayne 
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Edited by Bluebird 2013-09-01 10:45 PM
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Here's a couple of pics that didn't show in the last post. Wayne 
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Location: Upper Left USA | Beautiful guitar and an incredible story!
This is what I love most about this group. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks, Woody!
When Tal and I first started talking about this guitar we realized it and the Jerry Reed were probably a pair, given the consecutive serial numbers and identical specs. Then a couple of weeks later he emails to say he has found an 8"x10" and a 3"x5" of the pair together. They had an Oct, 1970 development date on the back. Needless to say, for a couple of guitar geeks, that was pretty exciting. There were also a couple more pics of the JR-Thead by itself that were taken at the same time.
Wayne
Edited by Bluebird 2013-09-02 12:18 PM
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Location: Florence,SC | Absolutely amazing story and guitars. I love Ovation history and back-stories. |
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Location: sitting at my computer | Nice Pair!!  Looks in pretty amazing condition for forty years in a Conn. attic! freeze-bake-freeze-bake-freeze-bake... The original and reunion photos would look nice in an OFC calendar. imho ...along with a pic of GC & JR playing 'em back in the day. ?? |
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Location: Tuscany, Italy | Congrats Wayne, beautiful guitars.... |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks, guys... I have pinched myself once or twice over this one.
SOBeach; Yes, it is amazing that it survived with as little damage as it did in those weather cycles. There are some weather checks on the top but a lot of Storms did that anyway. Just adds a little character. The fingerboard had delaminated a little bit at the body end but just had to be re-glued and clamped. I replaced the seized pots with correct originals that Tal supplied.
As far as photo credits, they have to go to Tal for the most part as he sent these to me before shipping, and to his father Jim who, fortunately, took the original pic of the pair together. I only took the two post-assembly shots.
I tried to take that pic of the two together as closely as the original as possible, although I didn't have the rock wall or autumn leaves for for that rustic effect, lol!
I thought about trying to make the calender but was busy and didn't make the deadline. I haven't found any pics (yet) of Glen or Jerry playing these particular guitars.
Tal did give me a candid pic of Glen playing a blond T-Head but not this one.
Wayne
Edited by Bluebird 2013-09-02 3:27 PM
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Location: SoCal | Glen had a blonde Thead that had his initials at the 12th fret that he played between about 1969-1973. Then he played a Breadwinner and then the Bluebirds. There was a video done about 1990 and he was playing this blonde Thead......
Edited by moody, p.i. 2013-09-02 4:14 PM
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Location: Flahdaw | I have to assume there is some difference between a "loft above the shop" and an actual attic. I can't imagine anyone with any knowledge of guitars just sticking a couple of guitars like this up in an attic... |
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Location: SoCal | Probably put up there by family after Jim died? Just a guess..... |
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Location: Tidal Mudflats of Virginia | Absolute beautiful set and such a great story, glad they are back together, take care of them Wayne!
T'n'T |
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| I have seen several photos of Glen playing a blonde Thunderhead with his initials at the 12th fret. However, the pictured guitar does not have a dot between the initials as this one has. Therefore, there were at least two Thunderheads with the initials, perhaps more. It would be interesting to see a photo of Glen playing this particular guitar. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Bob G: I'm not sure about the finished state if the loft but if the area was unheated/uncooled it wouldn't make a lot of difference, as far as the swings in temp and humidity go. I'm not sure why he would have left them there... he probably intended for it to be short term and then forgot about them.
Paul; My understanding is that the family had no inkling they were up there... I'm sure they were there long before Jim died.
Bob F; I know of one other blond initialed T-Head besides the modified one that Glen still has. It's owned by one of his musician friends. That makes three for sure. There was probably one or two more.
If there is a pic of Glen playing this one, it would be distinctive in the fact that it would have to have been before the mod to the controls was done because there was NO playwear on the current pickguard... not a scratch to speak of until I started playing it.
Bob, have you ever seen an Ovation gigbag like this one? I never have. It's ruggedly made but not designed very well in that it is backwards (you have to lay the guitar into it with headstock to the right) and doesn't unzip far enough making it hard to put the guitar in without moving the keys and putting it out of tune... however is still love it for it's uniqueness.
Wayne |
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| I have an example of every generation of cataloged (and some that are not cataloged) Ovation gigbags from the 1960's and 1970's. However, I have never seen this one. It may be as unique as the guitar itself.
Edited by bobfrith 2013-09-02 10:11 PM
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Wow, that's great, Bob... I knew you would have the answer if there was one.
Wayne |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Very cool guitar and a great story to go along with it!
I'm sure it can sing, but it it could talk, it would be great to hear the stories! |
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Location: Maine | Wayne has described the known history pretty accurately. My folks place in CT sold in Feb '12.
There had been an effort to clean it out for several years prior to the sale. But like many things in life , the last and hardest to deal with was left for last.
My fathers workshop was a heated and insulated detached garage. Heated with only a large wood stove. The guitar Wayne now has was a true "Barn Find" in the sense it was stored without any activity for years and years. The "loft" of the workshop was also stacked with other photography, Guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin related relics of various makes and models. I had hoped to uncover a Slot Head Adamas or similar but had no such luck. There was also a trove of guitar and violin making materials including wood, plastics, patterns and lots of dust. Truthfully the GC storm initially seemed to me to be a wall hanger as the pickups were drooping, the strings rusty, the tone knob seized. Wayne patiently walked me through the items he might need to restore while I dug through tool boxes looking for key parts. Shipping it to Canada was a bit risky to me only having a padded bag for it, so I essentially broke it down to a neck and body. It arrived in 3 packages and Wayne masterfully has gifted it a new life ! There is much I have left out , but typing on a iPhone is terrible
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Location: Jet City | thou shall not covet thy neighbor's guitar, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's guitar, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's guitar...
Nope... not working. I'm coveting for sure. That's quite a pair you have there. |
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Location: New Hartford CT | "Also included was an early black Ovation gig bag such as I have never seen before... anyone else ever seen one of these?"
Just confirming the bag is not one of a kind. My Dad's S/N 691 Deluxe Balladeer he bought direct at the factory back in the day came in one. Had the identical logo on top. Sort of minimally foam padded interior as I recall.
I still have the guitar but the bag was unfortunately stolen and lost to the mists of time around 1980. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Hey Tal;
Thanks for filling in some blanks. Do I remember correctly that there was another Ovation if some sort in the loft with the T-Head or am I thinking of another story... we chatted quite a bit over the last year!
Geostorm98: Thanks for that info on the gig bag. This particular big that I have, while no doubt the same style as yours, would never be big enough to hold an acoustic. It was definitely made to accommodate a Storm sized guitar. The padding is also quite thick under a sort of linen type material.
Damon: Thanks, these are just two examples of many great guitars owned by members of this site but I'm grateful for the few that I am fortunate enough to have.
Wayne |
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Location: California | Congratulations Wayne, nice guitar! |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Ovation had 4 styles of gig bags.
- economy and deluxe acoustic bags
- economy and deluxe electric bags
I had one of the acoustic bags but I long since forget which one it was. It was pretty minimal protection. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Awesome pair... nicely done. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I had a gig bag for a new GC Artist guitar in 1974 but it was brown like the hard cases of the day and flimsier than this one as I recall. This one is really heavy; outside and inside material, straps, hardware, even the zipper.
Wayne |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Wayne, these black ones pre-date the brown gig bags. I don't recall mine having such a big outer pocket. But man, it was a long time ago.
Curious about the guitar, did you relocate the volume pot from the pickguard to the body or was that already done. In the original photos I see it's on the pick guard just like the JR guitar.
Hey, nice job bring it back to life. Looks sweet. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Dave;
No, the tone/volume had already been rearranged and the new guard (without the volume pot hole and with the GC signature instead of Glen's name in the generic script) were already done, sometime between the time the original pic was taken and the time it was stored away.
I'm assuming Glen or whomever didn't like the volume knob on the PG and Jim R had it back to make the changes and that's as far as it got. That's just a guess... we'll never know for sure.
Wayne |
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Location: Maine | Wayne, I'm not sure what hosting you are using to post the pictures but you're doing a great job. Perhaps you may still have a picture I sent you of the "Engineering" SN list number list showing the X009 and X008 listings
Just additional and interesting info to add to this topic.
I'm glad we also confirmed the origins of the hand writing on the hang tag of one of you other collectible guitars.
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Tal; It is a PDF file so I can't post the image but I can post a link to it. It actually doesn't list X008 and X009 but does mention X010 and X011 which were a pair of 1623 guitars also built for Glen and Jerry. X010 is the Barcus Berry equiped guitar, and listed as such, that I now own. It doesn't say that X011 has a BB pickup... more than likely it was Baldwin equipped but who knows what it is unless it turns up somewhere. There are a number of other interesting guitars listed on this as well. Tal, if you could dig any other of these sheets up, I'd be glad to post them. Wayne http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/wreid/Doc%20-%20Sep%2020,%202012%209-29%20PM.pdf
Edited by Bluebird 2013-09-05 4:21 PM
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Location: Maine | Oop, I was going from memory. I guess didn't remember which one of your GC models matched an entry into that logbook.
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Location: Upper Left USA | Here... 
Edited by MWoody 2013-09-05 4:47 PM
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Glen Campbell and Jerry Reed Back Together After 40+ Years...