Through the Ovation Collector's forum on Facebook I became acquainted with a fellow who goes by the name of Steve McCormick when he related a story about how Jen Chapin, Harry's daughter was on her way to a gig with her Dad's 1613. This is the same guitar seen in the pic of Harry and in those of Jen below . This is the same guitar seen in the video of him playing his song, Taxi. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z-6fAgxKRY)

On the way out of her house, she slipped on the ice and in the fall, she broke her Dad's guitar. Needless to say, she was heartbroken. Jen is a gentle lady who's followed in her father's footsteps into a musical career. For more information about Jen's touring dates or current release, please visit her web site at JenChapin.com.

When I read the story about her and her Dad's guitar, I immediately volunteered to see what I could do. When I got the guitar I saw there were several areas of damage.

First, the top had several splits that run from the top to the bottom. several areas of the top are completely separated from the lining/purfling. The plan is to replace the top with torrefied Sitka spruce using Ovation fan braces.

One of the ears has been broken off the head stock.

And, the head stock/neck area has been previously broken. Close inspection reveals an attempt at a repair with what looks like CA. Unfortunately, CA is not the best glue to use for this type of repair. Since CA was used, the only real way to stabilize the neck/head stock is to remove a portion of the skunk stripe on the back of the neck in this area, inlay a carbon fiber splint, then glue and blend a patch to hide the splint.

There's also a minor fracture in the fiberglass bowl in the upper treble bout.

Not many have polished the foil label in their Ovation guitars. Harry's does.

What an awesome gesture. 

Harry seemed like a guy that paid more attention to the cause than whether his guitar was baking in the back seat of his car.

Sweet nostalgic project, Dan.  Thanks for raising your hand for this one.

Time to start the project. First job is to remove the top.

Binding and purfling are removed.

And, just like that, the top is off.

The foil label had become half-unstuck. To prevent any damage (read: creasing) I removed the label for safe-keeping.

I cleaned all the old epoxy off the linings and from between the fret board extension and neck block. It's ready for a new top.

Next, I'll turn my attention to fixing the neck crack.

Work continues.

Before starting on the new top, I decided to fix the neck and head stock.

First order of business is to fix the neck break. I was originally going to route a slot in the back of the neck/head stock junction. Closer inspection showed this would be unnecessary.

I used the weight of the guitar itself to open up the crack so that the glue could wick deeply.

Then, I flipped the guitar over and used the weight of the guitar to close up the crack while the glue dried.

Here's the results. I'd sanded the finish down to bare wood in this area before starting the repair. This photo shows the wood after drop-filling with CA.

Next job is to start the repair to the broken ear and drop-fill the missing finish on the other ear.

I wanted the new top to look as much like the original as possible. Ovation used Western Red Cedar for these guitars.

Most of the torrefied Sitka and Adi spruce tops have, either figuring or dark-ish racing stripes. I didn't want this guitar to have either one. I also wanted the grain pattern to be fairly open so it would look like the cedar when it's done.

Thankfully, RC Tonewoods carries a variety of torrefied spruce. I found a set of torrefied Engelmann spruce on their site that looked like it might fit the bill, so I ordered it.

As it turns out, it's an almost perfect match for the cedar on the old top. Sonically, Engelmann is somewhere between Sitka and Adirondack, so it should work pretty well on this guitar.

Back to the head stock repairs. I'm not sure what species of mahogany Ovation used on their necks, but it's hard to match through conventional sources. When I repaired the broken ear on my 1111, I was unable to find wood that matched the coloring of the original, so I resorted to dyeing the patch.

I remembered that I bought a corporate sales trophy made from an Ovation head stock. I pulled it out to see if I might be able to perform an ear transplant.

When I compared the grain pattern of the two, it was an almost perfect match. Certainly close enough under all but the closest scrutiny.

The two are different in color. I wasn't sure if this was due to the finish is yellowed, discoloring the underlying wood. The only way to find out was to sand off the finish and get down to bare wood.

Once the finish was gone, I wet out the donor wood and it's a perfect match to the original. Woo Hoo!

So, I cut off the donor ear.

And, prepared the recipient by sanding it smooth. Next job is to start shaping the donor ear to fit.

Historically, spruce has been used on classical/flamenco guitars for centuries. Using cedar for guitar tops is fairly recent, becoming popular in the 1960s.

Generally speaking, cedar will have a 'warmer' tone, but at the cost of projection (volume) and clarity. (separation of notes)

Spruce will have more projection and clarity, but with a slightly brighter tone. (crispness)

What I've found is that cedar has a lower overhead when it comes to projection. If your attack on the strings is too aggressive, the tone becomes muddy.

More grist for the mill...

Cedar vs Spruce Tops: tonewoods for classical guitar

The Advantages of Spruce Over Cedar

Spruce vs. Cedar top classical guitar comparison - Viktor Fogas lattice concert guitars

Spruce v Cedar vintage Jose Ramirez classical guitars

Compare Brazilian Rosewood Spruce and Cedar Top

Hi Dan,
Your skillful ability to source and collect parts for your project is darn near...magical, mystical, prophetic, providential... That corporate trophy is a head stock from a Nakao Elite like this one from my friends NNS778-9;

Your Spruce sound board is practically a twin! The aging of the cedar has made it identical to spruce - just incredible.

Also, thanks for the links to the spruce/cedar discussions. They seem to support what I've experienced. Recently, repaired a cedar top cutaway nylon that is very warm sounding, but extremely loud. The table is only 2mm thick, but quite strong. The acoustic volume is probably the loudest of all the nylon strings I own. But iin the past, I've found cedar w/nylon strings to get a bit "scraggly" (for lack of a better term) when played hard. As if the clarity of the note gets compromised.

Once again, you're "raising the bar" of the BFLG! Thanks again for sharing your journey with us. This is a real treat for those of us who were influenced by Harry's music and character.

You know, with all the experience you have moulding FRP and the discontinuation of the Adamas line... Hmmm, how does a torrefied Birch fiberglass sandwiched sound board, resonance ringed, wood bowl backed project sound? Sorry, just a strange thought that crossed my mind, LOL!

Link: https://youtu.be/_1TUgWGuKM8

Yeah. Finally.

Believe it or not, I've spent the last month doing nothing but trying to patch the broken ear on the head stock.

It's not the shaping of the wood. That's easy. No, it's the matching of the grain and color of the wood. That's the hard part.

Here's the final patches. The treble bout also had a ding that needed to be patched.

Back side. The bass side patch.

As I say, I haven't been sitting on my duff this whole time. Each one of these represents an iteration of the bass-side patch and a different attempt to match the color and grain of the head stock, with varying degrees of success.

Some were glued to the head stock and shaped down to match the surrounding wood. I like to use hide glue for these types of patches so that if anything goes wrong, I can simply steam off the patch with no damage at all.

I tried several different methods of coloring the wood to match the head stock. From left to right these are as follows:

1) Original patch - plain shellac. Failed. Wood patch too small.
2) Custom mix wood stain. Failed. Stain obscured end grain.
3) Torrefied. Failed. Wood grain wrong. Torrefaction browned wood.
4) Torrefied. Failed. Wrong species of wood.
5) Torrefiled. Failed. Too dark, too brown.
6 & 7) Failed. Wrong species of wood.

These are the different stains & dyes. The stain works well on the side and back of the patch. The coloration and grain on these parts of the patch have always been easy to match. The front, which everyone sees, has been the difficult part.

Because the stain has pigment in suspension, the open grain of the mahogany sucks the pigment up like a straw ending up being really ugly, like what can be seen below. This is #2 above after I shaped it and stained it. Needless to say, there was no way I could let this guitar go out looking like this. So, it got steamed off and I started experimenting.

Below are the different tests. On the left is the torrefied wood. Upper right is the stained pieces. Middle right and bottom right are the dyed pieces.

As you can see, the stain works great on the side grain of mahogany. Second shot shows the wood wetted out with naptha.

Here's the stained pieces showing end-grain and wetted out with naptha. As you can see, the end-grain is completely obscured and all we see are the pores of the wood. Ugh!

Next are the #3 above. This is next to the piece of wood it came from that has not been torrefied. The torrefaction process does darken the wood and in a fairly controlled fashion. Basically, I heated up the convection oven to 300 degrees and put the wood in for about an hour or so. Second photo shows both wetted out.

This piece was actually pretty close, but the wood grain was wrong and slightly too brown.

Here's #4 with the block of wood it came from. As you can see, the torrefied is darker and the grain has been enhanced. But, it's the wrong species of mahogany and didn't match.

Next are the experiments in dying. Unlike stain which has the pigment in suspension, dyes have the color in solution. This means that the color soaks equally into open pored wood like mahogany.

The piece on the left received two different colors -- brown mahogany and red mahogany. The two upper pieces received just red mahogany. The pieces on the bottom right received a custom mix of brown and red mahogany.

Here's the pics of the various pieces wetted out with naptha.

Next up, time to get started on the top. Finally!

Moving right along...

First job of the top is to joint it. I took the top to the sander on Friday so that I could work on it all weekend.

Top is thickness sanded, fitted to the top, outline cut and bridge fitted.

Sound hole is cut.

Rosette hasn't yet been fitted to the neck yet. This is just to confirm the rosette will be able to be mounted in the right spot.

Saddle/pick-up is fitted. Interestingly, this is a custom saddle. Not only do the individual saddle pieces look like bone, but the compensation has been changed from the stock saddle. There are other areas of the guitar that have been customized. More on that later.

Top is ready for braces.

Braces cut, shaped and ready to be glued. If you look closely at the original top you can see slight discoloration between the 1st and 2nd cross braces and again below the 4th braces and the lower bout of the guitar.

At some point in this guitar's life, someone, with some skills I might add, carefully used a small surface grinder/sander to remove wood from the underside of the top. This was not done at the factory because the epoxy used to glue the rosette has been ground away to the same level as the surrounding wood. Also, the area where the top has been removed is a lighter color. This happens whenever wood is removed. As the wood oxidizes, it gets darker.

If you compare the color of the top around the braces to the wood that has been ground away then to the area where I split the wood removing the top, you can see that it goes from dark to light. The wood most freshly exposed to the air is always the lightest. The wood exposed to the air the longest will always be the darkest.

I thought about it and the only reason I can come up with why someone would grind away the inside of the top is to thin it in order to free it up and make it sound better.

One of the things I've noticed about nylon string Ovation guitars is that they tend to sound stiff. I don't think it's the brace pattern because variations of the double-fan has been used successfully on many classical guitars.

So, to address this, this top is .097" thick with no taper. The braces will not be tucked. And, I've tapered the ends of the cross-braces to free up the top even more. I'm looking forward to how this sounds.

Braces being glued.

As I was saying the tops on Ovations are a little on the thick side. I recall reading a memo from Charlie on the Ovation Tribute site asking that the builders be careful to maintain this top thickness. This one must have been one of those in question. The top tapers from .140" down to .120". Unfortunately, there was a ripple-effect of the top being too thick. In this case, the gap between the underside of the fretboard and the top of the neck block/lining is also about .140" thick. (Waah!)

With the thinner top and wider gap I had no choice but to use filler pieces that were about 1/16" (.063") thick. Here they are glued to the lining. I thought about what different materials to use. In the end I decided that torrefied Adi spruce would be the best to transmit the vibrations to the body.

Filler pieces sanded to shape.

And, the top is being glued to the body.

One of the common problems with Ovation guitars of this vintage is they almost always need a neck-reset. This one is no different. Ovation guitars of this vintage have necks that are glued into the mahogany neck block. So, there are really only two ways to do a neck reset. The first is to remove the neck from the block, then perform a conventional neck reset. The other way is to use a heat source to soften the epoxy of the bowl and warp it so the neck angle is correct.

I decided to take a different tack on this guitar. The reason why Ovation guitar bowls can stay rigid with no internal braces is because once the top is joined to it, they form a monocoque structure. A common monocoque structure everyone is familiar with is an egg.

Anyone who's removed a top from an Ovation has noticed how easy it is to flex the bowl. So, it occurred to me that instead of doing a conventional neck reset or doing a hot bowl bend, I could simply warp the bowl so the neck takes a new angle, then glue the top down to the bowl and voila! Instant neck reset. Will it work? I'll find out tomorrow.

So, let me explain what you're seeing in the photo. First, I clamped the neck and adjusted the angle so that I could flex the bowl down and it would rest on the adjustable feet to the correct height. Then, I put a couple of sand bags in the bowl to hold it down against the feet. Then, I used luthier rubber bands to clamp my original bowl-bend jig to hold the top flat and to squeeze the glue joint all the way round the bowl.

We'll see how it turned out tomorrow.

Incredible work Dan. Lots of interesting detail and innovative thinking! Hope it's okay to ask a question..., but when you flex the bowl to do the neck reset, the "flatness" of the bowl will be compromised in different areas... like curling around the outer sides where the bowl is widest. I suspect the the clamping pressure will keep it all together, but once the adhesives have dried wouldn't there be some stress to the top from the bowl trying to get back into shape?

Really interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Ken.

In theory, yes, the 'flatness' is compromised. In practice, the compromise is so small as to be insignificant.

To warp the bowl only required about 15 lbs. of weight inside the bowl, which isn't really a lot. Jigging the guitar in this fashion to re-align the neck elongated the bowl. Once the guitar is removed from the jig, the loads on the top from the bowl trying to assume its former shape will be in compression. Again, we're only talking about a few pounds. There is a small amount of shear load up near the neck, but it's pretty small.

So, the answer to your question is, yes. The bowl will try assume it's previous shape. But, when you spread the load across the entire lining surrounding the bowl, the stress, or load, should be well withing the top's abilitiy to manage it. In theory.

We'll find out tomorrow once I take the guitar out of the jig.

Dan

Dan...it is fascinating how with every project, some new aspect crops up. Totally speaks to your ability to adjust, on the go, to different situations that present themselves. I mean...it is the same shaped bowl, with a neck and a top. You would think it would be cookie cutter! But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. 

So thanks again for taking the time to show and walk us through your journey of rebuilding Harrys guitar. 

The OPP on my late 70`s classic looks just like that. The different saddle material and compensation. 

Great work Dan.

That's interesting, Jonmark.

Here's a fun pic of Harry I found with this guitar.

Got the top routed for the purfling & binding.

Purfling and binding being glued. I'll scrape these down tomorrow. After that, it's time to start prepping for finish.

The binding/purfling is scraped down. At this point I'm moving onto finishing the head stock. Once that's done, I'll return and finish the top.

Thanks, Al.

Forgot to glue the fretboard extension down to the top.

Here's the first of the clear coats on the top. What surprised me is the widespread very soft pillowing throughout the wood. It's very evocative of the old Ovation tops. The cedar top it's replacing doesn't have this feature, but the color of the new top is a close match for the it.

Now don't ofrget the final detail Dan. I need pictures when it's all done. It wouldn't be an OFC Calendar without at least one BFLG project in it.

I finished spraying the head stock yesterday. It turned out pretty good.

Here's a few pics. The repair isn't invisible, but it doesn't stand out. First set of pics is without the flash. Second set, with the flash. (don't mind the lumpy finish).

All in all, I'm very happy with the repair.

I got the head stock, neck and top polished.

I'm gluing the bridge to the top.

Once it's dry tomorrow I'll install the hardware, electronics & tuners.

At that point it's time to make a new nut, then string it up and hear how it sounds.

Woh...looking really sweet Dan! When you say "polished" are you talking wet sanding, polishing with compound, then buffing? Since it's a poly-finish I suspect the process would be relatively simple, but one never knows what you have up your sleeve...

Looking forward to following this to the finish!

Hi Paul,

Thursday night sounds okay. (I wanted to make sure the guitar was in a playable condition before I replied -- it is.)

I got the hardware and electronics installed and strung it up.

To sum it up, I love how this guitar sounds.

It's got perfect balance between bass and treble and the intonation on all six strings is perfect.

I plugged it into my practice amp and it's very loud.

When I was installing the battery holder I got a laugh from the label. (What if I want distorted tone?!)

d

Hi Paul!

Yes, I agree with your assessment of the two guitars. The only thing your 1113 has over Jen's 1613 is two years of playing. They both sound pretty spectacular.

Here are the torrefied twins. Paul's 1113 is on the left and Jen's 1613 is on the right.

Here's the video I shot today of you plying Jen's guitar.

(Psul playing Jen;s guitar youtube.com link)

IOW, the guitar is all done. Time to let the pics speak for themselves.

Beautiful guitar. I can say I saw it when. It's probably a good thing the bridges are different. We wouldn't want moody to try and pull the ol' switcheroo! 

I also wanted to share with everyone some great news from Jen.

She and her band, the Jen Chapin Trio, are recording a new album. For more information, please visit: https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/jenchapintrio.

And, she and her band will be in a live stream on August 14, 8pm EST. See: https://www.concertwindow.com/12641-jen-chapin.

It looks like a D-18 to me, but then I don't know that much about Martin guitars.

I saw this post on one of the time-waster websites I visit and thought it was interesting about Harry Chapin.

Interesting fact about Harry Chapin

Edited by DarenSavage 2020-06-15 9:50 PM