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April 2011
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | I just bought an Ovation Thunderhead and the first thing I noticed about it was that it had a mute on it sort of like the Gretsch Country Gents had. While I was waiting for my Thunderhead to be shipped I did some research and I have not seen another T head with a mute.
Does anyone know anything about Thunderheads? |
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Posts: 17
Location: San Marcos, Texas | http://www.flickr.com/photos/59684226@N07/5459002356/in/set-7215762...
His has a mute but his mute is on backwards. The Mickey Mouse lookin ears fit perfectly into the cut out part on the pick guard. |
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Posts: 6994
Location: Jet City | Interesting indeed. I have a guitar with a mute too, but it aint an O or a Gretch...
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Location: Scotland | My guess is that it's an after-market modification, probably home-made |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I have a factory mute on one of my Jaguars. I can't imagine why the designers thought it would replace the creativity, flexibility and simplicity of your palm. I recall Keith Hopwood (original guitarist for Herman's Hermits) explaining at a concert how he stuffed a rag under the strings alongside the bridge to obtain the muted sound for Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter. Without knowing this, I used to do the same thing in the 60's. I don't know when it occurred to me that you can achieve the same effect with your palm. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | the earliest ones had a mute.
They are fuckin worthless. |
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Location: Scotland | True, the real early early ones did have a mute but also had a different control layout and 2 toggles on the upper horn. From
the position of the neck joint this one looks like a much later example |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | Interesting. It's definitely not an aftermarket mod and yes it is worthless but still cool. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Wow, I've only seen one other of these. I agree with Beal and Paul.. Not necessarily a "mod" but it looks like they found an early mute and put it on a later model.... or... maybe they had one laying around parts and someone ordered one "with a mute" so they installed it. I also noticed it's had some work as well which could explain the mute. It's a factory 2nd (noted by the "2" on the back of the neck) and the heel where the termolo attaches has been fixed. Many of the tremolo mounts broke in that spot for some reason.
Nice guitar.... |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | The more I look at it... the body looks like it might be early. So maybe it was just the end of the run of the original design and they added the mute just to continue with mutes. |
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Location: Scotland | The guitar in the pics is not the guitar owned by starcheif. The guitar in the pics is in the UK and owned by an ex-student of mine. The neck joint indicates that it's definately a late production example. I agree with Miles, it's an early mute and they were likely just getting rid of parts inventory at the end of the production run |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | How can you tell it's a later model? I thought the "long necks" were the later models??? This looks like the shorter version. That one is identical to mine except the upside down mute and mine is in much better shape.
Mine is also a factory 2nd
I'll post pictures of mine when I get home from work |
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Location: Scotland | Yeah, looking at that one again, I think you are right it's a short version. Oh well. Either way, the mutes only appeared in very early catalogs and on very early guitars, but as we constantly discover here, just when you thought you've seen everything, something else shows up. |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | Here is mine
So does that mean mine is probably an early one? |
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Location: Scotland | Check the serial number against the data I'n the reference section. Should be on the label |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I'd guess it's pretty early |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | I don't see a label on it |
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Location: Scotland | Label should be visible through the bass-side F hole. Failing that it might be under the plate covering the neck bolts |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | Nope, nada |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | If you have a little mirror (like the dentist uses) it may be floating around inside, or have floated around and stuck someplace else in the wiring or under one of the pots. It's usually a white rectangle piece of paper and the glue lets go with age. |
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Location: San Marcos, Texas | I'll take a gander |
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Location: Flahdaw | Nice git....I'd love to have one of those. |
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Thunderhead Mute?
