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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I don't actually have this in my hands yet...FedEx is still zigzagging across North America with it, however, I will post this anyway.
I was very blessed to be able to add this to my little collection; one of the very first Country Artist guitars built for GC. The coolest thing is that it is fitted with the extremely rare Prismatone pickup made by Baldwin.
As many here know, there were a few guitars fitted with these as a temporary solution while Ovation developed their own pickup, although ironically, Glen continued to use Prismatone equipped Country Artists until at least 1979, years after Ovation had their own pup. I just hope the pickup works...can you imagine trying to find a replacement for that?
It looks like it needs to have a new nut and a couple of finish cracks sealed but over all, doesn't look too bad for a 41 yr old.
Many thanks to Scott, the previous owner for allowing me to convince him that I should have this thing :) and thanks also to a certain OFC member who turned me onto it!
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/wreid/X014%20New%20Pics%20Small/Ovation...
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | 
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Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Congratulations! Can't wait to hear your report when it arrives.
Nick |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Nice Git!
I read where there's a guy (Sam Kennedy) in Houston making a repro called the Prismatone II.
Or, at least he was! |
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Location: Nashville TN. | sweet I imagine it incrediable tone |
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Location: Paris/France | Congrats Wayne,
This beautiful guitar deserved a good home and found the best she could ever dream!! ;)
J :) |
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Location: Tennessee | Very cool. It's definitely in the right hands, or will be soon. Congrats! |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Thanks, guys.
Yes, Bobbo, hopefully here very soon, after completing it's first North American tour in close to forty years!
The previous owner never did learn to play so it has been sitting in his attic in California for the last 30 years or so, and I am looking forward to getting it back to 100% condition.
The old Prismatone may be just fine...it has a Cannon output jack (pretty advanced stuff in 1970) and the owner had simply never had it plugged in to anything.
According to what very little Prismatone info there is on the net, these very much need the 22.5 volt power supply to make them work properly...perhaps it was built right into Glen's acoustic amp just like the old Baldwin amps that Willie Nelson uses to power Trigger?
Actually, here is a video of one of Glen's early Ovation amp clearly showing a 3-prong Cannon input. Perhaps Beal or Paul T could shead a little light on this. |
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Location: California | Wayne,
So this is the one you told me about it. Congratulations! It looks in a good shape. It seems to have a classical guitar wide neck?
Model: Custom
Serial: X014
Interesting to know what is on the label on the prototypes.
Hector |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Hi Hector;
If is is like production Country Artists it will have 1 7/8" neck width. I think the idea of the CA guitars was to give steel-string players a guitar with the nylon sound, not really a classical guitar per se. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Gorgeous guitar, and some REALLY nice pictures! Love that wideneck! |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Scott did a great job with the pics...unfortunately for me, the back yard was not included in the sale! |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | How much for the duck? |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | I already tried for the duck, Beal...NFS. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Nice guitar, Wayne. |
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Location: Angoulême - France | Hi Wayne,
Congrats for that so beautiful old lady. Could you tell us something about the acoustic sound and also about the Baldwin Prismatone sound compared to usual 1624-4 ?
Remy |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Remy;
I'm afraid that I don't know yet how it sounds...after FedEx's "two or three day service" took the guitar on a meandering tour of North America that took ten days, it arrived here with the headstock broken completely off.
It is now in the process of being repaired and hopefully I will have it back by next weekend to try out. |
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Location: Angoulême - France | Ouhhh....This is a so beautiful part of Ovation History... no doubt the luthier (or factory) will make a good job on that broken headstock. Tell us when definitively back to her new sweat home !Remy |
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Location: Angoulême - France | I'm interested by this part of the story about Prismatone pickup on Ovation guitars and I don't find it. Can you tell us ? |
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Location: SoCal | Remy,
Glen had the Prismatone p/u put on his guitars while Ovation developed their p/u systems. There's video on youtube where he's playing a GC Artist w/ one.
But evidently he liked it on the nylon strings. He played a CA w/ one until 77-78 (that I know of, and maybe later).
If you really want to learn about Prismatone p/u's got to the chetboar and dig around. If you want to sound like Jerry Reed, then the Prismatone p/u is the only way to go. You can even find information on somebody who's now building it again (an individual guy, not Baldwin). They are highly prized.
I think that Temp had a whole box of them once and tossed them because nobody wanted them. Fads come and go...... |
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Location: Tuscany, Italy | Here another example of 1624 on ebay fitted with Baldwin pickup ..... not the GC one, and no mention of the vintage pickup in the item description ... :confused: |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | That's and interesting guitar on EBay. No doubt it is one of the early A/E protypes.
The way it is mounted to the bridge is interesting though...it seems to just be sitting on there. Mine has two small studs that extend through to the back of the bridge and are each secured by a barrell nut. This not only secures the pup to the bridge but also allows some adjustment for intonation.
Someone should grab this. I have never seen another one of these on EBay, ever. And the condition is virtually NOS.
Marenostrum; There is mention of the pup further down the add but they state that they don't know what it is but that it sounds fantastic. |
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Location: SoCal | That auction sucks. They list out a bit of wrong information and list personal information with no permission.
Somebody should point out that the p/u isn't original and see if they can get the price down considerably.
I agree that somebody should buy it. It must be one of the very first CA's...... |
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Paul;
Why do you think the pup is not original?
I did notice they are using info from Dave's site. |
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Location: SoCal | Wayne, what I meant was that it's not an original Ovation p/u. The whole ad reeks of somebody who doesn't really know what he's got. Tell him it's not an original Ovation p/u and see if he'll bite on reducing the price.
I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't one of the first CA's built for Glen.... |
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Glen Campbell's Country Artist Prototype X014
