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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | One of a kind custom built Viper III with orig case. Will post more details later. $1000.
Wayne |
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Location: NJ | wow |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | ditto |
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Location: Upper Left USA | And the knobs are even in the right place! Very sweet! |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Nice wood grain! |
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Location: closely held secret | beautiful!!! |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | WOW!!! Absolutely Beautiful!! That's be a great addition to someones Solidbody collection. |
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Posts: 1374
| liquid gold.... really sweet
God Bless,
Glenn |
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May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks guys, she is a beaut, for sure.
This is an unusual Viper. I'm not sure what the body wood is. It could be maple but looks more like a burled walnut to me. The neck is one of the nicest pieces of curly/flamed maple I have ever seen on a guitar.
It has all gold hardware, even the single-coil pickups, which were never offered on any production guitar.
The truss rod cover is made of wood with an abalone diamond inlay like the earliest Custom Legends and another circular abalone inlay on the back where the adjustment screw for the older type bridge would have been.
The nut is brass, like the UKII, and the vol/tone knobs are vintage Adamas. The case is about an inch and a half thicker than any other Ovation electric cases I have ever seen. Control functions are standard Viper III.
One of the nicest custom functional features about it is that the lower bass bout is contoured were the arm goes over the body, like a Strat. The production Vipers are not like this.
The cosmetic condition is about 8.5 to 9 out of 10; there are a few minor dings and one finish crack, nothing out of the ordinary for a 25+-year-old guitar.
Anyway, I would prefer to sell it here so if anyone has any questions, drop me an email.
Wayne |
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November 2004
Posts: 1374
| That is one beautiful one-off build..
Backdoor job?(sorry,that would be G*****). or who special ordered that monster?
God Bless,
Glenn |
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Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Glenn;
I'm not sure who it was built for. It came from Hartford, Conn and the previous owner said it was an employee built guitar but cwkII said they didn't do that so it's anyone's guess. I had to be someone with access to the best of what they had at the time.
Wayne |
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Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Wayne,
Is the Ovation Name onthe peghead. If not it may be an employee made gem that finally made it's way to the market. This has happened with a couple of other examples and in each case the peghead was clearly an Ovation but the Ovation name and logo had been left off. |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | Is the neck plate smaller than usual? |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Steve;
The headstock is logoless. Have you seen any other of these employee guitars?
Brudev;
The plate is a plain brass one but is the same size and bolt configuration.
Wayne |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Evidently there were some "employee" built guitars that made it out. Maybe I need to clarify my statement of earlier about employee built guitars. Other companies have a policy of encouraging employees to build their own guitars, Martin, PRS, National and probably others. Ovation never encouraged this so if the guy really wanted one he had to go get approval and buy it and make it like an in-house special order. The thought was that they didn't want employees working in other departments other than their own on company time (risk of injury using unfamiliar equipment, loss of production time while the special went and regular production waited, possible damage to the equipment, money and time to repair,etc) and they didn't want people working on company property on their own time using company equipment (mostly insurance reasons). The end result was that it didn't happen very often.
This viper obviously was made at the factory and appears to be a very nice example. I would guess that's a walnut body. The single coil pickups were standard, just not in gold. I would guess that the parts accumulated in engineering or service over the years and eventually somebody put it all together and got the remaining pieces made. It is an earlier body with the bridge screw hole in the back and using the Schaller bridge.
For some of you Viper fans out there, this is an excellent example. |
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Location: Midland, MI | cue: sound of me falling off my chair
Beautiful. |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I think I have a Ovation headstock decal to include if the buyer wants to put one on.
Off to Fleabay soon if there are no takers.
Wayne |
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Posts: 180
Location: Chicagoland | Mabye it's a generational gap or something...or mabye it's my monitor...but I'm really not digging the wood grain at all. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I have seen that there is an esthetic division of taste when it comes to the use of wood grains and or Poly-smooth materials.
Just more flavors of Ice Cream. Viva la diferance (sp)!
Wayne, don't change a thing! It is what it is and it will be admired or abandonded on it's own merits.
Also the logos need to be set under the finish. It screams Ovation Custom to me. If someone else can't hear it they don't need it. |
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October 2004
Posts: 180
Location: Chicagoland | Yes, this is true. I tend to go for the simple and understated. In fact, on some guitars gold hardware is a bit of a turnoff. I'd rather have pearl, or chrome. Sometimes the gold hardware just dosen't blend with the color scheme. |
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Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Bump. |
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Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Now on EBay!
Wayne |
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May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Ends tonight and reserve is met...it's going somewhere!
Wayne
Custom Viper III Auction |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | That may be a high water mark for a V3. Congrats. Dave |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Just a hair under $1250. AWESOME!
Way to go Wayne! |
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Viper III Custom For Sale
