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July 2024
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I ran across some old threads on Tony Rice's Ovation and there seems to be disagreement on whether it was a stock Legend or not. This video identifies some custom changes from the factory but the guitar itself was reportedly destroyed sometime after Tony gave it to his nephew so there is no way to examine it anymore.
Does anyone know the actual specs on it as built from the factory?
https://youtu.be/o2TCP-sS6HU
Edited by George6 2024-07-21 11:24 AM
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Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | I don't think Tony's Legend was destroyed. On a Tony Rice fan page it was said that his wife, before Tony died, bought his Legend back from whomever had it and when Tony died, he owned just 2 guitars, his 1935 D28 ("The Antique"} and his Legend..His brother Wyatt (an excellent player) went looking for an Ovation to see why Tony had played one. He's been playing a Legend or a 10 year anniversary model for the last 5 years or so and sounds great. Look him up on youtube. When you hear him play, close your eyes. You can't tell if he's playing a wood box guitar or an Ovation. The tone is in his fingers..
As far as I can tell, Tony played an acoustic only 1117. I'm guessing that it was an A btaced guitar with the old truss rod. As a late 70's-early 880's guitar it would have had a handlaid fiberglass bowl.
Edited by moody, p.i. 2024-07-22 9:29 AM
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| I’m just basing the “destroyed” status of his Legend on a single old post. It would be awesome if it was still around!
Back in the 1980s I had an 1117. I did an experiment and recorded it and a D-35 to cassette tape miked with an SM57. Obviously there were lots of uncontrolled variables but I was genuinely surprised at how similar the recorded samples were to each other and how different my perception was when listening while playing them vs hearing the recorded playback.
I don’t think it far fetched if Tony had used a stock 1117 but since he mentioned that he was able to select the top, bowl, and neck he got me thinking about how he might have been able to improve it. |
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Location: SoCal | Close your eyes when you watch this. Bet you'll never be able to guess what Wyatt's playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CRJTuJ2y18
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| Wyatt believes Tony’s Ovation was a stock 1117. So I suspect that even if Tony selected the bowl, top, and neck what he wound up with was consistent with a good 1117 of the time. Wyatt, like Tony could probably make anything sound great though. |
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Tony Rice’s Ovation Specs