I'm considering a neck reset on my 1990 Ovation Legend L717 (it's got the fretboard drop-off), so I was wondering what kind of glue the factory used to attach the fretboard onto the body?

From Youtube videos featuring Ovation neck resets it seems like some nasty stuff such as epoxy or some form of CA, definitely not hide glue. Can anybody confirm or deny this?

I'm concerned a neck reset would do more harm than good, especially if performed by a luthier not overly familiar with Ovation. Around where I live Ovation experts are pretty scarce; I have to lecture local luthiers each time not to file down the saddle and the like...

Thanks for the valuable information.

The guitar needing the neck reset is not the guitar in the photo, but my lefty L717 Legend, also a bolt-on, which has the drop off starting at the 16th fret.

I have her in for a fretboard job currently. If anything like a neck reset were to be tried, my local luthier proposed, he would shim the area under the dropped-off fretboard piece so as make it straight again. In that sense it wouldn't be a regular neck reset which would entail correcting the neck angle to the body. In order to install the shimmed piece of wood he would still have to remove the neck from the body, though.

Do you still remember which brochure it was that marketed the fretboard drop-off as a feature? It seems the fretboard drop-off is a by-product of not strengthening the area underneath fretboard end enough. I would still not trade this A-braced Legend for any (potentially more structurally sound) X-braced guitar.

Since the action is still fine, and I still have two shims to go if I remember correctly which should be enough for the fretjob, it's probably not worth the risk then.

My mistake. It wasn't the sales brochure, but the owner's manual that mentions the drop-off.

Actually, the drop-off is a by-product of how Ovation guitars are constructed, specifically the top.

On other 'flat-top' guitars, the top is actually not flat. It has a built-in slight radius. When the neck is mated to the body, the angle of the radius is very close to the neck angle needed to provide the proper action at the bridge. Because of this, there is no drop-off.

But, Ovation guitars are different. They are a true flat-top guitar in that the top has no radius. But, the neck still needs to be angled to allow proper bridge action.

It's the difference in neck angle vs. flat top that causes the drop-off.

If this were my guitar and the action is fine, which it sounds like it is, and if the drop-off were the only problem, I'd leave well enough alone.

Ovation Acoustic Owner's Manual (1970s)

Thanks for your feedback and resourcefulness. The construction angle is super interesting to me. I'm surprised Ovation went the route of a perfectly flat top and even accounted for it in some way.

I have informed my luthier accordingly and leave the neck alone for now until I'm running out of shims.

I'm also still contemplating getting one of those new 2017 Glen Campbell signature guitars later this year.

To provide closure to the story, I got the L717 back from the luthier this week.

The fretjob did wonders in terms of playability, so much in fact that even the fretboard drop-off got mitigated somewhat since she now plays perfectly normal, without the need to push down strings any harder than normal, up to the 17th fret. The luthier didn't even have to take out any shim to accomodate for the fret leveling.

The luthier also fine-tuned the rounded-off saddle somewhat so as to provide a sharper angle for the string to fall onto, so as to undo the wrongdoings the previous owner did to the saddle.

And with that being done, I am once again playing one of the best Ovations to have ever left the factory.

I didn't like how much the saddle inlay pieces were filed down so I replaced them.

I took a whole righty saddle which I still had around, cut off the high E and low E string pieces, and turned the E pieces around so as to correctly compensate a lefty Ovation. I still had four shims to go, two of which were thinner poplar strips which I now took out to accomodate for the added action with the original, nonfiled saddle inlay(s).

The action is slightly lower now (.080 at the high, and .060 at the low E string) so I might shove one poplar shim back in there again, we'll see.