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Location: CT | I love the way this thing plays and sounds and feels, but I'm getting ready to give up and sell it as parts - and it' LESS than a year old! There's no warranty since it was an 'out the back door special' with a small finish flaw, and an employee discount(my brother works at KAMAN's helicopter facility). Purchased new at the factory in april, 6 months later the neck started warping to an extent that the truss rod couldn't correct it. :confused: I brought it to the factory, and they removed the neck, reattatched the finger board to that wood block that sets in the body, and returned it with a clean bill of health. A few weeks later, every time I picked it up, I would hear a faint pop or click or crack or somthing, so I thought the neck was either settling in, or getting ready to separate again. Played it Friday night and all was well with the world, then Sat. morning the bridge is completely pulled up. :mad: The room I keep my guitars in is not too dry, and the temp. only varies about 5-7 degrees F between night and day. I usually keep the 12 tuned to Eb. Not to mention all my other (much older) guitars have never had this problem. The guys at the factory were nice enough only to charge 100 bucks to reset the neck, but how much will this cost? And is this guitar doomed to more problems? Should I just give up and buy an old Legend? UGH!!!!!!!!!!
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Location: NJ | It just looks like adhesive failure.
I'd get it fixed. |
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Location: Munich, Germany | The bridge of my 12string Custom Legend got lose as well - no big deal at the factory to reglue it again - without seeing anything.
But, as I mentioned before, I think Ovation has a big quality problem in the last months/years:
My UTE was assembled very bad. Hardware was mounted bad, worn out drillholes, bad binding - but I thought, it would be a breakout.
Now I got my Josh White Reissue - which in my eyes should have never left the factory:
The nut slots are filed the wrong way - D-string is sitting on top, G-string hole is so deep, that the string touches the frets. But, the nut could be replaced easily, not a big problem.
Problem is the neck. This guitar needs a neck rest - factoryfresh!!
What is happening at the factory? Don't they look at the guitars before they put them in the case?
Not enough, my #47 went straight back from my dealer to the factory - because it was that bad assembled.
All three guitars are limited editions, collectible items. Should someone not think, that they will get even more detail work and quality control than the serial models?
Sorry brainslag to be a little offtopic... |
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Location: CT | You got some NICE guitars there, Koenig! |
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Location: Munich, Germany | Thank you!
And, the best, lots of pre-LX-era models - with superb quality ;) |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Looks like a clean lift. Your best bet is to have the Factory redo the bridge.
Its dis-heartening to hear about the QA issues. Especially when they all seem to happen in one place.
If you want to sell or trade drop me a line first. I might have something different for you to try. |
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Location: Central Florida | Sorry to hear about your issues with this guitar. If it were me, I'd probably have it repaired and then turn right around and sell it. I don't believe in karma, per se, but if I did, I'd have to say that particular guitar is loaded with it... bad karma, that is! |
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Location: big island | how i would feel if i woke up to that:
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Location: Rocky River, Ohio | Yikes, i have one of those !
(the 6756lx, not the hair)....
I'll have to take a close look at the bridge when I get home.
The mother ship will take care of you though, not to worry.
Ernie |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Bummer dude. After seeing that picture, I went over to my 6756LX, and gave it the once over, then strummed the hell out of it. I remember asking about the glued on bridge at the factory tour. Ovations bridges being unique, with the string pull, makes you wonder. Couple the added tension of the 12 , and a defective glue job, and pop. Send it back for a repair. |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | If you've ever been to the factory and seen the procedure they use to glue those bridges, you'd see it's one of the most labor-intensive parts of building the guitar. There's no way they could have rushed through this one and done a crappy job. I don't get it, but I guess I'd be pretty upset at this point. Sorry all this happened to you.
I've never had any QC issues with Ovations...only wonderful service dept. stories. Those won't make you feel any better.
John <>{ |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | That's really to bad to hear about these kinds of quality issues. Yes, the service department is great at fixing things for a fair price. But it seems to me that a lot of this shit should never get into the hands of the buyer in the first place. The function of a service department is to fix things that break, not correct shoddy workmanship of others on the same payroll.
Dave |
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Location: Tidal Mudflats of Virginia | This is the reason I'm glad the bridges on my doubleneck are through bolted... |
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| Some things just aint meant to be. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Okay, Dumb Question. All my O's have what I thought were bolts holding the bridge on. Am I misinformed, or does that model not have bolts?
Educate me Please!
Bummer about the guitar. I saw that this morning, I just did comment then. |
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Location: Munich, Germany | Originally posted by Tupperware:
The function of a service department is to fix things that break, not correct shoddy workmanship of others on the same payroll.
Dave You are hitting the point, Dave!
I sorrowly remember the old days, when a Custom Legend cost (in the old world ;) ) about 3000.- Euros - but everytime I picked up a new guitar at my dealer's I got a wonderful piece of workmanship, perfectly crafted, ready to play.
Nowadays I have to pay 2200.- for a brandnew Custom Legend - which makes Ovations more affordable, maybe more attractive for people that would have never paid that much before for a plastic guitar. But it seems that we, the customers, have to pay the price for that new marketing system. A lot of new models, fairly priced, but, in my case, three times :mad: in a factory new condition that was so lousy, that you have to return it to the factory to get a guitar that is worth even that 'low' price. The money we save now seems to be saved by the factory with bad craftsmanship and missing quality control. And, not to forget, if it has to be fixed at the factory - brand new - what do you get? A FRG kind of thing.
So, take a look at the bridge of my Josh White's nut:
Even a monkey with a set of nut files should have get the job done better. How could this guitar pass the quality control? It is nearly unplayable. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Depends on the model. Some are bolt-on, others not. The new LX models are not bolted. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | My 1112 and the 1615s will have a through bolt bridge. You can tell by the MoP dots. Others in that era have them.
Not sure when the unbolted bridges started. Its a good back up with debatable effect on sound. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | It seems to be just a law of nature, or statistics, that no matter how good the QC is at a factory, there will always be one item that will fail. I suppose it's like one of those extinction level meteor strikes. It happens rarely, but when it happens to you, and your stuck holding the bag, it sucks.
It would be interesting to know the "defect return statistics" for all the major guitar manufacturers. |
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Location: Round Rock, TX | As to the bridge pulling off on the 6756LX. My first one did the same thing, only it took a strip of the top along with it. Total structural and material failure. Sent it back to Ovation through GC. Took a long time to get it back (it needed a whole new top after all). While it was in the shop GC loaned me one to use until it got back. When it got back I liked the top on the loaner better so I swapped out with GC. The one I have now has had rigorous treatment and has had no problems. Given the earlier post regarding the gluing process at the factory, I wonder if they got a batch of glue that was just enough below spec to show up on the 12 strings, but not on the 6's.
There is, however, no excuse for that nut. |
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Location: Reno, NV | Originally posted by Koenig Kurt:
So, take a look at the bridge of my Josh White's nut:
Even a monkey with a set of nut files should have get the job done better. How could this guitar pass the quality control? It is nearly unplayable. Yuck... That's nasty. what kind of fool installed that nut? .. Blatantly obvious. |
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| Your lucky it looks like clean breakaway. if there was no wood tear involved this is fixable. Send it to the factory or even a good luthier can do this with some bridge clamps and a good batch of glue.
If you don't want to do it, you let this group know I am sure there are a bunch of us who'd love to have a stab at this one, myself included.
Randy |
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Location: Germany | Kurt, I doubt that your three guitars are particular cases. I have heared from several critical quality issues with brand new Ovation guitars here in Europe during the last few months. Interestingly all in the upper price sector. Maybe they ship their scrap overseas? I don't know but I assume, from US point of view the sauerkraut market is negigible.
Thank God there are other places and nice people where we can buy from.
Karl |
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Location: Munich, Germany | Originally posted by kid-school:
Thank God there are other places and nice people where we can buy from.
Karl Karl, you nailed it! The three 'infected' guitars: The Josh White, my UTE and 'my' #47 - that I have not even seen, because the german distributor (Thank you, Thorsten, by the way!) refused to take it because of the bad workmanship - all limited editions, every one of them a collector's item, a tribute to Ovation's history. Three brandnew guitars, built in the last two years. This is not a single case.
Glad to know, that there are some friendly guys in the 'new world" that sell us their old O's and A's that do not suffer from bad quality! In fact, as long as we only get poor quality over here - I will keep on buying used from the OFC! |
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Location: Germany | On one of the #47s which is over here in Europe (not mine) the luthier at the factory left a golden varnish fingerprint on the bowl. Nice monogram for free, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it. I came to the conclusion that we are third-class customers over here.
Karl |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Nobody likes a good consiracy theory more than I. But I seriously doubt there is any overt policy to ship "crap" to europe and sell the better stuff in the US. I have no idea how the ovation factory runs, but it would seem impossible or at the very least impractical, that the destination of guitars is pre-ordained before they are built. Remember, Ovation builds and "sells" the guitars to Kaman music and they distribute them via their channels and foreign distributors. I doubt Kaman has any idea what's in the box when they decide that this one goes to Chicago and this one goes to Munich. In reality, keeping track of the "crap" and making sure it got to the right country would be more difficult than eliminating the problems to begin with. Dave |
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Location: SoCal | Actually, in the back of the factory there are 3 guys, Larry, his brother Daryl and his other brother Daryl, who decide which guitars go where... and they've been pissed at Europe for a long time. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | no bolts on that one. The bolts were on colored finishes because the tint didn't allow the finish to stick as well and they'd pop off sometimes. Naturals weren't a problem. What they do now I don't know since it is different finishes and colors. |
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Location: Germany | Paul, that's exactly what I believe. Thanks, now I know their names and I will do all to attend to the factory tour ..... hm, should I challenge them to a duell?
Dave, I don't believe you're right. It can't be true that some high-end guitars (#47 is currently Ovation's flagship product) leave the factory with defects in workmanship for their home market. Please let me believe this is only a regional European problem, please ......
Karl |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | All I got to say about them is that Daryl, Larry and Daryl, are true characters. |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by kid-school:
hm, should I challenge them to a duell? No, challenge them to a duet. |
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Location: Munich, Germany | Originally posted by The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel:
Originally posted by kid-school:
hm, should I challenge them to a duell? No, challenge them to a duet.
They have the US quality guitars - and Karl european seconds!
No, in fact, I do not believe that the european market is treated different - but I am sure that they have a quality problem! |
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| Agreed. |
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| I don't know YAK you might want to put a low E string in the g string spot someday. Your all set to do it!
Randy |
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Location: NW NJ | I know my 2080 doesn't count as a collector's model like the Josh Whites, 47's, etc., but when I bought it, I had to wait three months for the next cycle of them to be made at the mothership, and it had to go back for more than a couple of cosmetic issues too. Kim was EXCELLENT in helping me get the stuff made right, but for guitars of that level of "specialness", it shouldn't have happened in the first place. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by kid-school:
the luthier at the factory left a golden varnish fingerprint on the bowl On the up side, it should be easy to track down the offender! Send a pic of the fingerprint to Moody, he can deal with it on the next factory tour.
(paging Miss Marple to the front desk!)
BTW: for our European friends; Daryl, Larry, and his other brother Daryl were three stupid characters in a U.S. sitcom you may not have seen. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by Northcountry:
you might want to put a low E in the g spot NEVER put an E in your g spot....
One who knows better now |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | not at least, without a safe-word. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | The prior owner of my Ute, AlaskanFlyGuy had some issues and sent it back. I think he said there was something wrong with the slot. They replaced the neck and it looks fine, now. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | OFC Members:
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Originally posted by MWoody:
My 1112 and the 1615s will have a through bolt bridge. You can tell by the MoP dots. Others in that era have them.
Not sure when the unbolted bridges started. Its a good back up with debatable effect on sound. Okay, I'm still paranoid! I'm pretty sure about the 1621. And I removed shims on the 4861, so I know it has bolts.
But I'm gonna check the GC057 next time I change the strings. They might have cheated me and just painted dots on there. (Actually, I really hope it's bolted on, cuz it has a crappy glue job. But it's a blem.) |
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Location: Germany | Thanks fillix for the info about the three brothers. Indeed, we don't know them here in Europe, at least in Germany. Nice to hear that they work for the factory now. Obvioulsy the comedy continues. Don't talk this nonsense about quality problems at the mother ship, all blah. The scamps are uncovered!
Oh, thanks an4340, I have got a mug shot now. That makes it easy for me to identify them during the factory tour. I reconsidered, no duell, I will ambush them.
Karl |
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Location: CT | OK, a little update here. I emailed John Budny and gave him a little sob story hoping for a deal on a fix, and sent pix. Like, a minute later, he emails me back and says get it up here and we'll take care of it for you. THANKS!!! I had the day off work yesterday, so drove it up and dropped it off (I live a little over an hour away from the factory) and was greeted by Mr. Keller, who said it wasn't adhesive failure, but wood failure. Easy to see in this pic, that the gule is still attatched to the top surface of wood.
He said it's an easy fix and wouldnt take too long. I should have asked him if they'd put bolts on, or is the next layer of wood going to hold better. I don't have any doubt it will be fine when they're done with it. I really like that these guys stand behind their products. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | You've just met two of the best. But don't let them know it! :) |
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Location: NW NJ | Originally posted by MWoody:
You've just met two of the best. Man, is that true! |
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Location: CT | Well, it's back, and of course it looks brand new. Many thanks to John and Kim and the guys in the shop for a speedy return, and here's hoping this is the last they'll see of it.
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Location: Munich, Germany | Since my Custom Legend 12 string lost her bridge, I am always losing the strings after playing, to release the tension. But, okay, I do not play her that often.
Kurt |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Looks perfect. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | It's all in who you know!
Nice. |
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Location: big island | now i WOULD like to wake up to that! not quite as pretty as my wife first thing in the morning but it will do. |
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Location: CT | LOL, agreed! One wife, many guitars. She'd better be better looking, or we'll all be sleeping in the den with our guitars. :D |
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How would you like to wake up to this?