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Location: Taxed To Death State | Is anyone here on OFC versed in the relationship between Ovation & Framus back in the 60's? It is my understanding that they made the "Storm Series" of guitars for Ovation before they actually started making solids themselves in early 1970-71. My next question is did Ovation entertain the idea of having Framus build a full solid body for sale here in the US under the Ovation brand like the Storms? |
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Location: Central Massachusetts | My recollection is that Framus built the bodies and shipped them to the USA where final finishing, assembly, and setup took place. If the top wasn't going to look good with standard finishes, they sprayed the whole body with bowl paint and called it an Eclipse. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | The bodies were bought from a wholesaler in Germany. They were the same ones that Framus used. They were never considered for solids. Usually it was when they got screwed up in production that they went to the eclipse.
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Location: Upper Left USA | Here is one example. http://www.ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=112
Edited by MWoody 2014-05-16 2:37 PM
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Location: Taxed To Death State | I found this online, they made these in 1969 with an Ovation headstock. Wild stuff. Did they borrow the design?
http://www.framus-vintage.de/modules/modells/instruments.php?katID=...
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Location: Taxed To Death State | Here's a pic of one
 (FV-BL-10-Lorento-Solid Body-363_front.jpg)
Attachments
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 FV-BL-10-Lorento-Solid Body-363_front.jpg (46KB - 1 downloads)
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Location: Flahdaw | cwk2 - 2014-05-16 3:04 PM
Usually it was when they got screwed up in production that they went to the eclipse.
That's really pretty funny. We should have a whole category of PEOPLE who were "screwed up in production" and have to go somewhere special..... |
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Location: NJ | billy lorento
Bill Lawrence (rip) |
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Location: Taxed To Death State | I suspect some hydraulic lunches over at Dan's Cafe across the river were to blame. |
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | Don't tell Beal, but there were a LOT of hydraulic lunches back in those days... |
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Location: Utah | Yeah, Beal doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would enjoy hydraulics.... |
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Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | Is that the absolute unvarnished truth?? |
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Location: Germany | Framus never had Storm body looking guitars in their product line. But back in the 60s 200 meters away from the Framus factory in Bubenreuth/Germany there was located the Höfner factory. And Höfner used the Storm bodies for their own Thinline Guitars product line (4572/4574 models). Here is some information from the Höfner website: 4572(ii) model And here are some pics of this model. This body is exactly the body used for Tornado/Thunderhead/Hurricane guitars. They had laminated flame maple front & back, laminated spruce body top, two "Mickey Mouse ears" and a bolt-on neck. Framus had an own sales organization in the US (Philadelphia Music Co. in Limerick, Pennsylvania). I assume, Ovation came in contact with this sales organization and asked them for help with building up the Storm product line. In 1967/68 Framus was not able to produce the thinline bodies. They had just (in 1966) opened their second factory in Pretzfeld/Germany and were working to capacity with their own products. So they asked Höfner to produce the Storm bodies and they did. Framus head Fred Wilfer had good contacts to Helmut Schaller (he made amps for Framus) and so the first Schaller tuner appeared on an ovation model (on Thunderhead). It was a long lasting business contact between Ovation and Schaller. Höfner is still alive but not at the original location. Original Framus is long gone. Fred Wilfer's son founded Warwick and is very successful today with Warwick basses and Framus electrical guitars. He also founded the Framus museum in remembrance of his fathers life-time achievement. If you ever should come to Germany a visit is a MUST! All in all it's more an Ovation-Höfner than an Ovation-Framus relationship. Framus was the middleman between them. The Storm bodies are definitely made by Höfner. Hope this helps, Karl |
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Location: Upper Left USA | "Like" |
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