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Location: Houston, Texas | Is there any difference (besides the obvious) between an Ovation Manfactured Lefty as opposed to a righty. Can they be converted from Left to Right. Is this a dumb question? |
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Location: Central Florida | I'm a lefty; and all my Ovations (except for my Elite) are right handed, non-cutaway guitars that I've converted to leftys with no problem. Some may be inclined to disagree with my assesment, but I really don't notice any sonic differences between Ovations built specifically for left handed players and rightys that have been turned "up-side-down". However, for converting acoustic / electric guitars, this principle only works (in a practical sense) with the older models that have the volume control on the upper bout by the neck heel. When Ovation moved the controls over to the waist area in the mid-eighties, that made righty / lefty conversions nearly impossible; or at the very least highly impractical.
Anyway, your question was regarding converting a left handed guitar to a righty. I'm not sure why you'd want to do this - given the miriad of right handed guitars that are available - but I guess it could be done just in the same way that I've converted my rightys into leftys. But my reasons were due to a lack of choice. I would think in your case it would just be easier to buy a right handed guitar. At any rate, I hope this helps; and no, it's not a dumb question at all!
Jeff |
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Location: Houston, Texas | Jeff, thanks for the reply, normally I would look for a righty, but I was given an old Ulra 1312 and it has the strap button on the wrong side of the neck, so I assumed it was for a lefty, I have strung it righty and it sounds pretty good. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. |
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Location: SoCal | Tom:
I hate to break it to you, but for years, Ovation put the strap button on the treble side of the body (below the neck) because for years, the volume / tone control was on the bass side of the neck. I suspect that you have strung your right handed guitar as a lefty. I don't know what kind of bracing is in your guitar, so I don't know if you are putting unnatural strain on it.
I've got a buddy who plays lefty. For years he converted right handed Ovations. Now he owns three very high end Ovations that are all factory left. |
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Location: Houston, Texas | Paul, no I am a righty but did not know that on older models like the 1312 that the button was below the neck. Live and Learn. I guess thats why I joined this Forum. Thanks for the Info. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Hey - I'm no expert, but wouldn't the intonation be screwed up? That's why the saddle piece is angled to compensate for the change in string gauge from thinnest to thickest string and the effect this thickness has on the intonation. If you get an actual Ovation lefty guitar, you will see that the saddle is "backwards" i.e. angled for lefthanded stringing. It's easier to do on electrics, where each string has it's own intonation adjuster. The size of the string slots in the nut will also be incorrect if you simply string a guitar backwards from what it was designed. I know due to limited selection, many lefty's buy right handed guitars and string them backwards, but those who do it correctly have the saddle and nut modified to accomodate this. Dave |
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Location: Central Florida | Tom,
Paul's right; it sounds like you do have righty after all.
I never really thought about the changing of the strings putting an unatural strain on the bracing, but that's something I may want to look into a bit more. I don't know how long it would take for something like that to have any adverse effects, but I had a right handed Legend that I owned (strung lefty) for nearly twenty years and it never gave me any kind of problem. Still, I would agree that going with a factory built lefty is the better case scenario whenever possible. That's why I grabbed my lefty Elite when I saw it... I didn't really need it, but I wanted to have at least one "true lefty" Ovation.
Paul, did your buddy have a bad experience with his coverted guitars?
Jeff |
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Location: SoCal | I don't think anything came apart, but when he bought factory lefty's, he moved up considerable higher on the food chain of Ovation guitars. I think there was also relief that he no longer had to convert electronics controls and plugs, and didn't have to play the the bridge pieces any more. |
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Location: Central Florida | Dave,
One of the beautiful things I've discovered about converting Ovations is that you don't lose any intonation at all on the acoustic electrics (even with no adjustment), and on the acoustics, the loss is extremely minimal and only above the 12th fret. This has worked out well for me because whenever I play acoustic, I rarely play that high up the neck. You are correct about the nut; if you are going to convert a righty into a lefty I find it essential to change the nut as well.
You mentioned that doing it correctly involves modifying the saddle as well; do you know of a way to do that on a regular acoustic (non-piezo style saddle) without having to replace the entire bridge piece? Any sugestions would be grately appreciated.
Jeff |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | For an acoustic (the one with the skinny, angled saddle) I think what I would "modify" it from righty to lefty (or vice versa) by rounting a straight and wider opening into the bridge, exactly the same as on an acoustic-electric. Then get hold of a piezo saddle from a junked ovation and just put the piezo saddle in the slot in either the right or left handed orientation. This would be a lot easier than changing out the whole bridge piece. And hey, worst case if you goof up with the router you need a whole new bridge piece anyway. Remember - measure twice, route once.
A local lefty Mandolin player here in Phoenix couldn't pony up the big bucks for a customer Ovation lefty Mando, so he has been using a righty. He had a local shop remove the electronics box from the "top" of the guitar (the side without the cutaway) and re-mount the electronics on the cutaway side. So now the electronics are on "top" as he holds it lefty. They did a really nice job by taking the piece of the bowl they removed for the new controls location and patching it into the hole left on the non-cutaway side. I saw him play at a local gig and most interesting is that he still strings it right handed, but plays it lefty. Takes some serious talent. He plays guitar lefty (non-ovation), but his guitars are strung lefty. My brain could never handle this combination. |
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Location: Scotland | It's a myth that stringing a right-handed guitar as a lefty will cause structural problems. Conventional bracing patterns such as Martin's X-brace are asymetrical for tonal rather than structural reasons. The Ovation A is pretty much symetrical so there's little problem tonaly or otherwise there. As for the standard wide Ovation pickup, if you're careful the cream-colored plastic saddle part can be removed from the pickup and flipped around to help the intonation when a righty electro is strumg lefty.
Paul
[ July 15, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Location: Houston, Texas | Gentlemen, keep in mind that this Guitar was build somewhere in the 80's and it has no electronics. Deep bowl, no cutaway. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Lefty loosey, Righty tightey (an old aircraft saying for the mechanics), the braces were always the same.
The differences were the nut, the bridge, side markers, electronics, if any and the strap knob |
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Lefty VS Righty
