Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4044
Location: Utah | There are basically 2 official necks on Ovation steel string guitars, standard nut width and wide nut width. But that is just a nut width spec. Some models had rounder profiles, others more V shaped. The 6778LX I owned had a nice slim feeling V shape. I'm not sure you can really pin it down very accurately though. Most Ovations I have played have similar feeling necks, which is a thicker and rounder than that 6778LX, with a few models having a fairly beefy feel. Also, similar model numbers might be pretty different, so a 6778AX might be quite different than a 6778LX.
The first thing I would suggest is be sure the setup is really good. If the nut is too high (a really common problem), the truss rod too lose, and/or the saddle too high it will make it hard to play.
You could try extra-light strings or the Silk and Steel strings. Certainly that is the cheapest and easiest thing to try.
You might really like one of the Parlor models which they made in the late 1990's. They sound really good despite the smaller body, not at all deficient compared to my mid or even deep bowl Ovations. The neck, though, is quite slim compared to any other Ovation. I love playing mine, and it may end up going to one of my grandchildren to learn on because of the slimmer neck and smaller body.
The 1997 Collector's edition is what I have, and unfortunately it is not in the same price range as the Celebrity models. Here is a link to a 5741 that previously sold on Reverb about 5 years ago. https://reverb.com/item/6929561-ovation-parlor-5741-9-sunburst-made-... That price looks quite low by today's standards, probably would be about twice that. The 5741 is the essentially the same guitar as the '97 Collectors Edition.
The 5741 currently on Reverb I would not buy sight unseen or at that price, given the "Reconditioned" label and the seller doesn't seem to know anything about it. Factory Reconditioned means a factory 2nd which was sold with a minor defect, and thus should be priced lower. They were made for just 2 or 3 years in the late 1990's. That black case is the correct case.
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Questions on Ovation necks and models
