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Joined:
July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Hey FlySig, do tell me more about "The Mother Ship," which you mentioned in another string where I was talking about taking an old Ovation I had recently bought that truly "needed some work (long crack on top and bridge tore off and tore up) and I was taking it in to some local Luthiers with a serious reputation to get some estimates - $85 on the bridge re-mount including the cost of new bridge and another $85 for two crack repairs using only humidity, glue, and the right clamping in the right places.
Now I assume that maybe this "Mothership" might be one of the Ovation Fan Club's In House Luthiers, no?. The guys in my town are really pretty freakin' good. I think they might even be world famous for some of their builds. They're obviously doing something right, because it's just a Midwest city of medium size, but they keep busy constantly and it's always at LEAST a 3-4 week wait. I've seen them take something that was totally trashed (large fist sized holes, etc.) and when they got done, you couldn't even tell it had had ANY work done and it was amazingly beautiful and truly "like new," fully functional, beautiful sounding, and as much of the original guitar was used as was humanly possible.
Do tell me more about "The Mother Ship," because I really kind of would like to refinish one or two of my vintage Ovations, which were abused before I got them. My in town guy quoted me $600 for the refinish job. Of course they don't do ANYTHING that isn't top notch and complete, because they "put their name on the work," so to speak (not literally). So, the only way they'll do a refinish job is by total stripping the guitar down to it's nearly original pieces.
ANYWAY... I thought I'd start a new thread to talk about The Mothership or any other repair, restore, "make look pretty," and/or make sound pretty thru amateur or professional Luthiers. I've been studying up and may look into getting myself some of the basic tools (clamps, adhesive, etc.) to begin practicing on a few "fixer-uppers," but until then... tell me how I contact The Mothership. Do I build a guitar out of large mound of mashed potatoes? Do I need to rendezvous with them at Devil's Tower? Do I need to learn how to play that song on the BIG KEYBOARD in the sky?
Just being a....
SillyLittleBoy | |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | The MotherShip is the Ovation Factory in New Hartford, CT.
They will only fix USA Ovations.
After you contact them they would instruct you to send your Ovation to them for evaluation.
Then they would contact you and tell you what needs to be done and give you a cost estimate.
Then they will fix your guitar.
This may take a few months.
I hope that helps.
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4049
Location: Utah | OMA summarized it quite well.
Your local luthier sounds competent for the job. However, will he use the correct Ovation bridge? Do you care if he doesn't? Also, will your local guy put on a finish you really want? The factory has the capability to do factory finishes, so I would also consider whether you like the colors and materials your local luthier would use.
Mother will do work you won't believe. The folks who do the repairs and renovations have some kind of special love for the instruments they work on. You can be certain the work will be done correctly, and the guitar will come back to you better than you ever expected.
I have never heard anyone say they thought the price charged was too much, though you have to keep in mind that there is a lot of labor in some of these repairs. I have no idea what they would charge for the work you need, and therefore I can't say whether the $600 local estimate you have is similar to what the factory would charge. Do expect to pay about $100 total for shipping the guitar both ways to Mother, in addition to the repair costs. For us we paid about $80 total to ship my daughter's Adamas to/from the factory.
My daughter waited about 5 months for her Adamas. It needed major work due to the carbon fiber top delaminating. While your job may not be as extensive, you should expect Mother to take months to complete the work.
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 608
Location: Caribou, ME | I wish it were possible to RESET an Ovation neck. I'd like to have #093 more playable but it's more important to keep the 1966 neck on it I suppose. | |
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May 2010
Posts: 95
Location: Vancouver Island, BC | Can I call you Silly for short?
Re:mothership; check my posts Dec 30th (before) and Jan 25th (after).
There is a luthier in my home town who used to do warranty work for Ovation in Vancouver BC back a few years ago. Does a lot of vintage guitar work. He has been helpful with advice, but has shown no enthusiasm for the brand.
I was therfore delighted when the factory told me they could most likely turn the guitar around while I was down here visiting. Shippin back and forth across the border can get expensive and timecosuming.
I have nothing but high praise for the end result.
Just my two bits worth of encouragement....go for it!
Hovard | |
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Joined:
July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Sweet, now I know and should have known that the "Mothership" is the USA Ovation factory. Oh and Nordicnorm (or anyone else), you can call me Silly or SLB or JPD or whatever seems to fit. In regards to my very well equipped and VERY busy local luthier, I've just discovered that they are an authorized Ovation warranty shop, in addition to being a warranty shop for 17 other guitar manufacturers. While the guitar I took them has LONG since expired it's warranty, I do know that they'll be using ONLY Official Ovation parts and materials AND yes, that's what I want. In fact this old guitar (1979) has the real simple basic pickup with only volume and tone controls, but I don't want to upgrade or change a thing. I prefer to leave them "classic" with as many original parts as possible. Read nothing but good reviews for them online and the fact that even with three of them working they still have a 3-4 week wait before they'll get to you. I think that might speak well to their work and reputation.
I guess I'll see how they do with the work I gave them, which was a new bridge mount and repair of a long crack in the top. Having done a little research into acoustic guitar repair and especially cracked tops, I was rather happy to hear him say that he'd just be hydrating the guitar and then gluing and clamping without any additional spruce top material to the crack.
I'm thinking, too... (look out!) that if I'm going to spend a big chunk of change re-finishing one of my 1979-year Legend guitars, then maybe the better choice would be the 1651 Legend Ltd., since it's known as the "John Lennon Guitar," rather than just a regular 1617 Legend.
I'll go check out the work you had done Nordic Norm.
Thanks to everyone for educating this old man. And I may be old in years, but I still often act like a....
SillyLittleBoy | |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7224
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | One point that is rarely brought up but I think worth mentioning is that most luthiers, even the best, likely do NOT have the tools available to them that the Factory does. This is key of there is any sort of structural repair. Even simple things like templates, and guides are not just "some tool" but the specific tool for the guitar. Everything from the tool they use to lay frets to the clamps for the bridge to the suction systems that support the guitar by the bowl, not the neck. Then as someone mentioned there are the chemicals. While a local luthier wiill use fine paints, sealers and epoxies, they likely will not be the same as was used on the guitar in the first place. Don't even get me started on the paint booth (Hamer and Ovation). There are two places to have finish work done on guitars on planet earth. Dan Lawrence and the folks in CT at the Ovation factory. If it's not done at either of those two places, you might as well buy a shaker can at Home Depot. Not that I'm opinionated about it or anything, I just think it's fact. | |
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Joined:
July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Well, Mr. Ovation... I think you kind of answered my question that I posed over in the Luthier section, which was whether or not anyone has tried their own re-finish of an Ovation. It sounds like if they did, then it probably was very much sub-par.
Dang... that's a bit disappointing, since I was hoping with enough time, enough research, enough knowledge, enough of the proper tools, and a bunch of luck, that I might be able to eventually re-finish an Ovation (don't worry, I was planning on practicing on a fix-er-upper that is nice, but not TOO nice or valuable).
Where's Dan located? You mentioned him in the same sentence as "the mother ship" as the ONLY two places on the North American continent to have an Ovation re-finished. You wouldn't have basic ball-park figures on what either of them might charge for an official Ovation re-finish job?
So, it sounds like maybe the best I could hope for in my pursuit of reburbishing luthier skills as it relates to Ovations is to maybe fix a crack, attach a bridge, repair/replace some bracing, or some other more mundane but very important repairs involving epoxies and clamps.
Thanks for the info, Mr. Ovation... a bit disheartening, but it's always best to give it to me straight. | |
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January 2014
Posts: 402
Location: Taxed To Death State | Silly, all I can say is if you own an Ovation and it is in need of major repair, then Ovation is the place to send it. I brought a 1968 GC that had been in the attic for 30 years and it was in bad bad shape. They repaired it in a couple of months and all I can say is nobody could have fixed it like them. They have all the special jigs and fixtures to hold the bowls properly, the custom made clamps, and in most cases original parts from the time period of your guitar. Some of the service guys have been there for over 30 years. They know these babies better than some of their own kids! Okay well maybe not but they know their stuff. Call John Budny, he runs the service dept. He will hook you up. 860-379-7575. | |
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January 2014
Posts: 402
Location: Taxed To Death State | To back up Mr. Ovations statement about paint, I had a 1973 Fender Musicmaster painted down at ovation back in 1985. It came out so mint. It was Olympic white. Wish I kept that guitar. I sold it for $150 a few years later. | |
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December 2001
Posts: 7224
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | SillyLittleBoy - 2014-02-18 6:15 AM
Where's Dan located? You mentioned him in the same sentence as "the mother ship" as the ONLY two places on the North American continent to have an Ovation re-finished. You wouldn't have basic ball-park figures on what either of them might charge for an official Ovation re-finish job?
I really can't speak on what they may charge these days but the couple of jobs I've had done and the many I have heard about were all VERY competitive at the time.
Dan has nothing to do with Ovation, I don't think. He's a bit of a legend in the solidbody guitar world. However, if you watched MTV in the 80's and 90's you saw his work. He's painted for everyone, Charvel/Jackson, Fender, Ibanez, Schecter, GMW Guitars, Tom Anderson, B.C. Rich, MCS Guitars and probably 1000's of guitarists by now.
I have a few guitars that his hands have been on including finish repair on a neck that I couldn't even find after I got the guitar back and I knew where it was.
As for Ovation/Hamer/Fender paintshop or whatever they call themselves... Just look at an Ovation or Hamer burst next to anyone else's. That pretty much is all ya need to do. Their ghost flames are downright scary.. yeah I went there. Remember all the "Flag" guitars that came out after Sept 11. Granted they were done by a local vendor for Ovation, but I believe they were actually done BEFORE 9/11/01 and roaming the NAMM floor in Jan 2002 when all of those other flags were on display they paled in comparison.
Bottom line... If you want to learn to refinish... you should. It's fun. You'll likely have great results if you take your time. But if you are looking to restore an instrument to it's original glory, I'd leave that to the pros.
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December 2006
Posts: 6994
Location: Jet City | If you have this work done on your Ovation and it's not quite right... i mean, not too bad, but not fixed absolutely perfect, will you be disheartened or disappointed at all?
If you send it to Mother, these are things you don't need to worry about. You can sleep well knowing the instrument you love and cherish will be back in it's original splendor (if not better).
I've been hanging out here a while, but I found the place initially because my UKII needed some work, and 'll be damned if I was going to let some local self-proclaimed expert luthier touch the guitar i bought brand new 30 years earlier, my baby, my most prized worldly possession, second only to things like my kids, health, etc. We have some well known luthiers here (Mike Lull is just blocks away), but you bring my UKII in and the first thing they ask.... "What kind of wood is that?" Yeah... next! I want someone who knows everything there is to know about that guitar doing the work on it.
I've had lots of work done in New Hartford since, and some done local if it didn't matter much to me, and on simple things, I take care of it myself or utilize a nearby local member with more skill and adventurous spirit that I (MWoody). That's why I asked the question to start. I might be placing more worth on an instrument than I should, but some guitars just are too precious for me to leave up to chance. | |
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FlySig, tell me more about The Mothership....