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Location: Buffalo,NY | ....I'm talking about the vintage solidbody version. Is there anything I should be on the lookout for ?? I would want to play it at gigs through my vintage Fender,Ampeg or Gibson amps ; may also put it through a Vox AC-15TBX.(Actually I would want one of our other guitarists to play it so I could have the UKII back to play!!).
Can you offer any opinions, thoughts, guidance , advice, belittling critism, etc,etc. Thank you.
Regards,
Tom |
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Location: Upper Left USA | The big differences rest with:
Maple or Mahogany Neck - Maple is snappy and Mahogany adds sustain from what I've heard.
Maple or Ebony Fretboard - same comparison.
Viper or Viper III? Three pup set up can be juicy or overboard.
One Piece Schaller Bridge - My preference over the Brass and Plastic. Very easy to upgrade to and available through the Factory or several Ebay Sellers.
Mahogany/Alder/Maple bodies - the debate goes on...
The pups are wired pretty basic with 250k pots. I prefer the installation of a Stewmac Blender in place of the 3 way switch. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I've found that a maple neck has a snappier brighter tone. A mahogany neck is warmer and more midrangy. The sustain seems to me just as long, but while the maple sustain drops off in a sort of reverse j shape, mahogany to me has drop off in a straight line.
I've found that the ebony fret board to be more or less the same as maple with slightly more sustain.
That said, the neck makes up only 10% of the sound.
The body adds a lot more to the sound and is much more important. Mahogany bodies are warm and midrangey to me. Alder has no drop off's throughout the sound spectrum, guess you could say it's flat. Never played a maple bodied electric and can offer no opinion on this. The other general purpose tone wood is Swamp Ash, which generally has a very rich bottom end and top end, with a scooped mid.
Let me state that this based on my own experience, others will of course differ. |
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Location: GA USA | Stephen gave me some good advice when I was thinking of buying one with repair and modification issues. Buy one with original pickups so you can hear how it's supposed to sound. You can change them out if you feel you need to. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | by Rick while the maple sustain drops off in a sort of reverse j shape, mahogany to me has drop off in a straight line. This is dangerously close to, "Toasted Wheat Overtones" |
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Location: south east Michigan | The same thought came to my mind. |
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Location: Bluffton, SC | Originally posted by Slipkid:
The same thought came to my mind. Here's another thought - You may want to go back and revisit that first one 'cause I'm thinking somebody's misreading something...
'Course it could be me... :rolleyes: |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Use your words, boys... |
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Location: Up North | "It tastes a bit nutty"
Austin Powers |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | For total cool, look for a Viper III in natural ash with the maple fretboard, and with a vintage Fender amp, it will sound even better if you're wearing your favorite Hawaiin shirt, hypothetically speaking, of course.
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Location: Up North | That is a beauty Professor. |
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| Dr. Tom,
Here's an option...Ebay# 290110257321 Looks good so far..
steve |
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Location: Up North | That is a beauty Professor. |
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Location: Up North | Wow, server lag big-time today! |
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Location: Simpsonville, SC | Come on Doc, just buy one of each! I will gladly take the one or one's that you don't care for! ;) :D |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Tsk. Tsk. You boys have potty mouths.
Let me make it clear: I did not mean to disparage maple necks. My tele has a maple neck. I know maple necks, and there is no way I meant to say "taste nutty."
I was just trying to explain the sustain relative to mahogany and I have failed.
Forgive me maple, I have wronged you. |
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Location: closely held secret | You're just lucky my viper (maple neck, maple body) didn't hear that... |
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Location: Scotland | Go for a 3 pickup model, they do the tele thing and the strat thing really well. Some of the all maple examples weigh a ton. In my experience the lighter ones sound better and are easier on your shoulder over the course of a gig. But then that's generally the case with solidbodies, the lighter they are, the better they sound. I ditched a sunburst 2 pickup Viper because I would be in pain after 30 minutes of wearing it. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Page that has descriptions of woods and their tones. Does a better description than me. Let me add my two favorite necks are maple with a pau ferro fret board, and mahogany with ebony fret board. Good luck. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Rick, you would love that old Hamer Californian (Diablo) I had... beautiful Maple neck/ PauFerro board |
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Location: closely held secret | He'd probably like that Hamer Echotone you used to have, too. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | If you really want one buy the first one you see. Don't like it upgrade to something else.
V3 w/maple is a good starting point if you want to be picky. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | EH, Wabbit, It'd be our pleasah to excort you to dis years OFC Tooah
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Location: closely held secret | They look like members of a bowling team.
The losing team.
Feel no fret, your baby will be there. Most gracious of you to let me have her this long, by the way. |
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Location: Buffalo,NY | ProfessorBB
posted May 04, 2007 03:54 PM For total cool, look for a Viper III in natural ash with the maple fretboard, and with a vintage Fender amp, it will sound even better if you're wearing your favorite Hawaiin shirt, hypothetically speaking, of course.
ProfessorBB,
Thank you very much. I think yours is probably the best advice.
No else has considered or even mentioned the very important effect that clothing has on tone.I'm a bit disappointed because I thought that most of the people here knew what they were talking about when it came to Ovations and tone. I won't make that mistake again :D
Maybe I should have a hat made of maple and slip on some nice mahogany shoes. Do you think that would be a good tone combination? And lest I forget , the hat and shoes would definiely be used in conjunction with a Hawaian shirt. I'll need further tone advice for the trousers.
MWoody ,Captain_Lovehandles,Jeff W. ,Slipkid ,Weaser P,Grif ,Steve ,BegginJM,The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel,Paul Templeman ,
Thank you for your comments.
an4340 ,
The link to the FAQ's on tone wood were a good summary of the various woods and tone. Thank you.
cwk2
posted May 04, 2007 07:32 PM
If you really want one buy the first one you see. Don't like it upgrade to something else.
V3 w/maple is a good starting point if you want to be picky. Seriously,I think that's what I will probably do. I have my eye on a few of different flavors and I'll try to get an unmodified one at good price. What's a good price ??!!
Regards,
Tom
Regards |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | 3-400 |
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Location: GA USA | 
This one has one of the prettiest grained bodies you'll find. And Miles has it for sale... |
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Location: Buffalo,NY | I don't see it in the for sale section and it may be outside my price range.
Regards,
Tom |
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Location: GA USA | Go HERE and click "personal collection". Presumably, anything not marked "not for sale" is for sale.
There are four others as well. Couldn't hurt to ask. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | That one used to be mine. Get that one. NOW. Awefuckinsome flame. |
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Location: SoCal | Tom, I haven't seen a whole lot yet that's outside your price range.... |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Yeah, that ones not quite for sale yet. I made the mistake of taking it out of the case and it went into the NOT FOR SALE category. :)
Personally I like the brass bridge with the Plastic cover. I think the bridge affects the tone more than the neck materials, although I guess they both factor in. The brass gives a slightly warmer tone and I think better sustain, especially if it has the bridge with the locking screws underneath. There's just more metal to transfer the sound to the body.
As far as weight goes, although they all seem to be made of good wood, the weights are all over the map.
- Black = 9.25 lbs
- Cream = 9.00 lbs
- Natural = 8.75 lbs
- Red = 7.75 lbs!!!
and just for fun....
- Urelite = 7 lbs !!!
All are regular vipers, all have the brass bridge. The Natural and Urelite have maple fretboards, while the others have the rosewood fretboards.
CWK2 or anyone else want to explain the weight differences?? Paint differences maybe ?? |
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Location: Simpsonville, SC | Doc. Tom...I wish you would quit talking about buying MORE Ovations. :mad:
You have caused me (once again) to buy another myself. :D
Thanks to Miles response to you, I have just adopted the nifty little Red Viper Model (7.75 lbs.).
At this point however, the funds are gone and the wall hooks are all filled and the lovely wife has quit talking to me. I guess I will just have to play guitars now. The SORROW of it all!
Next, I suppose I will have to go and find some great looking and matching straps.
You should be ashamed of yourself!!! ;) |
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Location: Buffalo,NY | BegginJM
posted May 06, 2007 03:50 AM
Doc. Tom...I wish you would quit talking about buying MORE Ovations. [Mad]
You have caused me (once again) to buy another myself. [Big Grin]
Thanks to Miles response to you, I have just adopted the nifty little Red Viper Model (7.75 lbs.).
At this point however, the funds are gone and the wall hooks are all filled and the lovely wife has quit talking to me. I guess I will just have to play guitars now. The SORROW of it all!
Next, I suppose I will have to go and find some great looking and matching straps.
You should be ashamed of yourself!!! [Wink] BegginJM,
Let's get this straight about who's corrupting whom!!
On a whim I buy an Ovation 12 string. Then I decide to see if I can find some info on these guitars. So I look for an Ovation Forum; I find the OFC .
At first blush, it seems like a nice bunch of people, but then before I know it,I find myself buying more Ovation guitars; what's up with that ? I also find I have a craving for not only the acoustics but also the solid body versions.
You guys are worse than drug dealers :D . Now I'm addicted; I'm thinking about going down to my local Methadone clinic and seeing if they can help me.
I just bought the cream Viper from Miles. Apparently he isn't selling the Viper-3 pickup (yet). The cream colored Viper will feel at home amongs my tele's and the UK II and help fill out the color pallette between the two:
I would have posted the pic of the cream colored Viper but Miles has already removed the picture from his site. It will have to wait until I have it .
Regards,
Tom |
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Location: Simpsonville, SC | Dr.Tom
posted May 06, 2007 11:19 AM
You guys are worse than drug dealers . Now I'm addicted; I'm thinking about going down to my local Methadone clinic and seeing if they can help me. My lovely wife has requested that you please send the address to the clinic as soon as possible, she then muttered something like " I am getting my gun and the target is going to be.."
Well, as you can imagine, I grabbed my laptop and ran out the door to the nearest internet cafe. I wonder if they have weekly rates? Sleeping in a hard back chair ain't so bad , is it Doc?
By the way, my daughter wanted that pretty cream Viper! Don't worry though, she loves the red one too and, unlike her mother, doesn't own a gun, YET!
My wallet is empty, so from now on I am just going to have to look at your pictures when I have GAS!
As always, we expect pics of the guitar and matching strap.
Warmest regards,
Jim
(My new address is: Bob's Truck Stop and French Internet Cafe, I-385 South, Simpleville, USA / I am the one in the chair by the beer coolers) |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | different wood weighs different amounts.
Alder, ash, maple, Miles, you probably have some of each. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Also, some woods have more variation depending on what part of the tree they come from. I've noticed that swamp ash has a lot of variation, while alder not so much.
Let me add that, for me when you get above 9 LBS, that axe starts getting heavy. |
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Just hypothettically speaking, if I were to buy a Viper...