Hi Jerry,

Your serial # does show a `76 model year.

When I put together my Black Pearl, I used a later, Kaman Bar (K-bar) neck, which has the TR adjuster nut inside the body, near the neck block.

I added a TR cover at the head stock to simulate the earlier non-K-bar neck. The K-bar neck didn't become standard across the Ovation line until 1982.

The K-bar neck was usually used on the later Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) bowls, which again, became standard in 1982. These are easy to spot because, unlike earlier models which used a wood neck block, the SMC bowl used molded webbing.

If you look at the inside of the bowl at the neck block area, you should see, either a wood neck block or molded neck webbing.

Some Ovation guitars, such as the 1624 used an SMC bowl, but a non-K-bar neck. With the 1624, the neck was simply glued to the SMC bowl instead of being bolted-on.

The remainder of K-bar necks are bolt-on.

So, if you look inside the bowl, near where the serial # is, you should be able to determine what type of bowl/neck you've got.

It's entirely possible, this guitar was redone at the factory and was updated to more modern specs with a K-bar neck and SMC bowl.

That's interesting.

It's definitely an SMC bowl with K-bar neck. The `76 Ovations used hand-laid, woven fiberglass bowls and epoxy resin. You can see the weave of the cloth inside.

SMC bowls are molded using hot presses and polyester resin. The inside is smooth, just like yours.

Yours is assuradly not a 1976 model year guitar. If it were the inside would look like the photo below.

Don't get me wrong. Yours is still a very nice example of a CL. It's just not an original 1976 model.

It looks to me like they jacked up the label and rosette and replaced everything else.

1976 Ovation guitars used stamped foil labels. All used silver foil except the CL which used gold foil.

In the photo below you can also see the weave of the cloth.

Yours has the later blue paper label. (1980s)

The rosette looks to be original, but beyond that and the label, everything else looks new.

The original CL rosettes were segmented abalone shells. This is what yours looks like it's got.

Later CL rosettes used printed abalonoid.

The question about when Ovation started using Schaller-branded tuners is above my pay grade. :D

I retopped a 1982 1612 which had the blue paper label. It also has the serial # label in the same place as yours, but the silver label is topped with clear tape, which yours does not have.

FWIW, I just noticed something else about your guitar.

The TR cover is from the later, 1157/1657 Anniversary models, not from a CL.

Here's your TR cover:

Here's the 1976 CL TR cover. These did not change over the years.

FWIW, I used an Anniversary TR cover on my Black Pearl CL.

I didn't have a CL cover, so I used what I had on hand...

Looking again, I think this is either a 1982-1984 CL that has had the serial # label replaced and TR cover added to make folks think it's a 1976, or it's a factory re-do that they moved the serial # label from the old to the new.

I'd probably guess the former rather than the latter.

As I wrote before, yours is still a nice example of a CL. As long as the action is low and it sounds good, I'd be very happy to have this in my stable.

First Welcome to the OFC 76CL.

Second, that's a beatiful instrument you've found!

Third, regarding labels: I've had many guitars re-built at the factory. Some have altered labels, but some have either original labels or new labels with original info. For example, my first re-build involved a damaged 1537 Elite from 1983. The factory built a new body, but at my request, kept the original label. Although I had a truly unique re-build configuration, I wanted to keep a good mix of the original, 1537 vibe as well. Keeping the same serial number was part of that thought process. Still, this rebuild obviously happened well after the turn of the century.

You can see the label in this picture. It still has the 301XXX serial number dating it to its original build year. And FWIW, at least the neck is still from 1983.